Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20041121.htm

APPLYING OUR CHURCH'S STATEMENT OF BIBLICAL FAITH
Article III, Part VI Of The Nepaug Bible Church Bylaws: Salvation
B. Holding To Salvation By God's Pure Grace In Defense Of Christ's True Salvation
(1 Cor. 15:1-11; John 3:16; Romans 3:23-26; Ephesians 2:8-9; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5; Galatians 1:8-9)
  1. Introduction
    1. Various views on how to gain eternal life exist among various religions, many of which focus on some kind of human merit or human works to produce such merit. Others teach salvation comes by faith plus human merit or works, or that there is more than just Christ as man's Mediator in dealing with God.
    2. Opposite these, Article III, Part VI of our Church Bylaws reads: " . . . Any who receive this free gift of eternal life from God by faith through His gracious provision of Christ's substitutionary atonement is immediately born spiritually, passing from spiritual death unto eternal life. As such, he is a true believer . . ." We view the Scriptures behind this statement for clarification as to why we believe as we do:
  2. Holding To Salvation By God's Pure Grace In Defense Of Christ's True Salvation.
    1. The Gospel by which all men are saved in the Church era is that God justifies, or pronounces as righteous, those who believe that Christ died for their sins according to the Old Testament Scriptures, that He was buried and bodily rose from the dead in fulfillment of the Old Testament, and that this prophetic fulfillment was testified by sure eyewitness reports of Christ's death and resurrection, 1 Cor. 15:1-11.
    2. Thus, by believing in Christ and His atonement for sin, one escapes God's eternal condemnation and receives eternal life from God, John 3:16.
    3. This salvation is by God's unmerited favor -- it does not involve human merit or work, Romans 3:23-26:
      1. All men have sinned and have thus fallen short of the righteousness demanded by God, Romans 3:23. By this, Paul meant that no human being could justify himself by any merit or meritorious work on his own behalf, for the law of God set the standard of righteousness God demanded of man so high that no man in himself could measure up so as to be able to justify himself before God, cf. Romans 3:20.
      2. Hence, God justifies those who believe in Christ and His atonement as a GIFT, freely doing so as an act of unmerited favor or "grace," Romans 3:24.
      3. This justification is based upon Christ's substitutionary death in which He as God's perfect "Lamb" bore the sins of the world on the cross, and the wrath of God against our sin that was placed upon Him was fully propitiated, or satisfied, Romans 3:25a; 1 John 2:2.
      4. This fact introduces a question regarding the salvation of Old Testament saints who lived before Christ's death, and the Apostle Paul anticipates and answers it for us in Romans 3:25b: God in grace saved up the expression of His wrath against Old Testament saints to unleash it fully against Christ so that their sins were remitted at the cross.
      5. In this way, God is righteous and can pronounce as righteous any who believe in Jesus, Romans 3:26.
    4. In fact, Paul went so far as to claim that salvation is by grace through faith without any works, Eph. 2:8-9.
    5. Also, the Apostles taught there was salvation in no other Person other than Jesus Christ, Acts 4:10-12.
    6. Indeed, Paul later wrote that there is no other Mediator between God and man other than Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5; this means Jesus' mother, Mary can not be a co-redemptress as some today would claim!
    7. Lest one think that this very narrow Gospel was too exclusive a Gospel of salvation, the Apostle Paul claimed that if any mortal or even angel from heaven who preached any other Gospel than the Gospel of God's pure unmerited favor that he had preached, he was to be excommunicated, Gal. 1:8-9 with 3:3; 5:1!
Lesson: The Scriptures teach that one escapes hell and gains heaven as GOD'S GIFT to him by NO human merit or work on his part, and by no other Person or means other than one's simple faith in Christ and His bodily substitutionary atonement on the cross for his sins. There is no other Gospel!

Application: (1) Contrary to man's religions, we thus hold to and proclaim the death, burial and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as God's sole, sufficient, substitutionary atonement for sin, and that men must believe in Him and this His work on the cross to be pronounced righteous by God. (2) We also hold that there is no human merit or work involved in salvation, and that there is not nor will there ever be any other Mediator or means of salvation available for salvation to occur for man!