Declaring Doctrine – Part 19 – The Doctrine of Salvation
Alright well we’re there in Romans 5. We’ve been going through this series called “Declaring Doctrine”. Tonight, we begin a new section dealing with salvation. Romans 5 deals a lot with salvation. Look at Romans 5:1. Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”. When we talk about salvation, that’s really what we’re talking about. The Bible says that we were at odds with God, that we were at enmity with God but that we can have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tonight, I want to deal with this subject of salvation. I want to talk about it a bit differently than we would normally preach through it. Obviously, we’re a soul winning church. Many of our church people go out soul winning knocking doors and we have plans that we go through where we explain salvation to an unbeliever. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I don’t want you to think that that’s what I’m going to be preaching tonight. I’m not just going to be going through the Romans Road or through the plan of salvation with you. What I want to do is I want to look at the doctrine of salvation through a lens of theology. I want to look at it in a theological way. And what I want to do is I want to focus in on three statements or three theological words. If we were in a Bible College setting, they would be called theological words. But really, they’re biblical terms regarding to salvation.
3 theological words or 3 biblical terms to write down today. The first is atonement. The second is propitiation. The third is justification. I want you to notice that though these are theological terms, they are biblical terms as well. Look at Romans 5:11. The Bible says “11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”. I want you to notice that word atonement. We’re going to talk about that tonight.
Go to Romans 3:25. The Bible says “25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”. So, we see this word propitiation. Now go to Romans 5:9. “9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”. So, we see the words atonement, propitiation and justification.
And just by of introduction, let me say this. These three words are closely tied together and, in some ways, they overlap each other. So, I’m going to give you definitions for these words. We’re going to look at the Bible to see exactly what these words mean in regards to salvation. But in a lot of ways these words do overlap each other. They’re closely tied to each other. When I was newer in the ministry, I would shy away from preaching sermons like this on salvation, the Trinity, or calling upon the name of the Lord because I thought they were too basic. But what I’ve learned over the years is that even though many of us know these things, we still need to be reminded of the things we already know.
Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”. And what I’ve found is that it really is safe for us to bring up these things that we would call basic. Because the Trinity is such a basic belief but then you find out people spread heresy regarding the nature of God if you don’t preach on it. Calling upon the name of the Lord is so basic. Everybody understands that you have to in faith call upon Christ for salvation. But then you have people attack you on the calling of the name of the Lord if you don’t preach on it. And what I’ve been astounded at is that people will often bring in heresy in the areas that we would think are so basic and so Fundamental. And I think part of the reason is because we as preachers shy away from it and we think we don’t need a full sermon on topics like the Doctrine of Salvation. Everybody here should understand this doctrine if they are saved but it’s good to be reminded about things we already know.
We are called Fundamental Baptists. We identify ourselves as Independent Fundamental Baptists. Independent meaning that we are autonomous. Our church is not connected to any organization or denomination that controls us. Fundamentalist just means that we understand and that we are correct upon the basics. If you were to take a kid and teach him basketball, you start with fundamentals. You start with dribbling and not with how to do a complicated dunk. And this is what our church is really about. We teach the basics and fundamentals of the Word of God. So tonight, we’re looking at what is the greatest fundamental in the Bible which is the doctrine of salvation. I want our church to be the smartest, most theologically sound church in town. I want you to know what we believe and why we believe it. Some people might try to twist these terms of atonement, propitiation and justification. We can show you in the Bible here today the definition of these terms. Atonement, propitiation justification.
Let’s start tonight with the word atonement. The word atonement is defined as the reconciliation of God and mankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. When we talk about the atonement of Christ, and often it’s referred to as the substitutionary atonement of Christ, we are referring to the fact that there was a redemptive sacrifice of Christ. We’re literally talking about the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
Romans 5:6 “6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”. So, without strength means we did not have the ability or the capability to do what needed to be done. When you start looking at these basic things about salvation, you’ll start doing away with a lot of the heresy out there. Romans 5:7-8 “7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”. Notice verse 11. “11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”. Atonement is a word that is referring to the redemptive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, in the Old Testament, there was a day of atonement when a sacrifice was killed. And the picture of Christ was foreshadowed in a symbolic form in the Old Testament.
Now what does it mean when we talk about the atonement, the redemptive sacrifice of Christ? First it means that we are sinners and our sin needs to be paid for. Last week we talked about the fact that the there was this thing called the fall of man. We learned about Adam and Eve and the things that took place in regards to sin entering into the world. Romans 5:12 “12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”. We talked about this last week about how Eve was deceived and Adam was disobedient and as a result sin entered into the world. And the result of the fall of man was this; the Bible says sin enters the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.
See, the truth of the matter is this. When Adam sinned, he passed down his sin nature to all of us. We were born sinners because we were born with a sin nature. Last week we learned about the fall of man and the result of this is death. We need to understand that sin was passed down through mankind, through the nature of Adam. We are all sinners and our sin needs to be paid for. And again, because we’re kind of digging into it a little bit and feel looking at it through a theological lens, I want to make sure you understand this. There are doctrines out there that talk about original sin or talk about Adam’s sins and talk about the fact that Adam’s sin has been passed down to us. But they teach something differently, which is really a Catholic Doctrine, they teach you that you are accountable for somebody else’s sins. You are not born guilty. But you are born with a sin nature which is what causes us to sin in the flesh. The truth is that you are not a sinner because you sin but you sin because you’re a sinner. You were born with a sin nature. You were born with a nature that is prone to sin and with a flesh that will sin.
Romans 5:12 “12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”. See, not Adam’s sin, not original sin. God will never judge you for somebody else’s sin. We’re all going to grow older and our bodies decay and we will die. Our bodies were not meant to live forever. What was passed down was the sin nature. The Bible says sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men. Now because you’re born with a sin nature, it is true “for that all have sinned”. Why have all sinned? Because we’re born with a sin nature. Our sin nature is passed down through the blood. It’s passed down through our human ancestry. I don’t want to take a lot of time on this but if you understand how reproduction works, every month a woman who is old enough and able to give birth will have an egg cycle through her body. That woman will have a monthly cycle in which an egg will pass through her body and that egg will be discarded if no life is created. However, if the blood of a man or what the Bible calls the seed of a man meets that egg then we have conception or fertilization. Life is produced and that blood is passed down from Adam.
That’s why the emphasis is always on Adam who passed down the sin nature. Adam did because it was Adam’s seed, it was Adam’s blood that brought forth life and it’s been Adam’s blood that has been bringing forth life. Our life goes back to Noah which goes back to Adam and the Garden of Eden. This death was passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And I’m not talking about the deity of Christ here tonight but let me just quickly say that this is the reason for the virgin birth. It’s not just a nice story that we tell during Christmas time. The virgin birth was needed to bypass the sinful blood of Adam. Jesus was not born with a sin nature. Jesus was not born with death passed upon him because his blood did not come from sinful man. He was born of a virgin. His blood came from heaven and the sin nature was bypassed from Christ through the virgin birth. So, we understand that we are sinners and our sin needs to be paid for.
We also understand that Christ died to pay for our sins. The Bible is not just a practical book but it is the source of all our beliefs. We can find our theology and our belief system in the Bible. See, atonement is the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Why was that needed? Because we are sinners. When we were yet without strength, the Bible says when we were unable to save ourselves. Our sin needed to be paid for and Christ died to pay for our sins.
1st Corinthians 15:3 “3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”. 1st Peter 2:24 “24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”. See, when we talk about the atonement or the atonement process, what we’re literally referring to is the fact that Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross. We’re saying that we were sinners, our sin needed to be paid for and Christ died to pay for our sins.
When we go soulwinning, there are really 6 things that people need to learn or believe in order to get saved. The first is that we’re all sinners. The second is that our sin has condemned us to hell. The third is that God has a gift he wants to give us and that gift is eternal life or salvation. The fourth is that someone paid for that gift which is Jesus Christ. The fifth is that the gift will last forever. It will never end. The final one is that we must call upon Christ in faith to receive that gift of eternal life or salvation. Those are the things we explain to people when we’re out soul winning in a very practical way. But what we’re talking to them about is the atonement of Christ, that we’re sinners and Christ died for our sins. So that’s the first word atonement.
Let’s talk about the second word. The second word is propitiation. This has to do with the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Propitiation has to do with the removing of our sin. Here’s a definition for the word. The action of gaining the favor of God by pleasing or appeasing God. It means to make things right. It means to reconcile. When we use the word propitiation or when the Bible uses the word propitiation, what that means is that we have gained the favor of God by pleasing or appeasing God. Now that doesn’t mean it was any work of righteousness which we have done. That was not done because of any merit of ours. That was done through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Propitiation has to do with the removing of our sin.
1 John 2:2 “2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”. Again, when we understand these words and terms, it helps remove a lot of these heresies. Today people tell you that you have to please God. They say that if you want to go to heaven then you have to do right, live right, go to church, get baptized. They’ll say there are things you need to do. They say you have to repent of your sins, quit drinking, quit smoking, etc…In addition to that, they also attack the doctrine of eternal security. They say that after salvation, you must keep doing certain things or stop doing certain things to stay saved and go to heaven. And the idea is that you and I have to live a life that is pleasing to God.
Now I agree that we should live a life that is pleasing to God but not for salvation. Salvation is not something where we have to earn the favor of God. You say, “Well didn’t you say propitiation was the action of gaining the favor of God by pleasing or appeasing God?”. Yes, but it was Jesus who pleased God and not us. I’m not the propitiation for my sins. Jesus appeased God and is the propitiation for our sins. “and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”. This is a sermon for another day but there goes Calvinism. Calvinists quote this verse and they end it right there. But like we learned on Wednesday “whosoever will may come.”. Whoever wants to let him drink of the fountain of life freely. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why? Because he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1st John 4:10 “10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”. To be the appeasement, to please God for our sins. Now what exactly does that mean in regards to salvation? What do we mean by the removing of our sins? Well, there are 2 ideas or thoughts connected to that. The first is that Christ had no sin. 1st Peter 2:21 “21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:”. The Bible says that Christ was without sin. 2nd Corinthians says “God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin”. He’d never sinned. He never did anything wrong. Christ had no sin but he took our sin.
1st Peter 2:24 “24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”. Do you understand this about salvation? Propitiation, the removing of our sins. Do you understand that salvation was truly an exchange? We like to spiritualize things and make things into little stories that we tell and I understand why we do that. But this was not just a story. This literally happened at salvation. The Bible says that our sins were taken off of us and they were placed upon Christ. The Bible says “who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree”. See Jesus was without sin and he took our sin. This is what salvation is.
1st John 3:5 “5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”. And by the way, let me just say this. We tell these stories but sometimes don’t understand the theological implications. He was born of a virgin to avoid the sin nature. He was the son of God because he needed to be sinless. He needed to be perfect. He needed to be without sin. Why? That he might appease the judgment of God. Look, salvation is not that God just forgave your sins because he looked the other way. God is loving and merciful but also holy and just. He is a holy God. He is a just judge. He could not just look the other way. I mean could you imagine if I kill somebody and I stand up before the judge and I say “I’m so sorry. I’ll never do it again.”. And they respond “No problem.”. You would say that’s an unjust judge. It’s good that they have mercy and it’s good that they’ve forgiven you. However, someone has to pay for the debt that you committed. Someone must pay for the crime. It must be paid for. Like we talked about last week, this is the perfect mixture of justice and love. Love brings grace and mercy to you and me but justice brought punishment to our sins in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why he was manifested for our sins.
Isaiah 53 is one of the most famous prophecies in the Old Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to notice how it’s described here that he took our sins. Isaiah 53:4 “4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”. Who put Jesus on that cross? We like to say it was the Jews and of course the Jews took a part in putting Jesus on the cross. We like to say it was the Romans and of course the Romans took a part of putting Jesus on that cross. But the truth of the matter is this. Jesus went on that cross for you and for me because of our sins. It was our sins that put him on that cross. “all we like sheep have gone astray.”. We weren’t searching after God. The Bible says that God sought after us and not that we sought him.
Isaiah 53:7 “7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”. When Jesus was on the cross, God was satisfied with the sacrifice.
And by the way, his body didn’t go to hell. His soul went to hell. The Bible says that his soul was made an offering for sin. God was pleased and appeased when Jesus was made an offering for sin. God was coming after you and God was coming after me. The Bible says that for unsaved people, the wrath of God abideth on them but at the sacrifice of Christ that the propitiation of Christ, his judgment was appeased. The payment had been made and we were allowed to go free. And by the way, it had to have been Jesus. I often tell people this out soulwinning. If I had a wife or kids that weren’t saved, I might want to come to God and offer to take their place. That might be sincere and noble but God would never allow that. You say why? Because I have my own sins to worry about so how can I pay for their sins. That’s why it had to be Jesus Christ. He was the sinless sacrifice.
So, we have atonement. What does that mean? It means the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. It is the fact that he took our place on the cross and he took our place in hell. We have propitiation. What does that mean? It means that our sin was removed. It was taken off of us. And it wasn’t just discarded or put away. That sin had to be paid for. It was put on Christ and God’s judgment came upon him at the cross and in hell. And the Bible says it pleased God. It appeased God and a payment was made for our sins.
Then thirdly tonight, there’s justification. Atonement is the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Propitiation is the removing of our sin. Justification is the receiving of Christ’s righteousness. The word justified or justification means declared or made righteous in the sight of God.
We like to emphasize the fact that salvation is our sins being paid for and being taken off of us. And I understand why we do that but that’s not the only thing that salvation is. Salvation is not just that our sins were taken off of us. Our sins were taken off of us and placed upon Jesus Christ but that’s only part of the exchange. Salvation is an exchange and the in full exchange is this. Our sins were taken off of us and placed upon Jesus Christ and it was punished and appeased in the person of Christ. But there’s more to salvation than just that. Because salvation is also that the righteousness of Christ was taken from him and placed upon us. This is what the Bible calls justification. See, Christ lived a righteous life.
Acts 10:38 “38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”. Why did Jesus even have to live a human life? I mean why didn’t he just come down as a 30-year-old man and die on the cross for our sins? It wasn’t just our sins taken from us but also that his righteousness was being put on us. The reason that Jesus lived on this earth 30 plus years was so that he could go about doing good and his good was placed upon us. See, at salvation there was an exchange. Our sins were taken and given to Christ. His righteousness was taken and given to us. Christ lived a righteous life and Christ gave us his righteousness.
Justification is a legal term. When you study it out in the Bible, you’ll find it in the law of Moses. It means to be declared righteous. It’s more than just being found not guilty. In our modern legal terminology, you get accused of something and you’re hoping to be found not guilty. That’s not enough to get you into heaven. Simply being not guilty is not enough but that you are also found righteous. His righteousness has to be placed upon us.
2nd Corinthians 5:21 “21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”. That’s justification. He took our sin. We took his righteousness. An exchange was made. When I was growing up people would often say “justification is just as if I never sinned.”. It’s a good way to remember it but it actually goes further than that. It’s actually a new nature. It’s a divine nature. It’s a new man. It’s not a recovery of the old man. It is a new creature in Christ.
Christ lived a righteous life and Christ gave us his righteousness. Salvation is an exchange. When we think of it under theological terms or in a theological lens, it simply is an exchange between us and Christ. He took our sins. We took his righteousness. He paid for our sins. We get to enter into heaven in his righteousness. This is what we talked about last week when we talked about being robed in the righteousness of Christ. Look, when you get to heaven, it’s because you are in Christ. And because Christ gets to enter into heaven, I get to enter into heaven. Because I’m robed in the righteousness of Christ. Salvation is an exchange. He took my sins. I took his righteousness. He paid for my sins. I get to go to heaven as a result of his righteousness. And when you think of salvation in a theological sense, it’s the terms of atonement and propitiation and justification.
It’s kind of funny to even consider all the heresy that goes along with the doctrine of salvation. He took my sins and I took his righteousness. Where would good works even play in with that. Where does me getting baptized, going to a confession booth, living a good life, repenting of my sins, etc….play into salvation? Salvation is that he took your sins and paid for them. He cast them as far as the east is from the west. They’ve been separated from me never to be brought back. When we realize salvation under theological terms is an atoning, substitutionary exchange between us and Christ then there’s no living a good life. There’s no repenting of your sins. There’s no getting baptized. There’s none of that. Christ paid for your sins on the cross and you take on his righteousness by faith. You call upon him for salvation.
Romans 3:23 “23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”. That’s our need for atonement. We were all sinners and our sin needs to be paid for. “24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”. That’s atonement. “25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”. That’s justification. “26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”.
How do I get his righteousness? By believing. By trusting. By receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. By placing my faith in him. By calling upon him in faith for salvation. It’s not about me being just. It’s that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. There’s no room for you living a good life. There’s no room for you repenting of your sins. There’s no room for you doing good things. So, salvation can’t be lost because salvation is that my sins in the past, present and future were taken from me and placed upon Jesus Christ. And when he died on the cross, he pleased and appeased God. His righteousness was placed upon me and I have been declared justified. I have been declared righteous. Not because I’m just. But that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. This is the doctrine of salvation.
Let’s pray.