The Components of Salvation
Chuck Sligh
TEXT: Acts 2:14-40
INTRODUCTION
Illus. - Down through the centuries there have been many instances of remarkable conversions when people heard the Gospel preached. St. Augustine was a wayward youth who resisted the prayers of a godly mother. On a visit to Rome, he heard the great preacher Ambrose preach and was soon after converted, becoming one of the intellectual giants of Christianity.
Illus. - The great nineteenth century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon---perhaps the third greatest preacher in history after Jesus and Paul---was the only person in the congregation the day he was saved. He was on his way to church on the other side of London during a blizzard, really feeling guilty because of the many sins he had done. The wind and snow blew so hard that he decided to stop at a little Methodist church on the way instead of going to his regular church. There he found only an elderly gentleman, who seeing that Spurgeon was the only one attending that Sunday, mounted the pulpit and expounded the Gospel in a simple way Spurgeon had never heard before. He went away a saved man with the assurance that his sins were forgiven and he was bound for heaven.
Thousands of people down through the centuries have been stirred by the preaching of the Gospel and come to faith in Christ. As we continue our series on the book of Acts, we see in chapter 2, verses 14-40, that Peter preached his first post-resurrection sermon---and it was a POWERFUL sermon! The results of that one sermon are recorded for us in verse 41 - “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
Imagine that---THREE THOUSAND people saved and baptized in one day! In this passage we see three vital components of the salvation experience. Whether we’re talking about these Jews in Acts 2 in the first century, or St. Augustine in the 4th century, or Spurgeon in the 19th, or you or me in the 21st---every person who came to faith in Christ experienced all three of these components.
Let’s look at them.
I. FIRST, WE SEE AN INTELLECTUAL COMPONENT
Understand that in order to be saved, you must first intellectually accept some basic truths the Bible teaches. The Gospel is based on facts that must be either accepted by faith or rejected in unbelief.
Before you can be truly saved by God’s grace---you must first understand the two key truths that Peter presented to this vast crowd in Jerusalem. Let’s look at them:
1. The first is that Jesus Christ died for your sins. - verse 22-23 - “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” - I’ll say more about this in a moment, so let’s move on.
2. The second truth you must accept to be saved is that Jesus rose from the dead. Note verse 24 - “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
Peter spends a lot of his sermon on this subject---talking about it down through verse 32 where he says “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.” Now these two fundamental truths are in fact the very core of Christianity. Take away either the death of Christ for our sins, or His resurrection, and you have no hope of salvation.
In fact, Christianity without these is not Christianity at all. These truths are what are known as the “Gospel.” Go with me to 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul expounds the Gospel for us:
In verse 1 Paul says, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”
Note first of all that Paul reminds the Corinthians that he had preached to them the Gospel. The Greek word for gospel is euangelian, which means “good news.” So Paul says, “I declared the “good news” to you.”
Note secondly that Paul says that the Corinthians were saved by the Gospel. Well, if we’re saved by the Gospel, what exactly IS the Gospel? Paul explains that in the next few verses. Look at verses 3-7 - “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: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”
Now the Gospel begins with the message that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” This presupposes another truth---that you are a sinner who needs saving from sin and its consequences.
1 John 3:4 tells us that “...sin is the transgression of the law.”
The Bible teaches that we have disobeyed God’s laws and commandments. Every time you TOLD A LIE, you transgressed God’s commandments, and thus you sinned. Every time you STOLE SOMETHING---even that nickel off your Dad’s chest of drawers---you sinned. Every time you HATED SOMEONE, Jesus said you committed murder in your heart, and murder is a sin. Every time you LUSTED, you sinned. Every time you COVETED SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO ANOTHER, you sinned.
I could go on and on and on. In truth, by the time you die, you are guilty of hundreds of thousands of sins, great and small---all of which carry God’s penalty of eternal death and hell. And what you may not be aware of is that no amount of good works on your part can make up for the sins you have done any more than helping little old ladies across the street every year for forty years could make up for the crimes of a murderer. - The penalty for murder must be paid no matter what other good works have been done, and so it is with God. (EXPAND)
So do you see why the Gospel is called “good news?” It’s good news because it is the solution to the bad news of the Gospel.
Joke - Did you hear about the Dr. who said to his patient, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. The bad news is that I amputated the wrong let. The good news is that your bad leg is getting better!
Well, there is bad news for you about your condition according to the Bible, but the Gospel is the good news that solves the problem of the bad news. The bad news is that you are a sinner, deserving of God’s judgment, BUT the good news is “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” The bad news is that you have disobeyed God, but the good news is “Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures.” The bad news is that you have turned from God and tried to run your own life, but the good news is “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” The bad news is that the penalty for sin HAS to be paid, and you cannot pay it; the good news is that Jesus Christ---who was perfectly holy and never sinned---paid the penalty for your sins in your place.
Why did He do that? Because of LOVE - Romans 5:8 says that “...God [showed] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Paul goes on to say in 1 Cor. 15:4 - “And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ proved that Jesus was who He said He was---God, the second person of the Trinity. The resurrection proved that claim beyond all doubt and because He WAS God, He was sinless, which means He was qualified to pay the penalty for your sin. Then he did it, thereby proving His claims beyond all doubt.
Now this is the first component of salvation---acceptance of certain key facts:
The Bible says you are a sinner…
Do you accept that analysis in the Bible? If not, you cannot be saved. Jesus said he did not come to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. Salvation is for sinners only.
Illus. - Vance Havner tells the story of a who lady came forward during the invitation in one of his meetings to be saved. She was a very sophisticated and refined woman. She had a graduate’s degree and was very articulate and intelligent.
When she came forward during the invitation, Dr. Havner asked her, “Why have you come forward?” She said, “I want to go to heaven.” Havner doesn’t know why he said it this way, but he asked her, “Ma’am, do you realize that you are a hell-bound sinner worthy only of God’s judgment?” She looked at him in shocked disbelief and said, “Why no. I’ve been good ALL my life.” He said, “Well, in that case ma’am, you cannot go to heaven. Why don’t you have a seat over there, because you can’t be saved.”
Bewildered, she went to one of the front row seats. On the next verse of the song of invitation, she came forward again and said, “Sir, I would like to be saved.” He said, “Ma’am, to be saved, you have to have something to be saved FROM. To be saved is to be saved from SIN. Until you recognize that you are a lost, helpless sinner you cannot be saved. Jesus said, ‘...They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”
Suddenly it was as if he saw a light go off in her head. “Ma’am, do you realize that you are a poor, lost, wicked sinner in need of God’s grace and unable to add to His work on Calvary through any works or goodness of your own?” Tears rolled down her cheeks as the shame for her sin overcame her soul. “Yes! I do”, she said. When she said that, she was in a place where God could save her, and Havner was able to lead her to Christ.
The Bible says Jesus died on the cross and paid the penalty for your sins, and then rose from the dead. - Do you believe those biblical facts? They are central to finding Christ and being saved.
II. THE SECOND COMPONENT IS THE EMOTIONAL COMPONENT - Acts 2:37 - “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Note first that these people were “pricked in their heart.” Strong’s Greek Lexicon says that the Greek word translated “pricked in their heart” means “to pierce” and when used metaphorically, as it is in this verse, it means, “to pain the mind sharply, agitate it vehemently.”
This is common reaction to the Gospel. When you’ve come to church and heard God’s Word preached, have you ever felt that way? The preacher preaches and it is so antithetical to your way of thinking. You’ve always thought that if you just lived a good life, and did the best you could, when you got to heaven, God would weigh the bad against the good and if your good outweighs your bad---why, God will welcome you into heaven, and if your bad outweighs your good, you’ll go to hell. And now you hear that all your good deeds are as filthy rags before God, according to Isaiah 64:6. You hear the preacher quote Ephesians 2:8-9 - “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Then you hear dire warnings of hell and judgment and a Great White Throne and an eternal lake of fire. And your mind and heart are agitated, and you’re confused and worried and fearful. That state of agitation is good IF it compels you to act.
What did these people do? Their hearts were agitated. They realized the magnitude of their sin. They realized there was no hope of heaven for them in their current condition. They realized how guilty they were before a holy God. They remembered all the times they had sinned and disobeyed God’s commands. They remembered that they had nailed Jesus on the cross and crucified Him, just as you and I have. And they were pricked in their heart---they were agitated---they were worried. So they asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” They heard the Gospel, they were emotionally stirred, and they said, “Okay, this is the mess we’re in. So what do we do to get out of it?”
That’s where you have to come. You have to come to a place where you realize that you have blown it before a holy God, that there is no way you can get to God by your own good life, and that your only hope it to do what God says to do.
III. THAT LEADS TO THE LAST COMPONENT OF SALVATION---THE VOLITIONAL COMPONENT.
Volitional means exercising your will---making a decision. Look at verses 38-40 - “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”
They asked, “What must we do about our condition?”---and this was Peter’s answer. He said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin.”
This is one of about three or four verses in the Bible that SEEM to support baptismal regeneration---the idea that we must be baptized to be saved. Hundreds of times the Bible mentions repentance and faith in Christ alone without any mention of baptism, but this verse is not so clear in the English translation. However, the Greek is clearer.
Without getting too technical, let me point out that the phrase, “and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” is what is known as a “parenthetical clause,” which means that it is a clause that is actually understood as a part separate from the first and last part of the verse.
In other words, the people in Peter’s day would have understood Peter’s words this way, “Repent for the remission of sins, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” So Peter is not saying you have to be baptized to be saved. Rather he says in verse 38 to REPENT and in verse 39 to CALL ON GOD.
What does it mean to “repent”? “Repentance” simply means “a change of mind.” A change of mind about what? Whatever or whoever you are trusting in to saved you besides trusting in Jesus Christ.
These religious Jews had been in denial of who Jesus was and what he came to do. They were still trusting in their good works to save them as good Jews, not on Jesus Christ as the Son of God. They needed to change their minds about Christ and call on God to save them through Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
And so must you. You much change you mind about how good you are and recognize that no matter how earnest and sincere you are, your good deeds can never earn you a ticket to heaven. You must change your mind about Jesus Christ and who He is. You must admit that He is GOD and has a right to make demands upon your life. You admit that HE DIED FOR YOUR SINS IN YOUR PLACE.
And then Peter says that God would save Peter’s hearers if they call upon God. The same promise is extended to you. If fact, today, if you called upon God in prayer and said, “God, I am a sinner deserving your judgment, and not deserving of your grace. But I believe you died for my sins and you rose from the dead for me. I turn from trusting in my goodness, or my good deeds, or my religion, or my church. No, I am trusting in YOU ALONE as my only means and hope of salvation.”
If you did that, and you believed in JESUS CHRIST ALONE as your ONLY hope of salvation, you have the promise of God’s Word that He would save you from your sins and come into your life and give you purpose in life and take you to heaven. How do I know that? Paul tells us in Romans 10:13 - “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Jesus said, John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
CONCLUSION
Dear friend, the Gospel is so simple. Even a child can understand and be saved.
If a child can be saved, you can too.
(APPEAL TO THE LOST TO COME FOR SALVATION DURING THE INVITATION.)
Sept. 2004
