God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

STUDY 20: GOD’S GOODNESS AND SALVATION

© Rosemary Bardsley 2023

Through the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God in his goodness has provided us with a comprehensive salvation. We have already seen how Jesus showed us who God is and what he is like in a previous study. And we have also seen how the death of Christ demonstrates how much God loves us in this study. Now we will look at the multi-faceted salvation that is given to us because of that sin-bearing death, that atoning sacrifice. God has not provided us with a minimal salvation, nor with a fallible salvation. Through the death of his Son he has blessed us, in Christ, with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3); through the death of Christ he has given us a complete and permanent salvation (Colossians 2:10; Hebrews 10:10). All by grace, God’s free gift to all who believe in his Son, totally unmerited, totally undeserved.

In this study, we will look at some aspects of this complete salvation. [For comprehensive studies on the nature of salvation go to these studies. Or even more extensive - these studies..]

 

A. REGENERATION AND ETERNAL LIFE

Being saved is being rescued from a state of spiritual death and brought into a state of spiritual life. This is the ‘life’ that we forfeited, and from which we were banned, in Genesis 3.

Read these verses. How is this transfer from death to life described by Paul, John and Jesus?
Ephesians 2:4 – 6

1John 5:11, 12

John 3:36

John 3:16

John 5:24

John 10:28

The active agent in this change is the Holy Spirit. It is he who regenerates us; that is, God, by his Spirit, brings us to new birth. The New Testament speaks of the necessity of being ‘born again’, and refers to all who believe in Jesus Christ as ‘born of God’. This is not our human work, but the essential work of the Spirit of God.

What do these verses say about this regeneration?
John 3:3 – 8

John 1:12

1John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1

 

Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has eternal life. They have already crossed over from death to life. In Christ, who is our life, we have been forever rescued from that spiritual condition that God calls ‘death’.

 

B. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH [= ‘RIGHTEOUSNESS’]

The two words ‘justification’ and ‘righteousness’ translate the same Greek word, which refers to our legal standing in the presence of God, not to our personal morals or goodness.

To ‘justify’ is to declare ‘not guilty’, to acquit of guilt, to declare legally innocent. Paul says this justification is ‘a righteousness from God, apart from law’, and ‘a righteousness that is by faith from first to last’ (Romans 1:21, 17). It sounds too good to be true. It actually sounds legally wrong. Until we realize that it fully satisfies God’s deep justice, as Paul explains in Romans 3:21 – 26. Jesus, the legally innocent one, took the place of us, the guilty ones, under the wrath and judgement of God. He bore, on our behalf, the full penalty imposed by the Law on sinners. Here God’s mercy and God’s wrath, God’s love and God’s justice, are both satisfied and accomplished. In addition, the righteousness of Christ is credited to us, counted ours, just as our sin and guilt were counted his.

What do you learn from these verses about this gift of righteousness, this justification by faith, that is ours in Christ Jesus?
Luke 18:9 – 14

Romans 3:21 – 26

Romans 4:5, 6

Romans 4:20 – 25

Romans 5:1

Romans 5:9

Romans 5:15 – 21

 

C. FORGIVENESS OF SINS

The Bible contains many different images of forgiveness, pictures that help us to understand what God means when he says that he forgives us. A key concept in many of these images is that when God forgives our sins he takes them out of the way so that they can never again separate us from him.

What images of forgiveness are used in the following verses? [There are more than one in some verses.]
Psalm 32:1, 2

Psalm 51:1, 2, 9

Psalm 103:10, 12

Isaiah 38:17

Jeremiah 31:34

Micah 7:18, 19

Matthew 18:27

Colossians 2:14

The usual New Testament word for forgiveness literally means to take away. As many of the above images indicate, when God forgives our sins, the sin-barrier between us and God is removed, permanently taken out of the way. This was clearly demonstrated when, at the very moment of Jesus’ death, the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27: 50, 51). That curtain, embroidered with golden cherubim, barred the way into the Most Holy Place, the symbolic presence of God. Similarly, prohibitive cherubim barred the way to the tree of life, when Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden (Genesis 3:24). That separation from God and life is ended for those united to Jesus Christ by faith. Sin has been taken out of the way by the sin-bearing death of Jesus Christ; the barrier between us and God has been removed. God no longer holds our sins against us. God no longer keeps a record of our sins.

 

D. RECONCILIATION

Hand in hand with forgiveness by God is reconciliation with God. Forgiveness means that the barrier that prevented reconciliation has been removed. The original uninhibited, unrestricted, relationship with God, for which we were created, is re-established when a person is united to Christ by faith.

From these three passages, answer these questions about reconciliation:
Romans 5:9, 10
Who took the initiative in this reconciliation?

What is the basis of our reconciliation with God?

What is the result of our reconciliation with God?

 

2Corinthians 5:16 – 6:1
How did God reconcile us to himself?

What great exchange was necessary to enable this reconciliation?

Suggest why Paul urges us as believers to be reconciled to God, and not to receive this grace in vain.

 

Colossians 1:19 – 22
What was our attitude to God before God reconciled us to himself?

How did God make peace between himself and us?

Having reconciled us to himself, how does he now present us to himself in Christ?

 

E. REDEMPTION

The word ‘redemption’ refers to freedom obtained by the payment of a price. It assumes a condition of some kind of bondage or slavery, an absence of liberty. The price paid to obtain release from that bondage is called a ‘ransom’. The Bible refers to our human position as one of utter destitution, powerlessness, sin, spiritual death, spiritual ignorance, and curse – all of which hold us bound, unable to make any move towards God. Hence Jesus’ words ‘The Son of Man came ... to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45). Or as he put it another way ‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost’ (Luke 19:10). Jesus Christ, by his death, purchased our freedom.

Look at these verses. How do they describe ‘redemption’?
Galatians 3:10 – 13

Ephesians 1:7

Hebrews 9:12b

1Peter 1:18, 19

Revelation 5:9

These verses attribute this redemption to the death of Jesus Christ, which is the ransom – the price necessary to redeem us. The resulting redemption is something that can never be reversed. It is not variable, depending on the level of our spirituality or obedience. It is too precious and costly a thing for God to make its endurance dependent on us. The deep depths of our bondage and inability, the heavy cost of our redemption, ensure that it is entirely in God's hands. He has redeemed us through the death of his Son, a highly costly redemption. He has bought us back with a price (1Corinthians 6:19, 20): we belong to him, and he will never let us go.

 

F. UNION WITH CHRIST

When a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ that person is reconnected with God in such a way that Jesus referred to it as a mutual indwelling: ‘you are in me, and I am in you’ (John 14:20). This union, brought about by the Holy Spirit (see the next study), is the key factor that connects us with the salvation Jesus Christ accomplished for us by his death. Every aspect of the salvation God provides is ours only ‘in Christ’. When we receive Jesus Christ every aspect of salvation is applied to us simultaneously, because every aspect of salvation is in Christ. Salvation is not something separate from Christ; rather Christ is our salvation: it is in him that we have forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, peace with God, righteousness and so on. Apart from him we are nothing, we have nothing. Apart from him, not united to him by faith, we are not, and cannot be, saved.

From these verses, what is our present, permanent status in Christ?
John 3:36

Romans 5:11

1Corinthians 1:30

Ephesians 1:7

Ephesians 2:14

Colossians 1:12

Colossians 1:22

Hebrews 10:10, 14

1John 5:11, 12

None of this depends on us. It is totally the work of our good, very good, God: planned from eternity, implemented in and through the incarnation of the Son, and made ours by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Here, in this act of salvation, here, in Christ, God reunites us to himself. Never again do we relate to God on the basis of who and what we are in ourselves, but always, ever and only in Christ.

REVIEW
How do these aspects of salvation help you to see more clearly that God is good?

 

Which aspect of salvation speaks most powerfully to you of God’s goodness?

 

Explain why.

 

How might you share this with a person who doubts God’s goodness?