salvation – Simply True

Jesus is Lord

The confession that Jesus Christ is Lord is perhaps the central truth that unites all Christians. And it’s the confession that lifts us from lostness to reconciliation with God.[i]

Clearly, we need to know what this means, and enjoy the truth of it and let others know that this is the path to life.

In his Pentecost sermon, Peter tells us that God has made Jesus Lord. He now sits beside God and is wholly in charge of God’s affairs. His enemies will become like a mere stool for resting his feet.[ii]

When Peter says this, all the opposition to Jesus being Leader and Saviour, and his being Israel’s Christ, have amounted to nothing. Jesus is alive. He’s leading, and saving and fulfilling God’s promises. And he’s Lord as well.

We all need to acknowledge the reality of this. The danger of not doing so is great. Our world is crooked. If we don’t let this Lord straighten us out, we will be shamed when God exposes what our life really is.[iii]

In fact, many of those who are the first to hear this announcement, repent of their unbelief and ungodliness.

Christ hasn’t been made Lord simply because he deserves it. He’s been made Lord so he can rescue us. If we confess that Jesus is Lord, and believe God has raised him from the dead, we will be saved.[iv]

And so, ‘Lord’ becomes one of the favourite ways in which the early church addresses this Jesus Christ who reigns. And they are glad to acknowledge themselves as his servants or bonded slaves.[v]

‘Other lords’ have been in control of us.[vi] But not anymore.[vii]

Clearly, the work of this Lord Jesus is wide and deep, but here are four words that may help us know and grow in walking with the Lord.

Authority

Our Lord Jesus has been given authority over us as his people, over God’s kingdom, and over everything.

In this world, it’s seems hard for us to accept that anyone has absolute power because authorities on earth tend to be so self-interested.[viii] But the authority of Jesus is gracious. And its purpose is to set us free from all that has stopped us knowing God and fulfilling our calling.

The great lie of Satan, that God is mean and that we should look after ourselves is here demonstrated to be false. God is good—not tardy.

We can now recognise the authority of our Lord for what it is. Love. Powerful love. Jesus has blazed a trail through every obstacle to our trusting and obeying God. And we know it! Like Paul, and like Peter, we’ve discovered that the Lord is kind.[ix]

So, our life now is for pleasing the Lord. It’s for doing his will. It’s for revealing what happens when we trust him.

Deity

The disciples of Jesus have been calling him ‘Lord’ for three years while he is with them. And their appreciation of how great he is, grows.

But during this time, he does and says things appropriate only to God—like forgive sins[x], expect honour equal to that given to the Father[xi], calls God his Father and says that the Father and he are one.[xii] He uses passages of Old Testament that apply to God and uses them of himself.[xiii] He insists on this publicly. And he’s crucified because of it.

If a human being claims to be God, they are either insane, or evil, or real. And it’s impossible to attribute the first two of these to the Jesus of the Gospels. We need to reckon with what he says.

But now, the resurrection awakens the disciples to more of what ‘Lord’ really means. He has sent his Holy Spirit to them—as he had promised. They are brought to life in a way they had never experienced before. These are things that God does.

Paul tells us about being awakened to know these things.[xiv] He is encountered by Jesus. He calls him ‘Lord’—but he doesn’t know who this ‘Lord’ is. Then he hears that it’s the Jesus he’s persecuting. And the strong-minded Paul asks for directions!

Paul wants us to know that the same Lord who confronted him now confronts us. We become blinded by the god of this world. He doesn’t want us to see ‘the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’.[xv]

But the preaching of the gospel is nothing less than the coming of Christ to us who hear. And when we receive his word, the Creator God, who first made light to shine, shines in our hearts with the knowledge of his glory. And the ‘face’ we see in this way is the face of Jesus Christ.

It’s true! The Jesus who has lived among us—humbly, kindly, sympathetically, strongly—is the face of God. All of God is present in his body.[xvi] And God has blessed us in this way with his presence because he is reconciling the world to himself!

So now, we know what our God is like—exactly. We know what he does and what he wants for us.

Recognising God in any shape or form is not something sinners like doing. So, when we confess that Jesus is Lord, it’s because the Holy Spirit has given us a new life.[xvii]

This is not a confession to make lightly. As Paul later says, ‘Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness’: he was manifested in the flesh…’.[xviii]

Belonging

The apostles quite often talk about Jesus as ‘our Lord’ or ‘my Lord’.[xix] They don’t mean that they own him. Rather, they are owned by him[xx]. He pays a high price to have us as his own.

Because of this bond, the whole Christian community is held together.[xxi] And we are kept from trying to be little lords of others by knowing that each believer belongs to the Lord and not to us.[xxii] Our place is to walk humbly before the world’s one Lord.

There are similarities between saying ‘Jesus is our Lord’ and saying ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’. The shepherding of Israel’s covenant Lord is now being done by Jesus.[xxiii]

How can we navigate all that happens in this life apart from the truth that our Lord knows us, leads us and talks to us? How can we expect to live well without being led by him in paths of righteousness? How can we be secure in dark valleys unless we know he is with us?

Rather, because we now know ‘the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’, we are persuaded that nothing will be able to separate us from this.[xxiv]

Battling

Not long after the apostles announce that Jesus is Lord, hostility erupts in Jerusalem. But they regard it a privilege to suffer for him.[xxv] Paul says he doesn’t reckon his safety of great importance, so long as he can finish the job given to him by the Lord Jesus.[xxvi]

Peter tells us to honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being ready to share with others the reason for the hope we have—even if we suffer for it.[xxvii]

The promise in David’ psalm concerning Jesus sitting at God’s right hand, continues by saying, ‘Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power’.[xxviii]

When we see Jesus reigning, and know him as God, and are embraced by his loving, we will gladly join the many who want to share in the battle, and to have a share in his victory.

There is a day coming when every person born on this earth will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. Believers will do so with worship and gladness. But none will be able to deny that it is true.[xxix]

[i] Rom. 10:9

[ii] Acts 2:32-35

[iii] Acts 2:40

[iv] Rom. 10:9-11

[v] Acts 4:29

[vi] Isa. 26:13

[vii] Col. 2:13-15

[viii] Luke 22:24-30

[ix] 1 Pet. 2:3

[x] Mark 2:5-7

[xi] John 5:23

[xii] John 5:18; 10:30-33. This clarified in v. 38.

[xiii] For example John 8:58, effectively quoting Isa. 43:10.

[xiv] Acts 22:6-11

[xv] 2 Cor. 4:4-6

[xvi] Col. 1:19-20

[xvii] 1 Cor. 12:3

[xviii] 1 Tim. 3:16; also Col. 2:2-3

[xix] In fact, just less than one in five references to Jesus as Lord are preceded by ‘our’. For example, see Acts 15:26; 20:21; Rom. 1:4; 4:24; 5:1; 6:23; 7:25; 8:39; 15:6, 30; 16:20, 24.

[xx] 1 Cor. 6:19-20

[xxi] 1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 4:3-6

[xxii] Rom. 14:4-9

[xxiii] John 10:10-15 with Psalm 23

[xxiv] Rom. 8:39

[xxv] Acts 5:41

[xxvi] Acts 20:24

[xxvii] 1 Pet. 3:15

[xxviii] Psa. 110:3

[xxix] Phil. 2:10-11

Life is all about God and his Son (Rom. 1:1-17)

I’d like to spend some time thinking with you about the book of Romans. In my Bible, this occupies 21 pages. It started out as a letter written to a group of Christians in Rome, but they have gone on to have a profound effect on people ever since.

I plan to simply highlight the main points from each major section of the letter. Getting an overview like this can help with a more detailed read later on. So, here’s an appetizer, and I trust, an encouragement to know and be changed by the gospel it explains.

Understandably, Paul begins by introducing himself to the Church in Rome, and explaining his desire to visit them[i]. But this simple beginning tells us why we need to know this whole letter well. He is eager that the church has a real gospel—with God and his Son as the main actors.

When we consider churches, we may be thinking about their numbers, their age group, their music or their influence. Not Paul. He wants churches to love God and listen to him. He wants Christ and his gospel to be centre-stage.

God has broken into the comfortable arrangements we make for ourselves. He has things to tell us that we would never imagine and certainly couldn’t perform, but things that we desperately need.

As we read through this opening section, notice how God is the main actor in all that is happening.

It’s God’s gospel, or good news, that we need[ii]. He’s sent his Son to establish it[iii]. It’s his grace and peace we are needing[iv]. It’s him we need to thank[v], and his will we need to be doing[vi]. And especially, it’s God’s power that is going to change things[vii], and him that gets things right—in fact, gets us right[viii].

And then, God presents us with his Son. He’s put him in charge of everything[ix]. Everything God has said and done before has been leading to this. And he’s raised his Son from the terrible death we inflicted on him.

Through this powerful Son, people like Paul have received grace! He’s now happy to be the slave of Jesus—ready to carry out his every wish. And he’s been commissioned to take the message of this amazing kindness to the ends of the earth. God is on a mission to have people belonging to Jesus and to share in all he has accomplished.

Is this what your church is about—God’s good news, and the Son who makes it all work? Is this what we are about?

Saying ‘Yes’ to these questions is not a likely or natural answer. It happens because we’ve been called by God to belong to Jesus Christ[x]. We are hungry for God and for what he can do. And we know our life must be full of Christ to be in the flow of God’s grace and peace. That’s why knowing what is in this letter is important.

There’s no politics here! No wishful thinking. No doubt. Just God, his Son, and Paul, the man he has chosen to receive and to proclaim God’s grace.

But now, what about his desire to go to Rome?[xi] Or, we could ask, what about the expectation that this man may have something to say to ourselves, or to our church? Can we trust him? Should we believe him?

Here’s what he offers to encourage the Romans to receive his letter, and later, himself.

He knows about them already and he’s grateful for their witness in the Roman capital. He prays for them constantly. He wants to come because he knows he can help. He’s been commissioned by Jesus himself to do just this. He expects they will encourage him as he encourages them.

Notice how different this is from the unconverted Paul—or Saul of Tarsus as he was known. He had obtained letters from leaders in Jerusalem to travel to Syria and arrest Christians there and bring them back for trial. He was angry, ambitious and uncaring.

All that has changed. God is in his rightful place in Paul’s life. This has made him humble, warm and obedient. He’s believable. I hope you find him the same!

And lastly, Paul tells us his central message—or rather, God’s message.

It’s not just an attempt to be kind and helpful. It’s powerful, and saves us from perishing. How can this be so?

It’s because God is ready to pronounce as righteous anyone who trusts his good news about Jesus.

This changes everything. When we know God accepts us, the need to be special, or good, or right, or approved, fades away. We don’t have to parade our virtues or accomplishments. We can simply serve others. This is God’s power being let loose among us. I’m hoping you will join me in looking at this part of our Bible again. And I’m hoping our hearts will be set singing!

[i] Rom. 1:1-15

[ii] v. 1

[iii] v. 3

[iv] v. 7

[v] v. 8

[vi] v. 10

[vii] v. 16

[viii] v. 17

[ix] v. 3-5

[x] v. 6

[xi] Rom. 1:8-15

Righteous—only by faith (Romans 4)

We’ve been following Paul’s explanation of the gospel in his letter to the Romans. He loves the gospel and knows that it’s powerful to save everyone who believes.

But he also knows the things that get added to it and prevent it from being what it is. In his day, he is speaking to Jews who can’t see that Jesus has fulfilled their Old Testament. If they hang onto this, they will miss the liberation Jesus has come to bring.

But it’s vital to know we are justified by faith. Nothing else can make us right with God, so, it’s important to know what can compromise it.

Paul has already told us that Jews have turned their privileges into something they can use for their own glory. Jews have become proud of their law, and their God[i].

And they’ve actually had to change what the Old Testament teaches to make it more palatable to the desire to get some credit for living well. Some of their literature teaches that Abraham was justified by his good behaviour[ii].

This is not just an ancient problem. A picture Bible book we read to our children when they were young, introduced the story of Abraham by saying, ‘Abraham was a good man, so God blessed him.’ That’s a heresy! He started life as an idolator.[iii] God blessed him because he believed God’s promise.

We all need to ask if we are watering down God’s good news. We know that we must come to him humbly—trusting his Son. But we’d also like God to acknowledge our righteousness. We’re not really sure about it being a gift.

So, Paul takes the Jews back to the story of Abraham and asks, ‘What grounds does Abraham have for boasting?’[iv] He’s helping us all because we all share in this desire for self-glory.

In fact, the story of Abraham shows that he has been an ungodly man. His works have not been pleasing to God. He has been like David whose lawless deeds are forgiven and his sins covered, whose sins the Lord will not count[v].

Abraham shows the way for us all. He is father of everyone who believes that God gives generously to undeserving people[vi].

Paul picks out two important markers of being a Jew—circumcision, and having the law of God. These were gifts of God—through Abraham, and then through Moses. But Israel has focused on these things as something they can do. They want to be the reason for receiving God’s favour.

But that can’t happen—not before God. Rather, God comes to Abraham. He promises him a blessing, a new land and a new future—reaching out to all his family and to the whole world[vii]. All this happens before he’s circumcised and before the law is given.

Abraham believes God. And God says, ‘I reckon you to be righteous[viii].’

That’s where our life begins too. The God of glory reveals himself to us in the face of Christ[ix]. He promises to give us eternal life. We believe in him. We don’t offer him our past or promise him our future. We see we are helpless and know this is our one chance to be right with God. And God passes his judgement on us—‘You are righteous.’

The Jewish rite of circumcision, in Abraham’s history, has no part in this blessing. It’s a sign, given later, pointing back to the day when God called him righteous, and forwards to the call to live by God’s word. But a sign doesn’t do anything but point. Without the reality it’s nothing.

But now, Israel is wanting to make much of circumcision. It’s something they can see. It’s something they can codify and control. It can be a social marker of those who are accepted and those who are not. And Paul says, ‘That’s not right’.

In our case, baptism is the sign that God gives to each Christian believer.

Our baptism is God saying, ‘You belong to me. All that my Son has achieved is yours. And I want you to live by my word.’

But us sinners have a way of forgetting the reality of unseen things. We’d rather focus on things we can see and control. We forget the joy of being forgiven, and of hearing God call us righteous. We begin again to think and act as though we must deserve what we get from God.

And then, instead of being grateful for God’s sign of baptism, we presume on it. It’s something we’ve done. We’ve arrived. And instead of our behaviour being grateful faith, seeking to be like Jesus, it’s a work of our own ego[x]. We’re looking for applause. Or we want to be proud of ourselves.

And then, just as God gave Israel his law, he has written his law on our hearts. This happens when we know we are forgiven[xi].

But what if we begin to notice how much better our life is as a Christian? What if we compare ourselves with others whose lives are falling apart?

Can we hear Paul speaking to us across the centuries? He wants his fellow Jews to understand the riches of Christ. And us Christians too. He wants us to live as humble recipients of mercy.

God has given life to us who were dead[xii]. He gives righteousness, peace and joy to people who have nothing to offer[xiii]. Nothing at all.

Because Abraham starts, and continues, to believe what God promises to him, and because he gives glory to God and doesn’t take it for himself, he grows strong in faith. He begins by believing that God justifies sinners, and he finishes the same way[xiv].

Walking by faith like this is like walking on a narrow mountain track. Our nature suggests that we wander sideways—to think about gaining favour for ourselves. But a step sideways can lead to a large fall.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing less than the love of God encountering our abysmal failure. And when God justifies or vindicates Jesus[xv] by raising him from the dead, he also justifies us who are trusting in him. All that the Father gives to Jesus, Jesus now shares with us. This is the way we began our Christian life. Let’s grow strong in this faith—to the very end.

[i] Rom. 2:17, 23

[ii] You can look up the pre-Christian Jewish books 1 Maccabees 2:52 or Sirach 44:19-21 at https://biblia.com/bible/nrsv/1-maccabees/2/51-52 and https://bible.usccb.org/bible/sirach/44 .

[iii] Josh. 24:2

[iv] Rom. 4:4

[v] Rom. 4:5, 7

[vi] Rom. 4:11-12

[vii] Gen. 12:1-3

[viii] Gen. 12:1-3; 15:6

[ix] 2 Cor. 4:6

[x] Gal. 3:1-3

[xi] Jer. 31:31-34

[xii] Rom. 4:17

[xiii] Rom. 14:17

[xiv] Rom. 4:5, 22

[xv] 1 Tim. 3:16

[i] Rom. 2:17, 23

[ii] You can look up the pre-Christian Jewish books 1 Maccabees 2:52 or Sirach 44:19-21 at https://biblia.com/bible/nrsv/1-maccabees/2/51-52 and https://bible.usccb.org/bible/sirach/44 .

[iii] Rom. 4:4

[iv] Rom. 4:5, 7

[v] Rom. 4:11-12

[vi] Gen. 12:1-3

[vii] Gen. 12:1-3; 15:6

[viii] 2 Cor. 4:6

[ix] Gal. 3:1-3

[x] Jer. 31:31-34

[xi] Rom. 4:17

[xii] Rom. 14:17

[xiii] Rom. 4:5, 22

[xiv] 1 Tim. 3:16

7—It’s God who saves

A Christian is someone who knows they need God to save them from the trouble they are in.

If there’s no God, we may think our difficulties are visible, discoverable and solvable. But, in fact, we are created to reflect God. Only he can fix what he has made.

Paul says we need to take God’s salvation as a gift and wear it for protection (Ephesians 6:17). Apart from this, we get overwhelmed.

He’s not telling us to become Christians. That’s already happened. He’s saying that we need to live in the victory God has won over our enemies. This includes our own sinfulness, the world that hates God and Satan who supervises it all.

By sending his Son into the world, God has already made the winning move, has the end game all arranged, and has included us in his victory. We need to know this and live in it.

Without this, we become afraid—quickly, and even constantly. We may believe the gospel and try to please God, but have no energy. Satan gains the advantage. He hasn’t taken us over, but he has us contained.

The world is good at being afraid. Opinion writers and governments can stir up anxiety easily because it’s part of living in the world without God (Hebrews 2:14). We are in danger of taking on this sense of being overwhelmed. But we don’t need to.

We need to know what it means to be saved by God, and Paul makes this clear in his letter.

First, our salvation has happened, convincingly.

We used to drift along with the world, basically, being guided by our passions. Without us realising, Satan had us doing his business. More than this, we had to live with dread because we couldn’t change the fact that we are made by God and would have to face his anger one day (2:1-3).

But God has given us life. The message of Jesus, about his life and death and resurrection, came to us as mercy from heaven, relief for our conscience, hope for our future. Simply, we believed (1:13; 2:4-10).

This message was convincing because it didn’t come from us. It came to us, from God. Anything that starts with us is going to be shaky.

And then, we knew we’d been saved to do good things—things God wanted done. A new life was already in progress. We were launched!

Now—Paul speaks to us Christians, ‘Receive this gift—every day! Wear it as protection for your head. Don’t ever think you are on your own. Not ever!

If this is settled, we can put way our fears. We can expect God’s help in everyday things because he’s looked after our most important thing. We will never have to face his anger. We know God as our Father! We have been set up for a useful life. We can love each other because we are no longer anxious about ourselves.

Second, our salvation will happen, comprehensively.

God is always getting us to look forward to what he is going to do. In a coming age, he has more kindness to show us that we can imagine at present (2:7). Elsewhere, Paul calls this ‘helmet’ the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8).

God has included us in his plan to have the entire creation working harmoniously under Christ (1:9-10). And we have been marked for inclusion in this inheritance by the gift of the Holy Spirit (1:13-14).

This Holy Spirit has already enabled us to call Jesus Lord, and to call God our Father. Already, he is producing changes in our lives (Galatians 5:22-25). This helps us to hope for more amazing things to come.

Imagine God looking at his world now—like he did at creation—and calling it good. Everywhere, creation is struggling to be the beautiful place it was intended to be (Romans 8:22-23). Fancy him looking at us—stumbling and suffering—and saying, ‘That’s good enough.’

God would be ashamed of us if we only thought he could do what we are seeing now (Hebrews 11:13-16).

What God has begun in us is not the finished product. We have been saved to participate in the renewed creation. This means us—immortal and perfected. It means our environment—unpolluted and glorious. It means nations bringing their glory into God’s kingdom. There won’t be a place where Jesus isn’t known and reverenced (Isaiah 11:9). Righteousness and joy will be total.

Paul acknowledges that this involves some suffering in the present but he insists it is like the suffering of a woman giving birth. It’s suffering with a joyous outcome (Romans 8:18-21). He also tells us to wake up because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed’ (Romans 13:11).

Third, our salvation is happening, continuously.

This is what Paul has in mind when he says we should wear our salvation confidently (6:17). It’s what we are receiving now.

In addition to being sure we have been saved, and being sure that we will be saved, he wants us to be sure we are being saved (1 Corinthians 15:12).

This does not mean that salvation is gradual. It doesn’t mean the result is in doubt. It just means that what God is doing isn’t complete yet. We need this present time for our faith to toughen up, our character to develop, our hope to grow. We need this time for God’s love to be poured into our hearts (Romans 5:3-5).

Why wait until Christ returns to enjoy what he has done? Take it up now! Live in its certainty and hope. Relish the love that will then be total. Let that perfect future infiltrate every day. Understand that what you are doing now is eternal.

So, receive and wear God’s salvation. Don’t let the pessimism of the world, or its despair, ruin your faith. Jesus tells us, ‘When these [calamities] begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’ (Luke 21:28).