In last week’s post, we saw that the first evidence of salvation is faith in God’s Word – the Bible. The person who comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is, as Jesus said it in John’s Gospel chapter three, born again. He is born from above, His spirit becomes alive as we are all first born spiritually dead. Paul said it this way when writing to the church at Colosse. “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” (Colossians 2:13)
What modern man should acknowledge is that the population of planet earth is inhabited by the human race. That is correct; according to the Bible there is one race and within that one race there are many families. Just think how much better we could all get along if we fully appreciated the fact that we are by nature all brothers.
What this one race means to the person who believes the Bible is that all men identify with one of two men; the first man is Adam and the second Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Bible teaches that in Adam all men are born spiritually dead, which results in sinful behavior. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) The first man Adam sinned and as a result, he passed on the nature of sin to all men.
“For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.” (Romans 5:15) Many will say, why should I be held accountable for Adam’s sin? We are held accountable for our own sins, no one forces us to disobey our conscience and do many sinful things throughout the course of our life. The first thing we all do is ignore the reality that there is a creator God to whom we are all accountable.
The wonderful good news is that as we all die in Adam, we who acknowledge and accept these truths are made alive in Jesus Christ. Where we once were identified in Adam unto sin and death, even so, we are made alive in Christ, being sanctified (set apart to God) to increasing obedience to Him.
The second evidence of salvation, in my list, is faith in the fact that the primary mover in a person’s salvation is not himself but Jesus Christ. He secured salvation for all who believe in Him. Jesus’s death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection from the grave were now done two-thousand years before we were ever born. How can we take credit for salvation that took place two-thousand years ago?
The primary difference between the man who is lost and the one who is saved is where his faith rests. The lost trust in themselves, the saved trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The first is proud and the second man is humble. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)