Crash Course: Salvation

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Crash Course.

This is where we try to help you get caught up to speed on a concept that's part of our faith in Jesus.

Because sometimes we need a crash course, sometimes we need someone just to say, hey, here's what this means, here's what this is about.

These are short, they're not exhaustive, we can't cover the entirety of every thought about it, but they're just designed to be little bite-sized, uh helpful bits of information that can help you grasp something really important to our faith.

I've got Scott Case with me, as usual.

This is where it's good to be here.

See, I keep doing this.

I say, I introduce you, and then there's like a second where I'm like, is he gonna say something now or not?

It's because I'm not sure if you're just telling everybody I'm here or we gotta figure this part out.

This is this is a mess.

Um and then I say and then you say something, and at the same time, I'm like, oh, maybe and we talk over each other and we begin every podcast the same way.

But Scott is uh Scott's awesome, and uh and we're just gonna talk to you a little bit about salvation.

That is a word that you've probably heard if you are uh someone who's a follower of Jesus, you know, getting saved, salvation.

It's a church word.

It is a church word.

Um you know, it's it's uh highly associated with with being a Christian, with being Jesus.

Getting saved, salvation.

Um I would say born again is another phrase that is really connected to the same idea.

And so, Scott, what in the heck do I need to be saved from?

Okay, that's a great question.

That's a little loaded because there are a lot of religions that say you don't need to be saved.

God loves you just like you are, which is true, and therefore you're fine just like you are.

Uh but the reality is before you meet Jesus, you're not fine just like you are.

So we talked a little bit on an earlier podcast about human nature, what human nature is, and what it means to have a human nature.

The fact is, people's nature before they meet Jesus is a sin nature.

And the bad news is you inherited it.

You can't do anything about it.

You know, you can't people say, Well, what if I never sinned?

Would I go to heaven?

Why do I need to be saved?

Well, first of all, lots of luck never sinning.

It's not gonna happen.

But even, by the way, even if you're someone who comes from the standpoint where you don't want to use the word sin because that's a word you associate with faith, I don't believe in sin as a thing.

Um, well, let's just call selfishness.

Let's just call that out.

I think most of us would would fundamentally agree that it is better to be selfless and to serve other people than it is to be selfish.

Is there one person that can say, I I have never been selfish?

Right.

Never acted in my own self-interest.

Never acted in my own self-interest at the detriment of someone else.

Yeah.

Ever in my life.

Very, very good.

I like that.

So the fact is, if you have never done that, people say, Would I be good enough to get to heaven?

I remember true story.

I'm driving down the street one day and I see a bumper sticker on the car in front of me that says, How much sin can I commit and still go to heaven?

Right.

And the whole attitude is, you know, what's the minimum that I can get by?

That's like when I was in college, um, my first thing I would look at on a syllabus from a professor was their attendance policy because I wanted to see like how how much can I miss?

Oh, yeah.

I was like, I don't want to like how and if they had no attendance policy, I was like, oh, this is awesome.

You know, and I just had to figure out from that professor, like, is it on the book?

Is it on what they say?

And I tried to basically, you know, and by the way, it's not part of this is not relevant, but I didn't have the highest GPA in college in my class.

But I'm pretty sure I had the highest GPA per lowest attendance ratio, which in many ways is more impressive.

Yes, yeah, that guy had a 4.0, but he was there every day.

I got a 3.5, and I missed a bunch.

So when you really think about it efficiency-wise, that's pretty good.

I'm the most efficient.

So there should be an award for that.

There was not.

Uh Magna Coombe efficient.

Magna Coombe lazy.

Um But yeah, what's the what what's the lowest possible standard I can I can be at?

And and the answer is if salvation were based on how we act, it's simple.

The standard is perfection because that's the way God is.

God is perfect.

And the fact is, none of us can be perfect.

And so what does it take then to be saved?

So God said, Listen, people have a sin nature.

People are born out of fellowship with me.

They're born selfish.

And he said, we've got to do something about this because this is causing people not just to miss out on relationship with God, but in the way people treat each other.

People are killing each other, stealing from each other, and it was getting worse and worse.

And God said, I've got to step in.

Man can't save himself.

I've got to do it for him.

And so Jesus, his son, came to the earth, and there were two things that needed to happen.

One was for all these crimes that had been committed, when you commit a crime, there's a punishment due.

There's a judgment due for a crime.

Right.

We we hear the word judgment and we immediately go, ew, like I don't Okay.

Well, the reality is with with if there's no judgment in the world, there's no justice in the world.

Yeah.

And I think we all believe in in that justice is important.

And so if there's some judge and all they ever do is let every criminal off, no matter what the crime, you know, sometimes we might look at that and go, like, yeah, I I would have let that guy off.

That's no big deal.

Other times we'd be like, Whoa, no, hey, that was huge.

You can't there has to be something has to be justice.

And so no no judgment means no justice.

Exactly.

And God is a just God.

And so what happened is basically God and Jesus had a conversation, and Jesus said, I'll tell you what, God, I will pay the price for all the justice that needs to be done.

Judge me instead of people.

And so that's exactly what God did.

And when you see Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, the beating that he went through before he hung on the cross, all of that was the judgment that was due to us.

Jesus took it upon himself.

But God knew this.

If he paid the price for all of our wrongdoings and didn't change us, guess what?

We're gonna go right back and do it again.

Right.

And Jesus just needs to keep come back and keep coming back and coming back.

Exactly.

So what Jesus did was not only paid the price for all of our wrong, but what Jesus did is then uh he changed our nature.

Jesus said this basically, if you will follow me, I will come live on the inside of you, and I would change who you are.

We talked about this a little bit in the section on human nature.

I would change who you are.

And those are the two things that Jesus did for us.

He paid the price for all the wrongs, he was God's justice so that we could receive God's mercy.

But then he didn't just leave us there in that condition, he changed who we are so that we could um again, it's not based on our behavior, but so that we could begin to act like God, think like God, and uh through God start to express God to other people.

Right.

And you know, we a word like saved, um, it it's a pretty intense word if you actually think about it.

Because it it has it carries with it the idea that there's an impending doom.

Right.

Right.

And so the reality is, and and obviously we'll we'll have to we always every product every single one of these podcasts we promise another podcast.

So it's it's good job security, because there'll always need to be another one for us, except we don't get paid for this, so that's a bad job.

But whatever.

Um saved from from what?

Well, on one hand, you're saved from yourself in the sense that, hey, look, I'll just be honest, before I knew Jesus, like I was much I wasn't in good shape personally.

Um I mean I became a Jesus follower the first time at age 10, so I hadn't really done a whole lot at that point that would rank in most people's lists, but I know how I was wired and and how my my original nature is wired.

And and and I'm pretty sure that without Jesus I I would have self-destructed quite a while ago.

Like I honestly don't know how people who don't have Jesus do it.

Because it's my faith in him and him in me that literally keeps me from I mean, it keeps I I I would just be a wreck without without Jesus because my nature is insecure and selfish and fear-based and all these other things, and and he's made me a new person.

So you're kind of saved from yourself, you know, but but you're also saved from from judgment itself.

And we talked about like okay, God is just, and we live in a world where even in the church today, people don't want to talk about the wrath of God at all.

It's an it's you know, everyone's cool talking about God's love.

Um, but if God is not just, he is not loving.

No one would look at that judge we mentioned hypothetically a minute ago that just lets everyone off, no matter what.

No one would look at that judge as loving.

They wouldn't look at him for long.

They might look at him for a few minutes as loving, like he's a really loving judge, but then eventually they'd be like, no, this is not right.

So so love and discipline go hand in hand.

The Bible actually says that the Lord disciplines those he loves.

We don't tend to see it that way as people.

Like, how is discipline love?

Well, I discipline my children because I love them, because I actually care that they do well in life.

And so God is just, and the wages of sin, the Bible says, is death.

That sin is a serious thing.

And again, we'll have to talk about the concept of sin in another episode, but but sin is a serious thing.

We all have it, we all do it, and that means that we, in and of ourselves, we we have a debt of sin.

There is a balance to pay, and the reality is we rack up you know that debt pretty fast, and that debt's probably a lot deeper than we realize.

And, you know, one of the ways I heard it explained one time is it's a simple analogy, and no, no analogy is perfect, but I actually like this.

I think I was probably a teenager, so it really spoke to me at the time because I was like, I get this.

You know, I was I was starting to eat out for the first time in my life.

I had a car and I could go to the restaurant I wanted to go to.

And it's like if you went to a restaurant and you ordered, you know, all this stuff without really thinking about the cost, you're just ordering whatever you you want.

You look at the menu and you're like, ooh, lobster, ooh, you know, steak, ooh, this.

And and you're just ordering it based on what you're you're feeling, what your appetite is, but you're not really paying attention to the actual cost associated.

And then you get the bill and you're like, oh no, I don't have enough to cover this, right?

Well, you'd be in a lot of trouble.

Um, unless someone else who had enough came and paid it for you.

Right.

And the reality is when it comes to life, we kind of live our lives like someone ordering things off a menu without looking at the cost.

We just most people do what they want to do.

They don't really think about how it affects other people that much.

You know, they'll they'll you see this happen all the time.

People will maybe I mean, I'm I'm not saying this to for anyone to feel ashamed if you've been through divorce because divorce happens and there's life after divorce, and there are situations where divorce is is merited.

But I I've sat across from guys who are talking to me about getting a divorce, and they don't need to get a divorce.

It's a selfish decision.

Yep.

And they're convincing themselves that like they'll they'll talk themselves into it and say, you know, honestly, it's it's better for our kids that we get divorced because we fight a lot at home, and and you know, I think our kids would just be happier in separate homes without us fighting, you know, and and I'm like, well, I don't know how intense those fights are, you know, so I'm not pretending to know everything there.

But I I I I'd question that pretty heavily.

Like what might be better for your kids is for you to fix it and work on it and your kids to see that you can you can you know improve and and get better.

But but left to our own, we tend to just do what we want to do and convince ourselves that it's fine, that it's not hurting anybody else, you know.

You'll hear people, pornography is a great example of that.

People say it doesn't hurt anybody.

Um spend 10 minutes reading up on on the porn industry and its connections to you know sex slavery and all kinds of other things and be like, you're lying to yourself that that's not hurting anybody.

Yeah you know.

Um so the reality is we rack up a debt, a debt of sin.

And we don't have we don't have enough to cover it.

Like what what is the most you could if the wages of sin is death, what is the most you could possibly do to pay for sin?

Die.

Right.

And then what?

You know?

So Jesus shows up and he's God.

And he's got deep pockets.

And unlike us, he doesn't sin.

He lives a life.

He's a human being, he has he is he's a real human being, he's really tempted, but he never sins.

So he never ha he doesn't owe uh sin anything.

He has no debt.

And because he's God and he's infinite, and he has uh he has the ability to pay for everyone's sin.

And his goodness is so whole and complete and amazing, it's he is infinitely good that he ha he actually has enough, you know, enough credit, so to speak, with God that he can he can cover that debt.

And so he wipes it away.

If if we accept it.

You know, in that and in that scenario with uh you know me at the restaurant and I I can't pay the bill, someone can come and say, Hey, can I I I can cover it, here's my card.

If I can say no, I can be like, no, no, I don't want I don't want you to cover it.

And that on one hand seems like a noble thing to do, but then I'm still in debt.

Right.

And Jesus covered our debt.

So As the restaurant still deserves to get paid.

Yeah, the restaurant's going to get their their money, or I'm going to go earn it, do something, or whatever.

Like my only option is it to be covered for me or for the you can't pay it yourself.

Right.

And what's really cool about this analogy is that you know, God, I guess in this analogy would be also the owner of the restaurant, right?

Because he owns everything, and it's it's his own son and him, it's their plan.

So he's he's like, I'll I'll cover it.

You know what I mean?

And by the way, I'll say this and we'll transition.

This is what makes Christianity completely different than every other faith in the world.

There's no other faith you're gonna find in the world that that solution to the problem of sin, whatever they call that.

Um, you know, great example would be like Eastern religions don't really talk about sin, but they definitely talk about the the imbalance, perhaps, in our human nature.

Right.

Right?

There is the every faith is in the world, other than Christianity, is all about what are you gonna do to make up for your mistakes?

What are you you better pray this many times a day, you better do this, this, this, this, you better live this way.

And in Christianity, we're called to live a certain way for sure.

But we're called to live a certain way out of response to love and forgiveness given to us.

Every other faith, you're doing this to try to make up for your mistakes and earnest.

Get that love and forgiveness.

Yeah.

Christianity is God doing for us what we could not do.

He saves us, we don't save ourselves.

Yeah, and just accepting what he did for us.

You know, he made it easy.

He knew that some people are better than other people in every way.

And so he said, I'm just gonna make this easy for everybody.

Nobody has to go ten days without sinning, nobody has to fast.

You gotta do one thing believe.

Right.

And everybody can believe.

Everybody can accept the the love of God to believe, and and and to believe means you know, to receive Jesus, to believe the Bible says that whoever whoever believes that Jesus was raised from the dead, he's the Son of God, and confesses with their mouth.

Right?

That that so and and that's kind of a big thing to say because in that time in the world confessing was kind of risky.

Right.

In other words, if you believe that Jesus is who he said he is, and you're willing to go out on a limb and say, I stand with Jesus, I follow Jesus, that's like that's the requirements.

That's all it l of of being saved.

Now, from there we want to grow and mature and and live out our faith, live out our salvation.

But salvation is something God does for us, not something we earn.

Yep.

Um all right, that's gonna wrap it up for this episode of Crash Course.

Scott, thank you, as always.

Yeah, it was a pleasure.

It was.

It really was, it was enjoyable, and uh we'll talk to you guys soon.