Salvation Study: The Maker of Salvation

BLJ: We will spend a few days talking about salvation. Let me blunt. I am convinced that many people attending church are not saved. They go to church because of the social benefits and friendships they make. Yet, they lack the deep commitment to Jesus Christ. As we study a work by Rev. Kenneth Fay, search your soul. Are you saved?

THE MAKER OF SALVATION

Isa 53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Savage and professor alike are trying to find God by fetish or philosophy. Religion and philosophy have been defined as "man's best attempts to find God." These have failed. Man can no more chart his way back to God than he can leap the Grand Canyon or reach the moon atop a 6 foot ladder.

Someone has said that "Man is a Cathedral in ruin." Who then can piece this fallen ruin together? "Man," declared Whitefield, "is half beast and half devil." Who then is to restore man to his true dignity and moral sanity? The chasm that separates a Holy God from sinful man is vast. Who then is to bridge this immense gulf? White winged angels cannot! Brilliant thinkers cannot! The' world's ten great religions cannot! The "do-it-yourself " champions of self-reform cannot!

As certain as we are that only a brilliant architect could have designed Apollo XII, we may be assured that only God Himself could have designed a plan to redeem fallen men. The Bible clearly states that the Father lovingly prepared for us a means of escaping sin's power (St. John 3:16). The Holy Spirit faithfully pleads with us to accept this plan (St. John 16:9). But notice that Jesus alone actually provided for our salvation (St. John 19:30). The Father thought it, the Spirit taught it, but the Son wrought it. Thus Jesus Christ the Son of God becomes the central personality in the Plan of Salvation.
And Jesus would have us understand that He alone can save men. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (St. John 14:6). "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: (Savior) for he shall save his people from their sins" (St. Matthew 1:21). The faith of all who would be saved, therefore, must ultimately come to rest in Jesus. The object of our faith is not a system of doctrine, or creeds, though these properly understood aid faith, but Jesus Himself. In the light of this all men must answer the haunting question Pilate raised, "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?" Yes--Christ is the Inescapable One--He is on our hands!

And what a mighty Savior He is! St. Luke, Chapter 8 is a fair example of His great redemptive power. Here He is seen to calm the DEEP (22-25), command the DEMONS (26-39), cure the DISEASED (43-48), and raise the DEAD (49-56)! Honestly now, is not this the Savior you need?
Rapidly the plan unfolds. From Bethlehem to Jordan we watch with keen anticipation while Jesus prepares for His divine mission. From the choosing of the Twelve until the Last Supper in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, we thrill to His glorious gospel and matchless miracles of love. Oh, that the story might end here! But no the plan is not yet complete. The grizzly chapter called CALVARY must yet be written.

Joseph Conrad, the great literary genius, one time said, "If I could find the right word I could move the world." But we have found Him--the Word that moves the world! As the ETERNAL WORD (St. John 1:1-2) He moved the world in the genius of creation; as the INCARNATE WORD (St. John 1:14) He moved the world in the drama of human activity; as the LIVING WORD, He said, "I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore" (Revelation 1:18); as the ABIDING WORD (St. Matthew 28:20) He assures us, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world; and as the FINAL WORD Paul declares (Philippians 2:10) that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.
Archimedes the Greek once said, "give me a place to stand and I will move the world." But Jesus would move it, suspended between earth and sky, from the cross. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (St. John 12:32). So at Calvary a cross is seen to span

that deep and wide chasm that separates men from God. We can only cross that gulf at the cross! But we can cross it here! Therefore, the cross of Jesus is not tragedy but triumph!

God was now pleased with the sacrifice of His Son. Therefore, in honor to the Son, He raised Him from the grave and death. Christ now lives in glory with His Father--and God's plan to save man is complete!
"Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!
Oh, the grace that bro't it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at CALVARY!"
He is the Provider of the only true plan of salvation the world shall ever know.