God Provides our Salvation

You see it’s one thing to have a chip on your shoulder that motivates you and pushes you forward, it’s a whole other thing when you begin to create a value system around yourself that is based off what you do, and what you don’t do. What you succeed at and what you fail at. What your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. This game gets especially dangerous in our walk with God. It is extremely easy to lose sight of Gods love, mercy, compassion and His grace. We tend to judge are standing with God based off of our performance. We feel as though we are only pleasing God when we are performing well. We feel like we need to be right and good before we run to God with our burdens.

Throughout my walk, especially early on, I struggled heavily with doubting my salvation. I was constantly questioning if I was saved because even though I professed Christ as my Lord, I still struggled with sin. I would spend whole days, whole nights anxiously asking God to please forgive me as if He was some angry old man in the clouds waiting to punish me at any given moment.

I don’t know where this thought process came from, but it was crippling to me and my walk with Christ because I began to view God as a viscous monarch rather than the loving, careful, merciful, gracious, powerful, and Patient God that He is.

I was trying so hard to earn Gods grace. I was doing anything I could to earn it. I would come up with ways to defeat my lustful addictions so that I could pray to God without feeling convicted; so I could feel like He heard me. My thought process was “He won’t listen until I get things figured out”. The craziest part about this is that I knew this was not the case, I could tell people all about Gods grace but couldn’t view it myself at times. I understood that His grace was a free gift and that there was nothing I could do to earn it.

I was trying to do it all on my own

It wasn’t until I saw the entire picture of Gods perfect gospel that I began to understand that my salvation was not through what I did and did not do, rather it was through what He already did.

I hope to show you, that amidst your addictions to pornography, alcohol, drugs, sex or any other sin that you could think of, there is hope. Because your salvation doesn’t depend on you, it depends on Him.

Let's start by taking a look at Abraham and Isaac.

Abraham was called, and promised to by God that he would have a son and be the father of a new nation (Genesis 15)

God fulfills His promise to Abraham (Genesis 20)

God calls Abraham to act in faith by sacrificing His only son Isaac. However, just before Abraham is about to perform this sacrifice, an angel of The Lord appears and tells Abraham to stop! God then provided a goat to be sacrificed in place of Isaac. God was calling Abraham to act in faith and to trust Him. (Genesis 22)

A lot of us would say that because Abraham passed the test, that THAT is what saved Him. But, God already knew what Abraham was going to do, although it was in fact a test, I believe the point God is trying to make through this whole situation is much bigger than just Abrahams faith being tested. The point was to show, that even the most obedient servants need and have a sacrifice available.
Abraham obeyed because he had already been called to faith by God. He already believed in God, He trusted that God was going to provide a better way. After all God has guided Him this far, why wouldn't he trust God? It says that when asked about the sacrifice Abraham said “God will provide one”. A lot of people would read this and think Abraham is just saying that as to not scare his son, however, while I think that’s partially true, what also could coexist is that Abraham is trusting that God will provide another way. See this was a test not only of Abraham’s obedience, but his faith. Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac out of obedience, but because of his faith in God, God provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac. Abrahams one and only son.
To take it a step farther this is a picture of the gospel. Abraham was a picture of what we are called to do, and the ram (God providing the ram) was a picture of what God was going to do for us. This is a picture of Jesus. This is a picture of Jesus taking our place on the cross. A picture of Jesus, taking on the penalty, the punishment for our sins. It’s a picture of Jesus being the ultimate sacrifice, to save us. God provided the sacrifice, because Abraham had faith in God that one would be provided in Isaac's place.

All of this is backed up by the author of Hebrews chapter 11

Hebrews 11:1, 17-19

Now faith is the reality[a] of what is hoped for, the proof[b] of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, 18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring[g] will be traced through Isaac.[h] 19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.

Abraham was acting because he trusted The Lord, it even says that Abraham was accredited to be righteous when he first believed in God (Genesis 15) way before Isaac was even born. It says that Abraham had so much faith that he figured even if he did have o sacrifice Isaac, God would raise him back from the dead!

Faith working through love

Further more we must not rely on our works for salvation

James 2:18

They MUST coexist because our works ARE A DISPLAY of our faith they are the response to our salvation just like Abraham

Intentions

Galatians 5:5-6

It’s not about what you do fully, it is about why you do what you do. Are you giving food to the poor to get praise? Or are you doing it because you have a have the heart that God has, the heart that God CALLS us to have…

A broken and contrite heart

Psalm 51

Ultimately God calls us to have a heart of repentance, one that is sorry for its evil doing, one that pleads for Gods mercy. The call of Christ is not to be a good person, the call of Christ is to recognize that you aren’t a good person, and you never will be. To recognize Christ as Lord over your life

Once we put our trust in Jesus, our actions, our obedience follows. True faith, produces obedience to Christ.

David sums up the point of this entire message in a single chapter of Psalms

Psalm 51

Be gracious to me, God,
according to your faithful love;
according to your abundant compassion,
blot out my rebellion.
² Completely wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
³ For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you—you alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in your sight.
So you are right when you pass sentence;
you are blameless when you judge.
⁵ Indeed, I was guilty when I was born;
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

⁶ Surely you desire integrity in the inner self,
and you teach me wisdom deep within.
⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Turn your face away^[a] from my sins
and blot out all my guilt.

¹⁰ God, create a clean heart for me
and renew a steadfast^[b] spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore the joy of your salvation to me,
and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach the rebellious your ways,
and sinners will return to you.

¹⁴ Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God—
God of my salvation—
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;
you are not pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifice pleasing to God is^[c] a broken spirit.
You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

¹⁸ In your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper;
build the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.