Bible Study

Personal Salvation and Evangelism: Session Two

(There is some overlap between this session and other studies available on our Website)

Our course of study is organized in keeping with Acts 2:36-39 on the lines of faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In Session One, we studied “Faith in Jesus’ Gospel: God Reigns.” Jesus’ central message was, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.” Session Two's theme is Faith:Jesus Is Lord and Savior.

Jesus Is Lord

By his proclamation of the reign of God, Jesus had raised the hopes of multitudes of discouraged and disconnected people. Perhaps they could trust in God again. But when they went to the central place of their religious life, the Jerusalem temple, what they experienced did not match what Jesus taught. At the temple women and children were second class citizens, who could go far enough to reach the offering boxes, but not into the inner courts where the men could go. The maimed (there is some difference of scholarly opinion on this, and probably some variation of ancient practice), the outcast, and the foreigners, even if those foreigners had converted to Judaism, could not go even as far as the women and children, but only into the outer court of the Gentiles. The poor might attempt to bring their own sacrificial offerings, but, if they did not pass inspection, they would have to buy a pre-approved animal from the temple vendors. The money-changing and animal-selling concessions went to the cronies of the religious leaders. It was in effect a spoils system. But the real robbery was that God’s children were kept from experiencing his presence.

The experience at the temple of those to whom Jesus had given hope would have been discouraging, perhaps even crushing. The authority of Jesus’ message would have been brought into question. At some time that authority had to be put to the test. Was Jesus right that the reign of God was available to restore the broken, or were the religious leaders right that Jesus’ message was a tearing down of godly traditions? 

On Palm Sunday, Jesus came to Jerusalem to challenge the religious authorities on their unfruitful approach to religious life. On Monday, he arrived at the temple and drove out the animal-sellers and money-changers. He quoted Isaiah 56 that the temple was to be a house of prayer for all peoples, the passage that also promised that foreigners and eunuchs would one day be included. Matthew tells us that Jesus then brought into the temple the blind and the lame whom he healed and children who celebrated with cries of “Hosanna!”

On Tuesday, Jesus then entered a series of controversies with the religious leaders. As they tried to trap him, he creatively turned their questions back to them, showing that they did not accept the kingdom of God and challenging them to put love of God and neighbor at the center of their lives. Ultimately, he challenged his hearers to come to terms with the fact that he was more than the Son of David, that he was actually David’s Lord!

Events moved fast. By Thursday night, the climactic action was underway. After his Last Supper with the disciples, Jesus went for prayer on the Mount of Olives outside the city. Then in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was arrested by the temple guard and brought before the Sanhedrin. When asked if he was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One, he acknowledged that he was, and then asserted to the religious leaders that they would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds into his divine authority (which would be fulfilled by his crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit to his followers). In other words, he would be their divinely authorized judge; he would be their Lord. By mid-day Friday, he was being crucified by the occupying Roman army.

The question at the heart of Jesus’ trip into Jerusalem was whether his kingdom ministry and message had authority. On Friday at 3:00 PM, except for the conclusion of one Roman soldier that Jesus was the Son of God, and for the inexplicable emergence of new courage in Sanhedrin members Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and for the lingering devotion of a small collection of half-timid, half-courageous women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, the answer seemed to have gone in favor of the religious leaders.

Friday’s apparent answer seemed to say that life with God is measured by visible achievement, by who looks most obedient and most blessed on the surface. The winners are the healthy and the wealthy, those of the right race and social class, those with friends in high places, those who wear the right clothes, go to the right schools, marry the right spouse, find the right jobs. Friday’s apparent answer was that Jesus was only a momentary distraction from such realities.

Sunday’s actual answer is quite different. Life with God is measured by faith in Jesus, his message, his ministry, his redemptive heart. Sunday’s answer is for those humble enough to know that they need a Savior and excited enough to worship him with shouts of joy. Sunday’s answer is for those who will let a Savior cleanse them, heal them, counsel them, direct them. It is for the humble who know their need for mercy and grace and who are willing to let that mercy and grace pass through them to others. It is for those who are willing to have a living Lord who will rule their lives.

Friday’s apparent answer has a certain appeal so long as we can pull off looking good, but, sooner or later, real people need Sunday’s answer.

On the fifty-second day from Jesus’ crucifixion, the fiftieth day from his resurrection, and the tenth day from his ascension, the Holy Spirit came upon his disciples, and they burst into public declaring that Jesus who had been crucified was the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior, and the risen and exalted Lord before whom all humanity would be held accountable.

The central message of the apostles was, “Jesus (the crucified) is (risen) Lord!” This message was a particular focused version of the message, “God reigns!”  It was a way of saying, even when the religious leaders, the political leaders, and the power of death team up, “God still reigns, and now more than ever!” The One who was crucified could not be held by death, but is instead the firstborn of the new creation (beginning citizen and royal heir of the eternal kingdom). God reigns even over the Sanhedrin, even over the Roman empire, even over the worst Satan could do, even over the human failures of Jesus’ followers. 

Jesus Is Savior

Anyone now exercising power on earth needs to know that he or she will one day stand before the judicial authority of none other than Jesus, who measures all things by his holy, redeeming love. They also need to know that this judge is the one who has already given his life for their salvation. The good news in that for the sinner is that their Lord and Judge is willing to pay any cost for their salvation—and, in fact, has already paid it; no one is excluded from claiming his salvation. The bad news for the rebellious is that their Lord and Judge expects them to accept the terms of salvation he has bought for them at the price of extraordinary suffering and death.  The terms are that they let Jesus be their Savior and Lord. As Peter put it, “There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

The proclamation, “Jesus is Savior,” is inseparable from the proclamation that he is Lord. The apostolic witness is clear that the death of Jesus is uniquely atoning.

Historically, there have been three main explanations of the atonement:

These three classic views do not exhaust the ways of explaining how Jesus reconciles us to God. Earlier in this session we saw what might be called the Historical explanation in which we take what Jesus did at the Temple as conveying the meaning of his reconciling death, that, by his advocacy for and ministry to the outcasts, he removes the barriers that hinder their access to God; the cross then shows the extent to which he is willing to go with this barrier-removing outreach.  Another view might be called the Kingdom Demonstration explanation in which we see Jesus’ death as the platform capturing the attention of the world for the resurrection that follows, thus enabling people to believe the good news and be reconciled.

I do not believe that any of these explanations is wrong, nor do I believe that any one of them is the complete explanation. The atonement is a rich mystery that cannot be fully explained, but may only be received as a reality bigger than our minds. I do believe that, as difficult s it may be for modern and post-modern minds and hearts to receive, the substitutionary view is a necessary part of an adequate explanation.

Discussion questions:  

1. How does our view of life change when we believe that Jesus (the crucified) is (risen) Lord?

2. Discuss 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 as an illustration of how the Lordship of Jesus Christ can change our way of seeing people and events.

3. How may the message, “Jesus is Lord,” address our post-modern culture with its resistance to absolutes?

4. How do you understand the atonement? Can the “substitutionary” view be explained so that modern and post-modern minds can receive it?

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