MINDBLOWING: Dr. Michael Heiser Explains Salvation Like You've NEVER Heard Before!

And this guy says,

"I'm a Mormon and you're not."

And uh, you know, you're an evangelical,

so am I going to hell?

And I looked at him and I said, you

know, I'm going to answer that question

the same way I would answer it if I was

looking at a Jehovah's Witness, a

Catholic, a fundamental Baptist, a

Lutheran. I don't care. or fill in the

blank. I don't care what your tradition

is. I don't care what you believe about

other things. It doesn't matter because

the answer is always the same. Salvation

is the central theme of not only Jesus's

ministry but of the Bible in its

entirety. We as Christians toss this

term around frequently. But how deeply

have we examined its actual meaning and

contemplated its implications for our

own lives.

Personally, as a child, I was taught

about the dichotomy of the afterlife,

heaven, and hell, and had a cartoonish

view of what this meant in my head. So,

I was under the impression that

salvation as a whole was simply being

rescued from eternal punishment and

being rewarded with eternal comfort.

There's nothing wrong with this

interpretation of the word salvation

because after all, the literal

definition of the word salvation is the

state of being saved or protected from

harm, danger, or a dire situation. And

while being rescued from impending

torment certainly is one aspect of

salvation, the concept of the salvation

that Jesus Christ offers is far deeper

and more profound than just escaping

hell and receiving the promise of

heaven. Even more than just being saved

from eternal punishment is the salvation

from sin. 1 Peter 2:21-25

tells us, "Because Christ also suffered

for you, leaving you an example so that

you might follow in his steps. He

committed no sin, neither was deceit

found in his mouth. When he was reviled,

he did not revile in return. When he

suffered, he did not threaten, but

continued entrusting himself to him who

judges justly. He himself bore our sins

in his body on the tree, that we might

die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds, you have been healed. For

you were straying like sheep, but have

now returned to the shepherd and

overseer of your souls.

Peter tells us that by Jesus's mighty

work on the cross, he bore our sins in

his body. And as his body passed away,

so did our sins. But then he goes on to

tell us that because of this, we too can

die to sin and live to righteousness.

It's an opportunity to overcome our past

and become better, more capable bearers

of God's image, to model our lives after

Christ, the ultimate image bearer.

So the concept of being saved from sin

can be divided into two categories. The

turning away and repentance from sin,

but also salvation from the

repercussions of the sins we've already

committed. In Romans 6:23, Paul tells

us, "For the wages of sin is death, but

the free gift of God is eternal life in

Jesus Christ our Lord."

But beyond this aspect of salvation,

there's an even deeper meaning that

we've yet to uncover in this study.

While the concept of salvation certainly

does encompass the deliverance from sin

and the promise of eternal life, it's

also an image of the kingdom of God

descending to earth of Yahweh dwelling

within us individually and as a whole.

It's the ultimate redemption plan where

God reinstates Eden. The end of the

Bible is its beginning. And salvation is

the movement between those two points in

time. Salvation isn't one particular

moment in time or an event that takes

place in your life. It's the action of

God rejoining his people the way he

originally intended for mankind to

exist. And with this in mind, it becomes

much easier to understand that salvation

isn't merit-based or performance-based.

It isn't a moment when God suddenly

makes us sinless and that we're never

tempted to do wrong again for the rest

of our lives or that we're perfect

sinless humans forever afterward.

With this in mind, I want you to see

this fascinating clip of Dr. Michael

Heiser explaining what he called

believing loyalty because he puts into

context exactly what we're discussing

here and it's absolutely beautiful.

Let's check it out.

>> I want to start though with uh two

anecdotes, two stories, whatever you

want to call them.

And I'm going to be upfront here. You're

going to listen to these and we're going

to go through a bunch of passages this

morning and you're going to be wondering

what in the world do these things have

to do with each other. Okay? So again,

I'm I'm telegraphing that. And I think

you will see again how they do go

together. My first story again this

relates to I mean most of you sort of

know who I am. I I work at Faith Life

Logos. I'm a biblical scholar by

training.

Um, and one of the things that biblical

scholars do every year is we go to our

version of a geekfest.

That is the annual meetings in November

for biblical studies, theology, all that

sort of thing. And one year, I think

it's I think it's probably less than 10

years ago,

I I went with the specific intention of

meeting somebody.

And this somebody was somebody I met

online. I got an email one day that

said, "Hey, you know, you need to go up

go over to this this forum here on the

internet because

your view of Psalm 82, there's this guy

in there defending it and then he's

taking a beating. You know, people are

are really after him." So, I Okay, I'll

go look. So, I went and looked and sure

enough, you know, they're this guy's

trying to defend again what I think is

pretty obviously the the correct way to

look at the passage. And so I threw

something in there and said, you know,

hey, you know, ease up on this guy. You

know, he's he's doing okay. You know,

you know, lighten up essentially. And

the next day I got an email from the guy

taking the beating. And it turned out he

was a professor at Brigham Y Young

University.

He was a Mormon.

And we began a correspondence.

And in the course of our correspondence,

he he let it be known that

yeah, you know, every year I go to the

annual meeting of the Evangelical

Theological Society. And I'm like, why?

You know, you're [laughter] what are you

doing there? And he he said to me, he

goes, we depend on you guys. Because

those of us over in Mormon land who care

about biblical studies, we we really

look for the evangelical scholars to

produce things that we can learn from

because, you know, we're just we're not

so much into that. We do other things

here.

And I said, well, that's fascinating. I

said, "As a matter of fact, this year in

no, you know, this November, I'm going

to be reading a paper critiquing

Mormonism's

understanding of Psalm 82 because I I

don't agree with it."

And he said, "I'm going to be there."

And sure enough, he came. He came

listened to the paper and, you know, had

real nice things to say, and they they

wound up he wound up asking to to

publish it. [sighs]

So that alone was was kind of

interesting. But we went to lunch

afterwards. And so there we there we

are. You know, we get we get our lunch.

We go find a table. We sit down. And he

looks at me and he says,

"Well, I have one question.

I'm a Mormon and you are not. You're an

evangelical.

Am I going to hell?"

Bonapetit.

Just a nice way to begin begin your

lunch there.

Now, I imagine [clears throat] you'd

like to hear what I what I said to him,

correct? Right. You're going to have to

wait.

You're going to have to wait till the

end of the sermon. Here's number two

again. And these things are related even

though they don't seem like it on the

surface.

I got an email. This was probably a

month ago.

And I I I occasionally get emails of

people in

theological distress and it it went like

this. I'm not going to use his name, but

dear Mike,

will you consider covering divorce and

remarage in your podcast?

I am in torment over it. I've heard so

many different views, all of which quote

numerous verses. And now I'm not sure if

I will lose my salvation or not if I get

remarried.

My ex-wife filed for divorce, not me. I

never wanted it. My particular issue is

that the likes of and then we insert

famous preacher names

would say that if I choose to remarry, I

will become an adulterer since it is a

present continuous relationship

and therefore I will not inherit the

kingdom of heaven. 1 Corinthians 6 9-10.

There are people who have divorced their

second spouse because they felt

convicted they were adulterers.

And the question really is, can I lose

my salvation by getting remarried

because I'm choosing to become an

adulterer?

Now, that's obviously a serious email,

[cough]

and I'm not going to tell you what I

wrote back until the end of the sermon.

It's another technique we use.

[laughter]

Now, the the reason I I I bring them

both up is because the answer to both

questions is exactly the same.

It doesn't seem like it, but just trust

me. The answer to both questions is

exactly the same. Now, we began with the

reading in second 2 Kings 5, and we'll

get back there,

but just to sort of recap the story real

briefly and then go into our first

passage in Luke.

and they are connected. Um, you know, we

know the story of Naaman the leper. One

of the, you know, more familiar Sunday

school stories that we hear as kids or

that we tell kids in Sunday school.

Again, Non's a big dude. He's an

important guy. He's a Syrian. He has

leprosy, which is of course a problem.

And the little slave girl, you know,

that ministers to his wife says, "Come

on, dummy. You know, go down there to

Israel and you'll get healed."

And so he takes the trip. He winds up at

the prophet's house. And if you notice,

the prophet doesn't even come out to

talk to him.

Prophet stays in the house and sends

somebody else to the door. Like he

doesn't care who Naan is. You're not

such a big guy.

And the person says to Naamon, "Well,

you know, go go dip yourself seven times

in the Jordan and you'll be clean." And

Naaman has a fit. He's angry,

but he gets talked into doing it. And so

he goes and he dips himself seven times

in the Jordan and he's cleansed. He's

healed.

And then he goes back to Elisha

and says, you know, now I know that, you

know, there there's really no no God,

you know, no true God anyway, um, in all

the earth except for Yahweh of Israel.

And he tries to give Elisha a present,

you know, a gift in return. And Elisha

says, 'N no, we don't need any of that.

And then he says, 'Well, okay, would it

be okay if I take two mule loads full of

dirt

back to Syria cuz I got to go home, you

know, I got to show up for work Monday.

And he's, you know, he explains a little

bit about what why he wants that. You

know, from this point on, I'm not going

to sacrifice to any other god but Yahweh

of Israel,

but I I I have a question, Mr. Prophet.

You know, part of my job is that I've

got to go into the temple of Ramon with

the king.

And, you know, we get the picture that

the king's kind of old, maybe he's a

little feeble or or whatever, but he has

to go in with the king. And he says, 'I

I just want to know that if if while I'm

in there, you know, when I when I bow

down with the king, you know, to to

Ramon, I want to know if that's okay.

I want to know if you know what what

Yahweh thinks of that.

And what does Elisha say?

Shalom. Peace.

You're good.

Now I would suggest that on its own

terms and we're going to talk about this

in in a few minutes that Naaman is a

believer. He's saved in our parlance.

And there's some there's an episode in

the gospels that lends weight to that

and I think nails it down. And that is

in Luke chapter 4. We're actually going

to read all three the episode in all

three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark,

and Luke. But we're going to start in

Luke here. In Luke 4:16,

this is the scene where Jesus preaches

in his hometown.

And he Jesus came to Nazareth where he

had been brought up. And as was his

custom, he went to the synagogue on the

Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was

given to him. He unrolled the scroll and

found the place where it was written,

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he has anointed me to proclaim

good news to the poor. He has sent me to

proclaim liberty to the captives and

recovering of sight to the blind to set

at liberty those who are oppressed to

proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it

back to the attendant, and sat down. And

the eyes of all in the synagogue were

fixed on him. And he began to say to

them, "Today, this scripture has been

fulfilled in your hearing."

And all spoke well of him and marveled

at the gracious words that were coming

from his mouth. And they said, 'Is not

this Joseph's son.

And he said to them, "Doubtless you will

quote to me this proverb. Physician,

heal yourself.

What we have heard you did at Capernium,

do here in your own hometown as well."

And he Jesus said,"Truly I say to you,

no prophet is acceptable in his

hometown. But in truth, I tell you,

there were many widows in Israel in the

days of Elijah,

when the heavens were shut up 3 years

and 6 months, and a great famine came

over all the land. And Elijah was sent

to none of them, but only to Zarapath

in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was

a widow.

And there were many lepers in Israel in

the time of the prophet Elisha.

And none of them was cleansed, but only

Naaman the Syrian.

When they heard these things, all in the

synagogue were filled with wrath.

And you know, we we miss a little bit

about what the connection is, but

they're angry.

And they rose up and drove him out of

out of the town and brought him to the

brow of the hill on which their town was

built so that they could throw him down

the cliff.

But passing through their midst, he went

away.

Let's go to Matthew

a second to get there. Matthew 13 53-

58. This is the same episode.

We're going to get a little bit of a

different flavor here.

When Jesus had finished these parables,

he went away from there and coming to

his hometown, he taught them in their

synagogue, so that they were astonished

and said, "Where did this man get this

wisdom and these mighty works? Is not

this the carpenter's son? Is not his

mother called Mary? Are not his brothers

James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

And are not all his sisters with us?

Where then did this man get all these

things?"

and they took offense at him. But Jesus

said to them, "A prophet is not without

honor except in his hometown and in his

own household.

And he did not do," this is the key

thought here, "he did not do many mighty

works there because of their unbelief."

Okay, store that away and go to Mark

again. Same episode. Mark chapter 6.

Verse one, he went away from there and

came to his hometown, and his disciples

followed him. And on the Sabbath he

began to teach in the synagogue, and

many who heard him were astonished,

saying, "Where did this man get these

things? What is the wisdom given to him?

How are such mighty works done by his

hands? Is not this the carpenter, the

son of Mary, and the brother of James,

and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? and

are not his sisters here with us?" And

they took offense at him? And Jesus said

to them, "A prophet is not without

honor, except in his hometown and among

his relatives and in his own household.

And he could do no mighty work there,

except that he laid his hands on a few

sick people and healed them." And he

marveled, he thought. He marveled

because of their unbelief.

Now, why? Let's go back to the Luke

passage.

It's the only place in the New Testament

that Naaman is mentioned by name.

In conjunction with the widow of

Zarapath,

why is Jesus

referencing these two people?

Why do they get so angry when he does?

Because Jesus is using them as

templates,

as perfect examples

of faith.

They were believers. They believed.

Let's go back to First Kings 17. Let's

read the widow of Zerapath story.

First Kings 17. We know Naaman believed

because now I know there's no God on all

the earth except in Israel. Okay?

And that's a good example. Jesus

approves of Naaman. But let's just, you

know, throw the widow in here. The widow

of Zerapath. First Kings 17:8.

Then the word of the Lord came to him.

This is Elijah.

Arise, go to Zerapath, which belongs to

Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have

commanded a widow there to feed you. So

he arose and went to Zerapath. And when

he came to the gate of the city, behold,

a widow was there gathering sticks. And

he called to her and said, "Bring me a

little water in a vessel that I may

drink."

And as she was going to bring it, he

called to her and said, "Bring me a

morsel of bread in your hand."

And she said, "As the Lord your God

lives,

I have nothing baked, only a handful of

flour in a jar and a little oil in a

jug. And now I am gathering a couple of

sticks that I may go in and prepare it

for myself and my son that we may eat it

and die.

This is all we got. And Elijah said to

her, "Do not fear. Go and do as you have

said, but first make me a little cake of

it and bring it to me, and afterward

make something for yourself and your

son. For thus says the Lord God of

Israel,

"The jar of flour shall not be spent,

and the jug of oil shall not be empty

until the day that the Lord sends rain

upon the earth."

So what does she do?

She believes him.

She went and did as Elijah said,

and she and he and her household, ate

for many days. The jar of flour was not

spent, neither did the jug of oil become

empty according to the word of the Lord

that he spoke by Elijah.

So Jesus showing up in the synagogue

says, "Yeah, I hear all these nice

things you're saying about how well I

read

and you've all heard about the things

that I've done in Capernium and other

places."

And surely somebody here is going to

say, "Hey, physician, heal yourself.

Let's see some of those miracles that we

heard about in Capernium. Can you do

that here?

And Jesus does do a few things, but he

doesn't do what he could do and what he

has done in the past. Why?

He was just shocked at their unbelief.

And to dig at them, he says, you know,

there were lots of widows

in the days of Elijah,

but only one of them had enough to eat

and drink. Only one of them got by, the

one from Zarapath.

And they know the story. They know their

Bible. And there were lots of lepers in

the days of Elisha, but only one of them

was healed.

Naaman, the Syrian.

They know what those two people have in

common.

They had faith.

And by using them as examples, Jesus is

saying, "You people are pathetic.

I'm shocked at your unbelief."

And they get angry.

Now, that's all well and good, but I

actually think even that misses

something.

What do the widow of Zerapath and Non

the leper have in common?

They are pagans.

They are Gentiles.

Naaman lives in Syria.

The widow of Zerapath is in Sidon. This

is Gentile territory. Why is that

important?

Jesus

picks two

people hopelessly cut off

from any of the things that the Jews

around him would think assist them in

their salvation.

They're not elect. They have no temple.

They don't have a Bible.

They're never, you know, let's just

restrict our comments to Naaman. Naaman

is never going to show up at temple.

He is never going to read his Bible.

He is never going to look at a psalm and

think, "Well, this is probably the kind

of prayer that Yahweh likes. I think

I'll pray that."

He doesn't have it. He's never going to

observe a festival. He is never going to

observe one of the feast days, one of

the rituals. He's never going to be

connected to the sacred calendar of

Israel. And oh, by the way, he ain't

getting circumcised either.

In other words, he brings nothing to the

table. He he he is totally emptyhanded.

He brings nothing to the table.

And he goes to Elisha.

Here's his theology.

Hey, I'm clean now.

That's awesome.

You know, now I know that there's

really, you know, Yahweh is the true

God.

And from this point on, whenever I offer

my own little sacrifice, and of course,

Elisha doesn't jump in and say, "Oh,

don't do that. You got to go to the

temple. You're not going to do it right.

Whenever I bring sacrifice,

I'm only going to do it to Yahweh. Can I

take some dirt back with me?"

And then he has this question. He has

this nagging doubt.

I got to be honest with the Elisha. You

know, part of my job is I got to go into

this temple, this temple of this God who

I no longer believe in.

And I just want to know that when I go

in there with the king and we do our

little thing that we're supposed to do,

how does Yahweh feel about that?

In other words,

will Yahweh look differently at his

faith if he messes up theologically?

Does Yahweh know his heart or not? I

mean, that that that's really really

where it's at. He's asking, "Look, when

I do this, does Yahweh know that I know

he is God?

Does he know that?

Does he know that I believe?

And so what does Elisha say?

You're good. You know, shalom.

Go home.

So what's the point?

What I want us to begin to see is we

really need to look, I think, clearly

and differently

at faith, at grace. You know, these

sorts of things. Naaman wants the

prophet to know

that even if he goes and goes off with

the king to the temple of Ramon, his

heart has not changed.

He believes in the God of Israel alone.

And he wants to know if God knows that.

Will God look at me differently?

He has no theology.

He's never going to get any.

He has no work to bring to the table at

all. All he's got is his belief

statement, his faith. That's it.

I think Naaman is actually the perfect

example.

And I think there's a reason why Jesus

endorses him as an example of faith and

the widow at Zarapath because they're

both pagans and they're both Gentiles.

Unlike the Jews around him in the scene

who can say, "Well, we're elect. You

know, we got the temple. We're all

circumcised. We're this, we're that, we

do this, we do that." These two people

can say nothing.

And the implication is that's what

counts.

They have nothing to bring. They have no

single point of merit

about them at all.

Their entire relationship to the true

God, to the God of Israel, is based on

believing that he is who he says he is.

That's it.

Now, you could say, well, you know, the

Israelites knew more. You know, they

they had more information.

They had the law. Well, you know, that

was really important and all that sort

of stuff. Yeah. But let me ask you a

question.

If God looks at two pagans and Jesus

endorses this, because he uses them as

an example of faith, if if God and Jesus

look at two pagans and the only thing

that matters is whose side are you on?

Who is your God?

Who do you believe in? Who do you trust?

If it's good enough for two pagans, why

isn't it good enough for an Israelite?

I would suggest to you that it is.

Now, we look at the Jews, and the Jews,

of course, are going to trust in Torah,

works, calendar, ritual, circumcision,

all these things. And we know from the

New Testament, Paul, you know, when he

gets to talking about grace, he uses

Abraham pre-law, pre-ircumcision, all

this. He's trying to make the point it's

by faith. Salvation is by faith. There

is nothing in it. There there is there's

no little sprinkle of merit, personal

merit and performance has nothing to do

with a right relationship to God.

Not even election.

Because people, oh, they were elect, you

know, blah. Yeah. Well, if if you're

thinking election is a synonym for

salvation in Old Testament theology,

you're wrong. It's easy to prove. It's

this thing called the exile.

Was Israel elect? Yeah. Israelites

elect? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Hey, most of the country, most of them

go off and worship Baal and other gods.

That's why we had the exile.

We don't have Baal worshshiping

Israelites in heaven.

Okay? We have the exact opposite. This

is why the relationship gets severed.

Election just means that they were in a

position to know who the true God was.

They had the oracles of God as Paul

likes to say. They had the truth and

nobody else did. They still had to

believe it.

They still had to believe it. If they

don't believe it, you go off and worship

another god, forget it. This is why the

what's the greatest commandment?

Thou shalt love the Ly. You worship the

Lord your God alone. No, you know, you

bow down and worship no other.

Okay, David. Okay, David's an Israelite.

He's elect. He's the king. God's made a

covenant with him. He commits some of

the most heinous crimes that you can

commit.

But what he doesn't do is he never

changes allegiance.

There's never a question in his mind.

David is he's ridiculous, okay? He's a

parody, okay, of what a believer should

be. He's ridiculous. He's awful,

okay? But what he doesn't ever do is

throw his allegiance to another God. He

does just about everything else wrong.

Okay? But he never does this. And God

has mercy on him.

Now, he pays for his sin in in the

course of life. You know, you sow what

you reap. But as far as his relationship

with God,

he's there. He worships no other.

This is what God wants. I think we need

to start thinking about grace and

salvation. I I like to use this phrase,

believing loyalty.

Believing loyalty.

It has nothing to do with personal

merit.

I believe. And because I believe I am

not going to worship, I'm not going to

follow another god or no god at all.

I might not know anything beyond that. I

might be like Naaman.

I might flunk a theology quiz

spectacularly

and Naaman would have.

[clears throat] But he knows who God is

and that is where he is at. That is the

end of the trail. He is not throwing his

allegiance to any other. Period.

Now, I know again the reason that we're

tracking on this and we're going to

transition to New Testament a little

bit. I know that Christians Christians

struggle with the concept of grace.

Okay, I did. You're not you're not going

to be any different than I was.

And you there just comes a point where

you have to be able to grasp it.

Lots of Christians believe

and then they're troubled.

You know, and you know, it's good to be

sensitive to sin. Okay, we all

understand that.

But if you're thinking thoughts like,

"Does God look at me the same way? Am I,

you know, the guy with the with the the

divorce thing? Am I going to lose my

salvation?

is is God as fond of me today in my

spiritual defeat or in this habit I have

or in this circumstance I've created for

myself because my behavior is

self-destructive.

Does God look at me the same way? Am I

still his? Am I still a child of God? Am

I still going to get to heaven?

I understand why those questions are

asked, but if you're asking them and

you're troubled by them, this is this is

just factually where it's at. You do not

understand the gospel. You do not

understand grace because it has nothing

to do at all with performance. Nothing.

You do things like Naaman. Why does

Naaman ask for dirt? Well, I got to add

this to my faith so Yahweh will be happy

with me. No, he does it because he

believes.

He does what he does because he

believes. He doesn't do it to believe a

little bit more. He doesn't do it again

to stroke Yahweh.

He just wants to know now, does the Lord

know my heart? I got this job. I got to

do this, but when I do it, does he know

that I put nothing into it? I put I I

don't believe in Ramon. Ramon's a jerk.

You know, whatever. I don't believe in

him at all. This is where my my

believing loyalty is at. It's with him.

Does Does Yahweh know that? And is like,

yeah, he knows. You're good.

He brings nothing to the table. Now,

when I became a Christian as a teenager,

I I you know, big big true confession

time here, I would have flunked a

theology test, believe it or not. You

could have asked me about the deity of

Christ. I wouldn't have known what to

say. What's that?

You could have asked me about all sorts

of doctrinal issues that you I hope not,

but maybe you are that you are attaching

to your status as a believer. Well, you

don't believe that? I'm not sure if

you're really saved if you don't believe

in, you know, fill in the blank. Yeah.

Yeah. I got news for you. I wouldn't

have believed in any of it because I

didn't know any of it.

I knew one thing.

Yeah. You know, I was naan.

I got one thing right. Okay. And and

that is sufficient.

That is all God is interested in.

Period. End of story. Now, he knows I'm

a doofus. Okay?

But that's all he cares about. Which

side are you on? Believing loyalty. Are

you wor is this your God? Are you going

to go worship another or no God at all?

Are you going to embrace Christ or

something else or nothing at all?

That's the question.

Now, this is actually consistent in the

New Testament. Go to Romans 5. You know,

we all know this passage.

We all know this passage, but we I think

we need to think about a little bit

more. Romans 5, we're going to read

verses 6-8.

I can find it here.

Romans 5

verses 6-8.

For while we were still weak, at the

right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die

for a righteous person. Though perhaps

for a good person, one would dare even

to die. But God shows his love for us in

that while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us.

Now, notice

not only what the passage says, but

notice what it doesn't say.

Let me give you a few examples here.

It doesn't say while we were cleaning up

our act,

Christ died for us.

While we were correcting our theology,

Christ died for us.

While we were regular in prayer,

Christ died for us.

While we were faithful in reading

scripture, Christ died for us. Doesn't

say any of this. While we were attending

church regularly,

Christ died for us. While we were having

more spiritual victories than losses,

Christ died for us. You can fill in the

blank. While we while we were not

cheating on our spouses, Christ died for

us. While we weren't doing XYZ, bad

thing, Christ died. It doesn't say any

of that.

In fact, it says the exact opposite.

Couple paraphrases here. While we were

wicked,

while we were alienated from God,

because we wanted to live the way we

wanted to live, because we didn't want

God or anyone else telling us we

couldn't have or do what we wanted,

then Christ died for us. While we were

contemptable human beings,

Christ died for us while we shook our

fist at God. while we couldn't have

cared less.

Okay, Christ died for us. While we

didn't believe or even knew that we

should believe,

Christ died for us.

As soon as you insert any point of merit

into that passage and any point of merit

into the Naaman story,

you defile the gospel. You don't

comprehend it.

You just don't and I know it's hard

again even as a as a Christian because

you are sensitive to sin your mind keeps

going back to this question how does God

look at me how does God you know is it

still the same you know look

while you were a contemptable human

being while you didn't even know you

should believe Christ died for us

it doesn't say anything that you might

be concerned about in the verse so let

the verse go

this is All you need. It's all Naaman

had.

Again, catch the point. Naaman brings

nothing to the table.

He will never get circumcised.

He will never know what the law of God

says or if he's violating it. He will

never go to a feast. He'll never go to a

festival. He'll never hit the temple.

He'll never, you know, like pray the or

sing the psalms or what. He won't do

anything

except he believes that Yahweh is the

true God. And when he does offer

sacrifices, oh, you should use the

priesthood for that. That's defiling,

you know, the ritual washings.

Elisha could have cared less

because he knows God could have cared

less because that isn't the question.

The question isn't did you dip in the

labor, okay? The question is whose side

are you on? And naan had that answer.

That's all he had. Period.

And that is how we need to look. Not

just in terms of a theology lesson. How

were people saved before Jesus? Okay.

No, this is about you. Okay. This is

about us understanding

what the gospel is and is not.

Now, back at our academic conference,

I'm sitting there with my fork in my

hand,

and this guy says,

"I'm a Mormon, and you're not."

And uh, you know, you're an evangelical,

so am I going to hell?

And I looked at him and I said, 'You

know, I'm going to answer that question

the same way I would answer it if I was

looking at a Jehovah's Witness, a

Catholic, a fundamental Baptist, a

Lutheran. I don't care. Fill in the

blank. I don't care what your tradition

is. I don't care what you believe about

other things. It doesn't matter because

the answer is always the same. I don't

care what you are. If you can look me in

the eye, this is the way I said it to

him. If you can look me in the eye

and say to me

that my hope for salvation, the

forgiveness of my sins, my hope for

eternal life is based entirely

on what Jesus did on the cross.

And I bring no merit at all to the

issue. No works, no performance,

nothing. If I can say that I believe

that exclusively what Jesus did on the

cross is is how my sins are forgiven and

my hope of eternal life. If you can look

me in the eye and say that you're in.

If you can't, you're not.

That's just the way it is. Now, I might,

you know, and we talked you a little bit

after. I mean, I might think that your

theology is goofy.

Hey, my theology was goofy when I got

saved. Okay, when I became a believer.

Some people would say, "Your theology is

still goofy, Mike." Okay,

[clears throat] I get that. But that

isn't the question. The question is not,

can you articulate this point of

doctrine to my satisfaction

or to the satisfaction of somebody who

wrote XYZ creed? That is not the

question. The question is upon what are

you basing forgiveness of sins and

eternal life? It has nothing to do with

merit at all.

And he looked at me and he said,

"I'm not completely sure, but I think I

can say that."

And at that point, I'm not going to look

at the guy and say, "Well, you must be a

liar because you're a Mormon.

No, I'm going to look at the guy and

think, I sure hope so, because that's

the gospel. That's what you need to

focus on.

You know, maybe next year we can have

some theological discussion, but this is

the question today. And the and the

question and the answer is going to be

the same no matter who you are. I don't

care what you are. Can you say this or

not?

Now, as far as the email,

here's part of what I wrote back.

Dear XYZ,

the fact that you're not sure whether

you'll lose your salvation over a

divorce and remarage makes me wonder if

you understand the gospel.

Salvation cannot be earned. It was

extended to sinners, not to people in

the process of cleaning up their act.

Romans 5'8.

Consequently,

that which cannot be earned by moral

perfection,

okay? Salvation is not of works and

we're not we're never going to be

perfect. So, it's all it's totally out

of reach. That which cannot be earned by

moral perfection

cannot be lost by moral imperfection.

And to bring it down to the divorce,

salvation wasn't earned by getting

married,

so it cannot be lost by getting divorced

and remarried.

And then I added a few things about, you

know, his situation, but he wrote back

and said that was helpful. Now, we can

look at that and say,

I mean, look, dude, you're in a church.

You know, you're in a How did you not

know this?

It's difficult. It's difficult to

surrender any sense of merit

in part because we're sensitive, you

know, to sin. But you got to get over

the hump that God looks at you based on

something you do. This is not how your

relationship started.

Okay?

Christ didn't die for you while you were

in the process of cleaning up your life.

While you were in the process of

learning to articulate the hypothatic

union and the depth of the incarnation.

Okay? He ain't waiting around for that.

He died for you while you were yet a

sinner.

That's it. Period.

Exclamation point. Really,

that's what you need to grasp. And

again, I know Christians who just

struggle with this. No different than

me, no different than anybody else who,

you know, who, you know, has sort of

come to grips with what grace is.

>> This was absolutely amazing. We don't

earn salvation. We don't gain salvation

by being in the right denomination,

understanding the Bible, or by believing

the right set of doctrines. We're saved

by believing in Jesus. It's really that

simple. Probably the most famous passage

in all of scripture, John 3:16, tells

us, "For God so loved the world that he

gave his only son that whoever believes

in him should not perish but have

eternal life." It's really all about

Jesus. He's the focal point of

salvation. All we have to do is believe

in and love him with our whole hearts

and we're saved.

And each one of us believing in him

brings the kingdom of God here to earth

where he indwells us and leads us to

change the world one moment, one action

at a time. And this is how the fruit of

our salvation begins to grow. As we

continue in salvation, Jesus is able to

continue his earthly mission of bringing

the kingdom of God here to earth through

us. Acts 17:28 tells us, [snorts] "In

him we live and move and have our

being." As we continue to move and live

in him and him in us, the kingdom of God

spreads and inches us closer to the

eternal promise of what we like to call

heaven. And the list goes on of what

we're actually saved from. Jesus saved

us from eternal judgment. He saved us

from the second death. He saved us from

sin. He saved us from being under the

authority of the powers and

principalities of this world. He saved

us from the figurative chaos and

destruction of the sea. He saved us from

the three-fold fall that led to the

depravity of this world. And ultimately,

he saved us from being separated from

him. And he saved us so he can be with

us at all times. Thy kingdom come, thy

will be done on earth as it is in

heaven.

But at any rate, I pray that this video

has been a blessing to you. And if

you've made it this far, please like

this video, subscribe to Dance Like

David, and leave a comment that says,

"Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of

salvation." As any interaction with this

video allows our content to reach and

help more people. [music] And may God

shine his face upon you and give you

peace.

>> [music]

>> Heat. Hey, Heat.