The Power of Salvation for Everyone

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it’s the power of God. We looked at that yesterday. It’s the power of God to salvation. That word salvation has become so religious, we think of it as giving our hearts to Jesus and accepting him so that we go to heaven, and that is definitely part of it. But the word salvation implies rescue. It is a rescue. What is it a rescue from? Some people listening to this broadcast today may think, well, this doesn’t apply to me because I don’t believe I’m saved, I don’t feel saved, or I gave my heart to Jesus decades ago, but things are going very badly in my life, and I’m not sure that I’m saved at all. And so they’re wondering what the word means at all. But the word is rescue. What has God rescued us from? You remember we’re going to look at this book in all its context, and I mentioned chapter 5 several days ago, where the core of the message is explained. That is that there is a kingdom, a domain, a sphere of existence, which is called the kingdom of Adam, the kingdom of sin and death. We live in it. All of us live in this kingdom of sin and death. Things go wrong. our health breaks, we finally die. And all the troubles in the world, the wars and the constant rage against one another, it’s all part of the kingdom of death. But according to that same chapter in chapter 5, verses 12 to 22 of Romans, we are delivered from that kingdom of death. Jesus Christ heads up a new kingdom, and that kingdom is not a kingdom of sin and death, but righteousness and life. You say, yeah, I know that, but where do we see it? Well, of course, we see it by faith right now, because Christ rose from the dead, representing the whole of new humanity. He stood in for us as our judgment, and he stands in for us as our resurrection. Because Jesus rose from the dead, all humanity will rise from the dead in Christ. Now, I know that’s a broad and big statement, and you’ll say, I don’t believe this. That’s too general, and that just doesn’t fit, because millions are going to be lost. not according to Scripture. Millions, I should say, the whole of humanity is going to bow before God and make a promise to God that in Him alone shall be their righteousness and strength. Can you imagine the whole world making a promise? You say, where does it say that? It says that in Isaiah chapter 45, verses 22 to 24, that God makes a vow that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall make a commitment, make an oath, confess. That’s the meaning of the word confess there. What will they confess and make an oath to? That in Christ alone is their righteousness and strength. You say, in Christ? I thought it said God, Jehovah. It is quoted again in Philippians chapter 2 as applying to Jesus Christ. So we have a message here of a kingdom that is to come and that has already been brought into this world by Jesus Christ in his resurrection from the dead, our Savior. Now, that is our rescue. You say, but I don’t see the rescue in my life. I see too much trouble. I see disappointments. I see my goals not having been accomplished, my dreams not fulfilled. I just feel as though I’m in a hole. But the point is, You have been delivered. If you trust in Jesus Christ, you know that you have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of sin and death, and you have been transferred into the kingdom of light of Jesus Christ. And everything you are going through now is part of that kingdom of grace, that transforms all your struggles into instruments of faith and grace. I know it sounds too much to believe, but if you begin to believe it, if you begin to say, I believe in Jesus Christ’s victory for me, I believe that the kingdom has already been brought forward and brought to me in Jesus Christ, and I’m going to live as if I were in that kingdom, it’s accounted to me, then you will begin to see changes. I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it’s the power of God for salvation. That salvation is now. You have been removed from the kingdom of guilt and shame and fear that is so prevalent in our minds when we’re in the dark moods of our soul. We just feel it’s not working. We feel God has abandoned us. We feel everything’s going wrong. But when you put faith in Jesus Christ, that the kingdom of Adam which brings in sin and judgment and death has been nullified by the kingdom of Christ who brings in life and resurrection, then you can begin to say, Father, I thank you for this trouble that I went through today, that I’m going through today. because it is part of the kingdom of life, not the kingdom of death. I now see myself in the kingdom of life, where there is no judgment. You see, that’s how it works. You don’t look for evidence in your emotions. You don’t look for evidence in your changing circumstances. People in Christ go through troubles. like the world. But they don’t go through troubles with the attitude of the world. They go through troubles with the attitude of faith in Jesus Christ, knowing that these troubles are not condemnation, these troubles are not judgments. Try to understand that. You go through troubles just like the world. But the world has an attitude of, oh, heck. And we have an attitude of, thank you, Lord, this is for your glory and my benefit. Now, Paul then says something very surprising to his day, not so much to our day, perhaps, although we may need to think again. He says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God to salvation for everyone. For everyone. Why was that such an explosive idea to the people that Paul was talking to and writing to? Because the Jewish people had fallen into a trap, and the trap was that they were the favoured nation and everyone else was enemies of God. They were rejected. Now, they have missed the message, because the book of Deuteronomy, for example, tells the Jewish people, rather, the message in the book of Deuteronomy declares to the Jewish people to send a message to the Gentiles, and it says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, O nations, with his people. That is Deuteronomy chapter 32. Why does God say to the Gentiles, rejoice with his people? Because the salvation of the Jews is a message to the world that God is bringing salvation to all, and through the Messiah that the Jewish nation is going to bring forth. Isn’t it amazing, when you think about it, that Jesus was a Jew, and that Jesus came from the prophecies and all the history that the Jewish nation brings forth to the world. Jesus, as I said the other day, did not simply appear in a vacuum. He was the result of prophecies, the result of a planned strategy by heaven through the Jewish nation to bring the Messiah to the world. And that Messiah is for everyone. We do not believe that God saved Jewish people and rejected the world. Rather, God saved the Jewish people in order to reveal to the world that the Messiah. You say, well, the Jewish people aren’t saved. Yes, granted that. That will happen. But what we have from the Jewish people is the Scriptures. And when you think of the Bible that has affected and virtually produced the Western world, you can be deeply thankful to God that that Jewish nation, suffering so much over the millennia, brought forth the scriptures that give us hope and the hope of eternal life. Now, it was terribly difficult for Jewish people to believe that the Gentiles also were saved by faith, that is, the Jewish people who accepted Christ. They thought previously that it would be the law that would bring them to salvation. But no, when Jesus came and died for the sins of the world, and when Jesus taught all of that meaning, and when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, without any works to their credit, they saw people believing in Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit. And those people, many of them, in Jerusalem were from foreign nations. were Gentile nations, and it shocked the Jewish people. And they realized that God’s love for the Jewish people was his love for the world. Now look, you and I have to believe this all over again, because there is a tendency to believe that the West is where salvation is, and the Far East, well, they’re on the outs. No, that’s not true. No matter what happens in the history of the Eastern countries, there will ultimately be salvation for them, because the Lord has promised us that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall take an oath. And so, we have this message that we’re not ashamed of the gospel, for it’s the power of God to salvation for everyone. And that’s why missionaries just spread throughout the world in those early centuries, and they went everywhere. And that is why over two million people profess at least, even though they may not know by faith yet, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Now look, it’s quite possible that you may think, if you’re listening to this program, yes, the salvation of Christ is for everyone, but not me. Because I’ve got too many troubles, and I have too many addictions, and there are too many problems facing me, I just cannot believe that God could save me. There is no one excluded from the gospel. You have the privilege. the honor, the right to call upon Jesus Christ because he has died for you. And you don’t have to wait. You don’t have to go to church to start this off. You don’t have to buy a Bible even to start reading it, but that’s what you should certainly do in time. But you can even now, in the hearing of this broadcast, say, “‘Lord Jesus, I receive you, and I thank you that you have received me.'” That’s the issue. God received you, and that is why you are receiving him. No man can come to the Father except the Father draws him. And God is drawing you now. And that is why the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, is for everyone, including you. Thank you for listening today, everyone. This is Colin Cook, and you can hear this broadcast any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And when you do get to SoundCloud or Podbean, you will see loads of archives of my programs, so you can listen… and go way back and you can hear programs, several programs a day if you want, just 15-minute programs. Thank you so much for all your support. I do appreciate it. And I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.