199. How Does Jesus' Death Even Mean I am Saved? What is The Equation?

[00:00:00] My friends welcome to another episode of Making Disciples my name is Chris and I am your

[00:00:13] host I hope you are doing alright, welcome to this Discipleship podcast we have covered

[00:00:18] a lot of stuff in the last year if you start looking through all the different topics

[00:00:22] and things that we have looked at some of the teachings of Jesus and the last month

[00:00:27] we have been looking at questions of salvation, you know what is salvation and I don't

[00:00:33] plan two episodes on this and then we are doing a third one and having put out the third

[00:00:39] episode last week I think get an email on Monday from a good friend of mine who actually

[00:00:45] is a maths teacher and he is giving me permission to just mention this so that he has got

[00:00:52] an email and he said I am just really struggling Chris with the maths or the mathematics

[00:00:58] or the equation that sits behind salvation, I am struggling to get my head round how

[00:01:06] Jesus's death on the cross equals me being forgiven of my sins.

[00:01:12] How does his death equate to me being set free and I didn't want to pass by that topic

[00:01:21] without answering that question if we haven't underlined that or spoke into that in the last

[00:01:26] few weeks I want to make sure I clearly outlined that today so what I thought we would do is

[00:01:31] almost walk through the journey of the problem and then how Jesus is the solution.

[00:01:39] I love this, I love how he said you know I don't understand the equation of salvation so

[00:01:45] oh actually that's quite an interesting way of approaching it you know what does the

[00:01:50] equation look like so I thought we would jump in and explore that today is it a kind of

[00:01:55] extra bonus episode exploring that just one more time before we kind of move on from the

[00:02:02] topic of understanding salvation you know because why do we need so many weeks four weeks

[00:02:08] on salvation.

[00:02:09] Patryphans if we as disciples of Jesus don't understand why Jesus's death is important

[00:02:17] for us if we don't understand the implications of that and now what that means for my life

[00:02:21] then who else is going to understand it.

[00:02:24] We need to know plus when you're talking to folk and you're sharing your faith with people

[00:02:29] and they actually ask you the question they'll be able how does Jesus's death on the cross

[00:02:32] actually help me I don't understand brilliant question so in answering it I want to give

[00:02:39] you an answer so that you've got some material that you could use to help understand or explain

[00:02:45] that topic yourself so that's what we're going to look at I don't understand the equation

[00:02:49] of salvation what is the equation for salvation how does Jesus's death solve the problem

[00:02:57] of me and my sins.

[00:02:58] So that's what we're going to look at today friends one one well continue I hope you're

[00:03:02] doing all right it's really fun seeing some of you kind of responded to this topic and

[00:03:07] engaging with this topic with me through private messages and that kind of thing so massive

[00:03:11] massive thank you for those that they're engaging with me in that way also thank you to

[00:03:15] those that have bought me a coffee recently I am sat here right now with a cup of coffee

[00:03:20] that one of you has paid for and as I've sat here and prepared I've been set drinking

[00:03:26] this coffee and I'm going to finish it now while recording this episode for you so big

[00:03:31] thank you if you would like to support the podcast by buying us a coffee the link is in

[00:03:34] the show now so you're very welcome to do that.

[00:03:37] So let's jump in as we explore this topic of the equation of salvation which kind of

[00:03:43] rhymes isn't it which I didn't mean it to be the equation of salvation.

[00:03:55] So let's jump in as we start to think a little bit around this idea of the equation for

[00:04:01] salvation how does this thing add up I'm going to go for a quickish answer and then I'm

[00:04:06] going to unpack it in a longer form as we look through some passages and we look through

[00:04:09] the whole story of scripture but for those of us with short attention spans here is a

[00:04:13] very quick short answer and I'm going to anchor it around Romans and there's a great

[00:04:21] versing Romans chapter 6 verse 23 which I'll explain in a second about that and create

[00:04:26] the right answer around that verse but you know what is the problem well the problem

[00:04:31] is sin and that we are polluted by sin what does Mark 7 20 to 23 said what comes out

[00:04:39] of a person is what defiles them for it is from within out of a person's heart the

[00:04:46] evil comes sexually morality theft murder adultery greed malice deceits lawlessness and

[00:04:53] the slander arrogance and folly all of these evils come from the inside and defile a

[00:04:59] person so sin pollutes but sin doesn't just pollute us john 834 says this Jesus replied

[00:05:07] very truly I tell you anybody who sins is a slave to sin so sin doesn't just pollute

[00:05:12] it is also powerful and there's a cost to it and this is where Romans 6 23 comes in I think

[00:05:19] this is the most important verse for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is

[00:05:25] eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord the wages of sin is death so the cost of sinning

[00:05:32] is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord so sin pollutes sin

[00:05:39] is powerful and sin has a penalty and the final thing is this sin also is not great

[00:05:47] choose of words but my my four p's pollutes powerful pen until penalty and parts sin parts

[00:05:53] are you could say separates us from God and Isaiah 59 to says this but your iniquities

[00:05:59] have separated you from God your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not

[00:06:05] here so sin sin pollutes us it's powerful in our lives there's a cost for sinning and

[00:06:11] death which leads to death and sin separates us from God so that's the problem that is

[00:06:17] the problem so if you approach this as a mathematical equation you could say sin plus the

[00:06:28] cross equals eternal life so s plus c equals e eternal life sin plus c cross equals e

[00:06:41] eternal life s plus c equals e really interesting simple way of remembering what is salvation

[00:06:48] so sin sin is a minus number in your life it's a debt what Romans 6 says is really important

[00:06:55] the wages of sin all the debt of sin is death the cost of sinning is death so sin is a

[00:07:04] minus number in your life so debt in your life that has to be paid for and friends whatever

[00:07:09] that debt is if it's 100 200 1000 a million a bazillion a gazillion whatever

[00:07:18] trazillian I don't know what goes beyond that but whatever your minus number is whatever debt

[00:07:23] you've stacked up there's a c is a bigger positive number so if I'm going to keep it small

[00:07:32] if the cost of your sinning is minus 10 then the cross is a plus of 100 it's a much bigger number

[00:07:42] so sin is a minus number the cross is a positive number and when sin meets the cross it equals

[00:07:50] e eternal life so there's a nice little way remember s plus c equals e eternal life

[00:07:56] that's what salvation is so that's a real simple way for you and I to remember it I've got

[00:08:01] a little story for you I think about a shot told this before on the podcast but I'll share

[00:08:04] it because I just think it's so much fun I was in Philly Delphiah

[00:08:07] Philadelphia years ago say say 19 years ago could be 25 24 some of that years ago and we were visiting

[00:08:17] friends of my wife Becky's out in Philly and Michaela and Pete and I went out in William

[00:08:24] Gaffnum's to go to the store to pick up a few things and I wander around the store and I've picked

[00:08:32] a few items it was mothering Sunday in the UK but it was not mothering Sunday in the US so try

[00:08:39] to find a Mother's Day card in the US was an absolutely nightmare you can't get them so I didn't

[00:08:44] know I bought a regular card and we got something for Becky from this day and in fact it was 19

[00:08:52] years ago because it was Isaac's first Mother's Day anyway so I'm in the US I'm in the queue

[00:08:56] I've got a card and a gift for Becky at the local store I get to the till and the one kind of puts

[00:09:02] you through and I suddenly realized as she's put it through I have come out we know many I've

[00:09:09] gotten no cash on me and I don't have my cards on me I have no way of paying the debt for the card

[00:09:18] and the Mother's Day gift I'm just like I can't pay it I'm thinking oh my gosh what do I do I've

[00:09:24] got to do I'm looking absolutely full the one beyond the counter staring at me she's asking for

[00:09:29] eight dollars and I'm like I don't have these eight dollars I'm kind of like I'm stuck I'm stuck

[00:09:35] because I cannot go home without a Mother's Day card and gift for Becky because it was Mother's Day

[00:09:42] in the UK I had to go back with something but I got no money to pay for it and I'm obviously kind

[00:09:48] of blanked in I can't see how I can solve this there's no solution to this I can't pay the debt

[00:09:55] but I can't go from here without something and I'm just like what do I do and what was so amazing

[00:10:03] was just behind me there was a person stood who obviously kind of heard me go I've just

[00:10:11] come out we know card no cash I can't pay for this and the person I can't contact people with

[00:10:17] the Manor Woman I just cannot remember because it wasn't significant if it was a Manor Woman what was

[00:10:22] significant was this they reached over with their I remember it being an American Express card

[00:10:29] they reached over with their card and they paid the the bill for me they paid the eight pounds that

[00:10:38] I was in debt and I turned to them I thank you so much because I just didn't know what I was going to do

[00:10:46] and I got the card of the gift and the left the shop debt free and I think it's a great

[00:10:53] illustration just a simple illustration of we are in debt said is not just something we've done

[00:11:01] it's something that leads to death and it's a debt on our lives it's a cost to it this cost

[00:11:07] pollutes us it's powerful as a penalty and it separates as it parts from God and in the queue I'm

[00:11:13] like how do I pay I can't pay this I have no means to deal with this issue that I've got

[00:11:20] and then someone else steps in they pay the price the I owed they paid the price it cost them the

[00:11:29] eight dollars not me and they freely allowed me to walk out of that store without owing them anything

[00:11:37] and that is the picture of salvation so let's just walk through in a little bit more detail the

[00:11:45] actual problem that that salvation is the solution to so let me just walk through this I think

[00:11:53] I've alluded to this in number of episodes but I actually walked through it in detail so in the

[00:11:59] Old Testament I'm going to give you a bit of background here the root of the problem is sin remember

[00:12:03] okay and this is depicted in Genesis 3 verses 67 and it says when the woman saw that the fruit

[00:12:11] of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom she

[00:12:16] took some of its eat she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate then the

[00:12:22] eyes of both of them were open they realized that they were naked so they sowed figalips together

[00:12:29] and they coverings for themselves and as the story goes on we know that Adam and Eve then

[00:12:33] are hiding in the garden from God why because it separates us it parts us from God there's a cost

[00:12:40] to this sense not only it polluted their hearts it was powerful in their lives there's also a cost

[00:12:48] to it we'll see the cost in a second but then it's it's parted them between in between them and

[00:12:53] God there's now this fragmentation and there is a penalty and the penalty was they suddenly saw

[00:13:00] that they were naked there was no longer innocence in the world now let's just leap us this for a second

[00:13:06] Eve eats the apple is she the problem would Adam have avoided the tree if Eve had eaten it

[00:13:14] well I hear a rabbi talking on this a number of years ago I thought it brilliant he just says

[00:13:18] if you're arrogant enough to think that that sin is the wife's problem and that Adam was led

[00:13:25] to sin by Eve then you're failing to understand what it means to be one body Adam and Eve has

[00:13:32] one flesh we are not meant to see Adam and Eve as male and female at this point we're

[00:13:38] meant to see Adam and Eve as humanity as one and that Eve eating the apple is not because Eve

[00:13:46] is any worse than Adam it's it's purely a we're meant to approach the story as a story of humanity

[00:13:54] as fallen and to understand it as as Adam and Eve fails to see how we as humans are made in

[00:14:05] as one flesh in marriage the sun is meant to leave the parents to become one with his wife

[00:14:14] and it's this oneness that we're meant to see about Adam and Eve not that they're male and female

[00:14:18] but that actually Adam and Eve are humanity the representation of the fullness of the oneness

[00:14:24] of humanity what happens God can't find them he then casts them at the garden that relationship is

[00:14:30] so badly damaged the penalty of it is their cast into the world where they're no longer living

[00:14:37] eternal lives they're now living fragile human broken lives where murder is where you know

[00:14:43] very quickly we see death outside of the garden of Eden so there's a cost to sinning the cost

[00:14:52] is expulsion from perfection expulsion from the garden expulsion from the relationship with

[00:14:58] God as an intimate relationship but it's also expulsion from eternal living into a world where death

[00:15:08] is present so keep going so this separated humanity from God sinfulness separated just from

[00:15:15] humanity of God who is holy so the garden of Eden is meant to be seen as a holy garden

[00:15:22] so Adam and Eve are kicked out of eternal holy living from this holy place of holiness

[00:15:28] we couldn't be there because we had now clothed ourselves we had broken holiness

[00:15:36] abacook 113 your eyes are too pure to look on evil you cannot tolerate wrongdoing this is about God

[00:15:45] this is God is so pure that he cannot look upon evil he cannot tolerate wrongdoing the relationship

[00:15:57] is severed so in the Old Testament the the the Livedical Law saw this sacrificial system of paying

[00:16:08] the price of a sacrifice you would sacrifice an animal sheep a goat a dove by doing that you could

[00:16:16] attune for your sin you could be cleansed by paying the debt using the death of an animal and it was

[00:16:24] only ever meant to be a symbol or sign of the true cost that we know need to pay you know

[00:16:32] the cost of sinning is death so Livedica 1630 says this and this is about the day of a timement because

[00:16:38] on this day a time will be made for you to cleanse you then before the Lord you'll be clean from all your

[00:16:46] sins so Livedica 16 is talking about the day of a time when there will be an offering given

[00:16:51] you would give a sacrificial offering a story this morning to guys at church so in the story about

[00:17:02] my first experience of jonke poor the day of a timement I was in the US with some friends in a high

[00:17:08] oh and the next one over was Jewish and they were going to the synagogue for the day of a timement

[00:17:13] and I said can I come with you would love you to come with us to the synagogue for jonke poor

[00:17:18] probably you have to wear a shirt and trousers I'm in the US I have shorts and a t-shirt

[00:17:22] so I'll have got flip flops and shorts because it's so what I can't go wearing this I don't

[00:17:29] have any trousers I didn't bring any trousers with into the US so I hyped summer and my friends

[00:17:36] says I can lend you a shirt and some trousers the trousers they were cream chinos my friends

[00:17:44] about five foot and they were about foot short of my trousers leg and they were like really baggy

[00:17:50] early 2000s chinos it wasn't even tight fitted they were huge and they were baggy and they were

[00:17:57] short they were like two inches above my socks kind of thing anyway I went to jonke poor

[00:18:02] absolutely amazing three hour experience and what they remember is in Leviticus they were told

[00:18:08] to take a goat to put on the go all of their sins and send the go out into the wilderness to die

[00:18:16] and that was called the day of a timement because the goat was the atonement it was the one that

[00:18:23] was going to carry the sin out so the escape goat's the phrase something's an escape goat you

[00:18:32] are letting something else take the take the blame for something that you have done you've created

[00:18:40] an escape goat that's where it comes from from jonke poor so on that day of time will be made for

[00:18:47] you to cleanse you before the Lord so the whole Old Testament is about humanity of sins will

[00:18:54] sacrifice animals as a way of getting atonement forgiveness from God so as we get to Jesus them so

[00:19:05] how does Jesus add up into this well Jesus is predicted in Isaiah 53 verse 5 let me read this but

[00:19:11] he was pierced through our transgressions he was crushed for our inequities the punishment that

[00:19:16] brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed so the whole thing about Jesus the prophecy

[00:19:24] was that a Messiah would come and the Messiah would become the atoning sacrifice would become

[00:19:30] the escape goat okay become the escape goat and that was predicted back in Isaiah so Jesus comes as

[00:19:39] the perfect sacrifice as the as the perfect one now in the Old Testament there were certain animals

[00:19:45] that well perfect sacrifices and some were not perfect animals to be a perfect sacrifice had to

[00:19:51] be pure they had to be white as in clean and they had to have no defects no cuts bruises

[00:19:58] damages so a perfect sacrifice of a lamb had to be a perfect lamb was it say any he bruised for

[00:20:06] 15 for we do not have a high priest who is unable to emphasize with our weaknesses but he empathize

[00:20:14] sorry with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted every way just as we are yet

[00:20:20] he did not sin Jesus is the perfect sacrifice like the escape goat or like the perfect spotless lamb

[00:20:29] Romans at 5.8 but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ

[00:20:35] died for us so what is Jesus Jesus is the perfect sacrifice so we don't need the animals anymore

[00:20:43] we don't need that whole system that was in the Old Testament trying to atone for our sin to pay

[00:20:50] the debt of our sin to animals we now have Jesus who's come to do it for us we stood there there's a

[00:20:57] debt we're at the till we've got all our sin stacked up there's a debt to pay we cannot pay it

[00:21:02] we've not got the credit card we don't have what it takes to pay the bill and that hand comes over

[00:21:09] your shoulder and pays the debt on the kingdom credit card that that's the maths wherever the debt is

[00:21:17] the atonement is bigger wherever the debt is the cross is bigger that's the maths of sacrifice okay

[00:21:27] so Jesus took on our sin and our guilt

[00:21:32] so two Corinthians 5 23 God made him who has no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become

[00:21:40] the righteousness of God

[00:21:44] so that is that the equation if you want to see it that way

[00:21:51] our sin plus Jesus's sacrifice equals eternal life whatever the minus number is for sin in our

[00:22:01] lives then the plus is bigger than whatever the sin is the atoning sacrifice is a greater payment

[00:22:11] there's more credit in the cross than we would ever need to cash in we shouldn't have to because

[00:22:19] God wants us to change we want us to grow we want us to not keep on sinning but to live differently

[00:22:27] so through Jesus we are then reconciled and i love the word atonement I've used it before at

[00:22:34] one meant at one with God that's what atonement means to be at one with God

[00:22:42] Romans 5 10 for if while we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his

[00:22:49] son how much more have we been reconciled shall we be saved through his life so the Old Testament

[00:22:57] background Jesus's role of savior the meaning of Jesus's sacrifice and the results well what are

[00:23:04] the results the results for us is this let me read John 1 12 yet to all who did receive him to those

[00:23:14] who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God 2 Corinthians 5 21 God

[00:23:23] made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

[00:23:31] I'm using the Bible here to show you where all of this comes from this is this is the Bible

[00:23:38] narrative this is the story of scripture so s sin plus c Jesus's death on the cross equals

[00:23:51] e eternal life so that that's the equation that's how this all adds up this is how this kind

[00:24:00] of makes sense to us it's all about a debt that has to be paid I think the most helpful verse I have

[00:24:08] is that one for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Jesus Christ our Lord

[00:24:15] because I think in that Romans 6 23 we've got the wages of sin s equals death

[00:24:23] but then we have but the gift of God well that's Jesus on the cross is eternal life e eternal life

[00:24:31] I think it's right there c s plus c equals e sin plus the cross equals eternal life I hope

[00:24:43] anybody who's into maths I think might find that just a tad more helpful to understand what's

[00:24:50] the maths equation here how does all of this kind of add up for us so friends I hope and pray you

[00:24:57] found that helpful and interesting now as we go ahead we've got a whole bunch of interviews lined

[00:25:04] up and other topics are we're going to be moving on now from sin so please don't ask me any more

[00:25:09] questions right now like if you genuinely have another question on salvation then please you know

[00:25:14] you can genuinely message me but I'm not going to cover any more topics now we'd have to be through

[00:25:19] private private messages and that kind of thing so friends I pray that you find that helpful s plus c

[00:25:25] equals e sin plus the cross equals eternal life I hope that now makes sense a little bit more

[00:25:31] about why this is so important that Jesus died for us there's a reason for it's not just a nice story

[00:25:38] it's actually as eternal consequences friends grace and peace until next time at a wonderful week

[00:25:45] and we will speak seeing grace and peace

[00:33:15] you