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The First Steps of Salvation

Emmanuel Chucks

MAIN TEXT: ROMANS 10:5-13

HIGHLIGHT VERSE: ROMANS 10:9
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV)

TOPIC POINTS:

  1. Believing the Gospel Message – Romans 3:22
  2. Repenting From Sin – Luke 13:3
  3. Confessing Sin – Proverbs 28:13
  4. Confessing Faith – Romans 10:9-10

INTRODUCTION:

God is the author of salvation. He planned and produced it through the life and work of His Son as a full and complete package. Nothing can be added or removed from it. No desire or effort of man can earn salvation (Romans 9:16). The ‘First Steps of Salvation’ is not about what we do to produce salvation on our own but the roots of God’s salvific work in our lives.

BELIEVING THE GOSPEL MESSAGE

– ROMANS 3:22, 2 CORINTHIANS 5:18-21

The Gospel message is the foundation of salvation. From it flows every other work and fruit of salvation. The gospel message entails the work of God in and through Christ, reconciling all mankind to himself, not counting their sin against them.

Despite the universal guilt of humanity and the just punishment we deserve, God wills to deliver us through Christ our substitute. Our guilt becomes His guilt on the cross and His righteousness becomes our righteousness.

REPENTING FROM SIN

– LUKE 13:3, MATTHEW 4:17, ACTS 17:30-31

Repentance is an inward change of attitude, fueled by a Godly sorrow for one’s state of sin, leading to an outward turning from sin and a turning towards God. It is a change of mind and character. It comes from hearing and believing the gospel message.

The consequences of sin will catch up with everyone. The only way out is through forgiveness for sin, which can only come through repentance. Just as everyone has sin and has sinned, everyone is also in dire need of repentance.

By it we turn our backs to sin and our face to righteousness, we turn our backs to destruction and our face to eternal life. Without repentance, we have our backs towards God and our face towards eternal destruction with every passing day.

CONFESSING SIN

– PROVERBS 28:13, 1 JOHN 1:8-9

It is bad enough to sin, but when we sin and try to cover it up we make it way worse. An uncovered sin can be rebuked and repented of but a covered sin festers and grows. We cover our sin when we try to excuse it, reduce it, deny it, or blame it on others. If you hide your illness from the doctor, how can you expect a cure?

Uncovered sin is a burden to the soul, a weight on the conscience, and an obstacle to progress. The remedy comes from God who is faithful to forgive and purify us from all unrighteousness when we confess.

CONFESSING FAITH

– ROMANS 10:9-10, MATTHEW 10:32-33, 1 JOHN 4:15

Confession is declaring openly and boldly what is in your heart. It is by your confession that others can know what you believe. Just as faith without works is dead, so is believing without confessing. With our hearts we believe and with our mouths we confess.

We confess our faith in the person and work of Jesus as Messiah, and His Lordship over us. There is no way one can truly meet Jesus and not want to spread the news to everyone (John 1:45, John 4:28-30). When we confess Him, we take our side with Him and identify ourselves as belonging to Him.

CONCLUSION:

God in His grace has secured the salvation of His people through Jesus Christ. When the Spirit of God comes to bring to effect the salvation of God’s elect, the first steps we see is the hearing and believing of the gospel message, true repentance from sin, confession of sin and a confession of faith.

Do you believe the gospel, have you turned from sin and towards God, have you confessed your sin and openly confess Jesus as Lord?

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

  • Give a summary of our main text
  • Recite our highlight verse
  • Who is the author of salvation?
  • Through whom did God accomplish salvation?
  • What can we add to Christ’ work of salvation?
  • What can we remove from Christ’ work of salvation?
  • Explain what the gospel message is
  • What does it mean to ‘Repent’
  • What is the way out from the consequences of sin?
  • Committing sin is bad enough, what makes it worse?
  • In what ways do we cover our sin?
  • How is God’s faithfulness shown when we confess sin?
  • Is it necessary to confess your faith as a Christian? Explain.
  • According to our lesson, what are the first steps of salvation?