27TH OCTOBER 2021
WHO WILL BE SAVED
Romans 8: 26‐30;
Psalm 13: 4‐5, 6;
Luke 13: 22‐30
Our Christian vocation, this calling which Our Lord makes to each of us personally, leads us to become identified with him. But we should not forget that he came on earth to redeem everyone, because 'he wishes all men to be saved'. There is not a single soul in whom Christ is not interested. Each soul has cost him the price of his Blood.
The above solemn question belongs to a group of three questions found in the New Testament which have to do with salvation:
1. Who then can be saved? (Matthew 19:25)
2. Are only a few people going to be saved? (Luke 13:23)
3. What must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30).
Possibly you have found yourself asking the second of these questions, which forms the theme of this study. Most people seem to have little time for God or for the things of God; it is only the few who love Him, who are prepared to declare their love for Him, and to live for Him in a way that is pleasing to Him. Jesus gave a solemn answer to this question in our today’s gospel (Luke 13:23‐30). His immediate answer to the question; Are only a few people going to be saved? was to say that Many…will not be able to be saved (verse 24). Does this mean that only a few will be saved?
How grateful we should feel if we are among those who belong to Christ and have been truly saved by His grace! Consider the following five clear propositions that emerge from the question: ‐
1. It is quite clear that all may be saved.
God has provided salvation and He offers this to all who will come to Him in repentance and faith and accept His salvation. When the Lord Jesus died on the Cross, He died to make salvation available to all (Isaiah 53:6). While it is true that there is a sense in which He died only for those who are His own and who have responded to His grace, it is also true that by His death He made salvation available to all
2. It is quite clear that all will not be saved.
This is the solemn teaching of God’s Word. The Bible does not teach the doctrine of universalism that is to say, that ultimately all men will be saved. This is taught today; they tell us that the sinner and the saint, the man who has no love for God and the Christian, all will be gathered into God’s kingdom. This is not scriptural. Thank God all may be saved, but all will not be saved.
3. It is quite clear that some will be saved whom we did not expect to be saved.
Where is our scriptural authority for this? We have it in Luke
13:30. Also note: ‐
a. It was a great surprise to the onlookers when a very sinful woman anointed the feet of Jesus. Luke 7:36‐50
b. It was a great surprise to the Pharisee to be rejected by God and a publican, who was such a sinner, was accepted by God (Luke 18:9‐14).
c. It was a great surprise to the people when Zacchaeus, a notorious ‘sinner’, was saved by Jesus (Luke 19:1‐10).
d. It was a great surprise to the Apostle Paul that the Lord had saved him at all. He never got over it (1 Timothy 1:12‐16).
We shall get some surprises when we reach heaven and meet some people whom we did not expect would be there.
4. It is quite clear that others will not be saved who expected to be saved.
The gospel makes this fact clear, and these are the words of the Lord Jesus! The reference is to those who profess to know Him but who do not in fact know Him at all. How many people there are like this! They expect to be saved because they go to church, because they have been confirmed or baptised, because they say their prayers, because they are charitable, because they sing in the choir or attend Communion once a year. How tragic it is to expect to be saved, to think that you are saved and, in the end, to find that you are not! There will be many like this. 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16.
5. It is quite clear that no‐one will be saved except in God’s way.
God’s way of salvation is by repentance and faith, and to understand the meaning of this you should look up Isaiah 55:67 and Acts 16:30‐31.
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