Articles by: Kenneth J. Ester
Salvation: What You Probably Don't Know
I want to give you two scriptures that very well may change the way you see Salvation. They just might prove to you that everything you thought you knew about salvation is wrong.
Mark 2-5 NASB
3 And some people came, bringing to Him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men. 4 And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying. 5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Then there is the woman who washed His feet with perfume and her tears and dried them with her hair. When Simon thought it wrong, Jesus said this...
Luke 7:46-49 NASB
46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49 And then those who were reclining at the table with Him began saying to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”
Now you have all heard or read these stories many times before. If you have not, you need to start reading your Bibles more. However, most Christians have never truly considered the ramifications these scriptures have on how we believe about salvation. You see, most churches today teach us that our salvation is all about the forgiveness of our sins. They teach that Jesus died on the cross to save us. But if both of these things are true, then how could He possibly be forgiving sins of people before He died?
Think about that for a moment. If Jesus had to die for us in order for us to be saved and salvation is about the forgiveness of sins, then He should not have been able to forgive the sins of anyone until after He died on the cross. If salvation is the forgiveness of sin and Jesus could forgive them all along, then He died on the cross for no reason.
Something is clearly wrong with what most churches are teaching today!
Well we now know that Jesus was absolutely forgiving the sins of people before He ever died on the cross. This means that one of two things must be true.
1) Jesus died a horrible death needlessly.
-or-
2) Our Salvation is not about the forgiveness of sin.
I can assure you that Jesus did not go through the crucifixion for no reason!
The truth is, churches and pastors and priests, for so long, have confused two different subjects as one. They have been taking scriptures about our relationship with the Lord and scriptures about salvation and meshing them all into just salvation. They are wrong to be doing this.
What many Christians do not understand is that God's word is a whole lot more straight forward than they realized. Everyone goes into the Bible looking to interpret it. This has led us to an unbelievable amount of false teachings. Because the majority of Christians dont actually look into and study what they are taught, but accept what others teach blindly, they just assume they are being taught correctly. All the while the one teaching them has no idea they are teaching them wrong, because they learned from people making the same mistakes.
If you believe that salvation is about the forgiveness of your sins, I have just shown you absolute proof that is wrong. To deny that now is simply to be in denial because you dont want to admit that you have been taught wrong. But scripturally and logically those two scriptures are proof that is wrong. So now I am going to ask you to just forget what you have been taught and think logically again.
What really is the forgiveness of sins? It is when God forgives you for any transgression you have committed against Him. Right? So, if a child gets in an argument with his dad and he screams at him and runs out of the house slamming the door, should the dad lock the kid out and throw him to the wolves and let him die in the streets over that? No good dad would ever do that. If he is a good loving dad, the very moment the child runs out the door, he would already forgive the kid. The problem is there would be some damage to their personal relationship. When the child returns later in the evening, there would be a silence between them because their relationship has been bruised. It is when that child asks him for his forgiveness and shows a repentful heart that the relationship can begin to heal. That is all it is with God as well. He doesnt throw His children whom He loves into hell because they sinned. He loves them and He wont stop loving them over any sin they commit. But we need to repent and ask forgiveness, not to stop Him from throwing us into hell, but so that the slate can be wiped clean and we can return to building a personal relationship with Him. The forgiveness of sin is not about salvation. It is about building our relationship with God.
So what is salvation?
Salvation is the cleansing of our soul by the blood of Christ.
Sin is sort of a spiritual cancer. It corrupts what it touches and it never heals on its own. When someone sins, it corrupts their soul. Their soul becomes stained with sin. Even worse. When a man with a soul that is already corrupted by sin has a child, his child is born with a soul that is already stained by sin.
The real problem lies in the fact that God is so perfectly holy, that if anyone with a corrupted soul entered heaven, where God abides in His full glory, His presence would literally destroy that soul. This is why when Moses asked God to show him His gory, God replied, "Man shall not see my face and live."
So basically, the moment Adam sinned, it literally cut mankind off from entering heaven. Because God is not going to allow someone who loves Him to enter heaven with a corrupted soul and be destroyed. God did not block us from heaveen out of anger or anything like that. He blocks us because He loves us and He wants to clean our souls from the corruption of sin before He lets us in. He wants to save us. And save us He did.
When Jesus died on the cross, he was perfect. Being born of a virgin, He did not come from the seed of a man wwhose soul was corrupted. His soul was perfectly clean. When He died on the cross it did two different things.
1) He became the last sacrifice. A sacrifice so perfectly holy that we no longer need to sacrifice animals to atone for our sins. All we need to do is ask God and He will forgive us. Then we can return to building our personal relationship with Him and growing closer to Him.
2) By the shedding of His blood, we can now be washed clean. That is the salvation part. Now God offers the washing of our soul to everyone as a completely free gift. But the cleansing of a soul is not a physical gift we can reach out and take. It is a spiritual gift. There is only one way we can truly accept a spiritual gift. We must believe, truly believe in our hearts, that it is real. That is why the Bible tells us very plainly, 19 times, that we are saved by believing in Jesus.
Anyone who truly believes that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, that Jesus died to save them and that God raised Him from the dead, is saved. Because that is what salvation is. Believing the free gift of washing our soul clean is real. God is not a tyrant God waiting to cast us away into hell over breaking His rules. God is a loving God who sent the Word to sacrifice Himself to save us from hell.
--------------
Now this was the end of this article, but I felt that I should continue it with some other explanations. Things that every Christian should know, but many if not most, do not.
The word "Repent"
There is a false definition of this word going around that has led to some false teachings. Many are saying that to repent is to turn away from sin. It is not. Some say it is to have a change of heart where you change your ways. It is not. Those teachings were created by people who believed sin is what sends us to hell. Who believed breaking Gods rules is why He casts us into hell. By people who confuse salvation with our personal relationship.
The Greek word that was translated to "repent" is the word "metanoia". Its definition is quite simple. It is to have a change of mind.
Unfortunately, many Christians do not use Strongs. They just google the words. When you do that, you find the Webster dictionary definition of the word 'metanoia', and it give a meaning that is more in lines of a life changing change of mind. The problem is that Webster's definition does not line up with scripture.
Ephesians 1:13 NASB
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.
In this scripture, it says that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit upon believing the gospel of our salvation. There is no chance of having a change of life when you first hear the gospel, but yet you are sealed already then. So where is the repenting here? Before you heard the gospel you did not believe. After hearing it and believing, you have had a change of mind. You have repented. This verse makes it pretty clear that simple definition of having a change of mind is all it means. We do not need to make Gods word mean something more just because we dont think the the current meaning is powerful enough. God's truth is more powerful than any meaning we can come up with.
-----
The Virgin Birth
In case you didn't catch it, I eluded to this earlier in this article. We often dont understand why it was so important for Jesus to be born from a virgin. Many think it is just a way of showing He is God, or making God His Father. The truth is, if Jesus had an earthly father, He would have been born with a soul that was corrupted by sin, just like anyone else who is born. There is simply no way His sacrifice would have been pure enough to save us unless He was born of a virgin.
-----
The Two Swords
At the last supper, Jesus did something peculiar that most brush past. He tells His disciples to go buy swords. One of the disciples than responds and tells Him that two of them already have swords. Jesus says "That is enough". Why did Jesus want them to have swords?
That night when the soldiers came to take Him, those disciples tried to defend Jesus and they drew those swords and attacked them. One of them cut the ear of the secretary of the High Priest. Jesus then stops them and interestingly, He did not tell them it is wrong to use violence. He simply warned them that if you live by the word, you will die by the sword. Then Jesus went willingly with the soldiers.
Now if there were no swords, and the disciples did not try to defend Him, it would have just been another case of a leader of a group being taken and killed. Because they did attack the soldiers, and because Jesus stopped them then went with them willingly, and because Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him, it changed from being taken against His will to Him willingly laying down His life for us. His death, because of that action, became a sacrifice.
False Doctrines on Salvation:
Saved by Works
Saved by Water Baptism
Saved by Repenting of Sin
Mark 2-5 NASB
3 And some people came, bringing to Him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men. 4 And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying. 5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Then there is the woman who washed His feet with perfume and her tears and dried them with her hair. When Simon thought it wrong, Jesus said this...
Luke 7:46-49 NASB
46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49 And then those who were reclining at the table with Him began saying to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”
Now you have all heard or read these stories many times before. If you have not, you need to start reading your Bibles more. However, most Christians have never truly considered the ramifications these scriptures have on how we believe about salvation. You see, most churches today teach us that our salvation is all about the forgiveness of our sins. They teach that Jesus died on the cross to save us. But if both of these things are true, then how could He possibly be forgiving sins of people before He died?
Think about that for a moment. If Jesus had to die for us in order for us to be saved and salvation is about the forgiveness of sins, then He should not have been able to forgive the sins of anyone until after He died on the cross. If salvation is the forgiveness of sin and Jesus could forgive them all along, then He died on the cross for no reason.
Something is clearly wrong with what most churches are teaching today!
Well we now know that Jesus was absolutely forgiving the sins of people before He ever died on the cross. This means that one of two things must be true.
1) Jesus died a horrible death needlessly.
-or-
2) Our Salvation is not about the forgiveness of sin.
I can assure you that Jesus did not go through the crucifixion for no reason!
The truth is, churches and pastors and priests, for so long, have confused two different subjects as one. They have been taking scriptures about our relationship with the Lord and scriptures about salvation and meshing them all into just salvation. They are wrong to be doing this.
What many Christians do not understand is that God's word is a whole lot more straight forward than they realized. Everyone goes into the Bible looking to interpret it. This has led us to an unbelievable amount of false teachings. Because the majority of Christians dont actually look into and study what they are taught, but accept what others teach blindly, they just assume they are being taught correctly. All the while the one teaching them has no idea they are teaching them wrong, because they learned from people making the same mistakes.
If you believe that salvation is about the forgiveness of your sins, I have just shown you absolute proof that is wrong. To deny that now is simply to be in denial because you dont want to admit that you have been taught wrong. But scripturally and logically those two scriptures are proof that is wrong. So now I am going to ask you to just forget what you have been taught and think logically again.
What really is the forgiveness of sins? It is when God forgives you for any transgression you have committed against Him. Right? So, if a child gets in an argument with his dad and he screams at him and runs out of the house slamming the door, should the dad lock the kid out and throw him to the wolves and let him die in the streets over that? No good dad would ever do that. If he is a good loving dad, the very moment the child runs out the door, he would already forgive the kid. The problem is there would be some damage to their personal relationship. When the child returns later in the evening, there would be a silence between them because their relationship has been bruised. It is when that child asks him for his forgiveness and shows a repentful heart that the relationship can begin to heal. That is all it is with God as well. He doesnt throw His children whom He loves into hell because they sinned. He loves them and He wont stop loving them over any sin they commit. But we need to repent and ask forgiveness, not to stop Him from throwing us into hell, but so that the slate can be wiped clean and we can return to building a personal relationship with Him. The forgiveness of sin is not about salvation. It is about building our relationship with God.
So what is salvation?
Salvation is the cleansing of our soul by the blood of Christ.
Sin is sort of a spiritual cancer. It corrupts what it touches and it never heals on its own. When someone sins, it corrupts their soul. Their soul becomes stained with sin. Even worse. When a man with a soul that is already corrupted by sin has a child, his child is born with a soul that is already stained by sin.
The real problem lies in the fact that God is so perfectly holy, that if anyone with a corrupted soul entered heaven, where God abides in His full glory, His presence would literally destroy that soul. This is why when Moses asked God to show him His gory, God replied, "Man shall not see my face and live."
So basically, the moment Adam sinned, it literally cut mankind off from entering heaven. Because God is not going to allow someone who loves Him to enter heaven with a corrupted soul and be destroyed. God did not block us from heaveen out of anger or anything like that. He blocks us because He loves us and He wants to clean our souls from the corruption of sin before He lets us in. He wants to save us. And save us He did.
When Jesus died on the cross, he was perfect. Being born of a virgin, He did not come from the seed of a man wwhose soul was corrupted. His soul was perfectly clean. When He died on the cross it did two different things.
1) He became the last sacrifice. A sacrifice so perfectly holy that we no longer need to sacrifice animals to atone for our sins. All we need to do is ask God and He will forgive us. Then we can return to building our personal relationship with Him and growing closer to Him.
2) By the shedding of His blood, we can now be washed clean. That is the salvation part. Now God offers the washing of our soul to everyone as a completely free gift. But the cleansing of a soul is not a physical gift we can reach out and take. It is a spiritual gift. There is only one way we can truly accept a spiritual gift. We must believe, truly believe in our hearts, that it is real. That is why the Bible tells us very plainly, 19 times, that we are saved by believing in Jesus.
Anyone who truly believes that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, that Jesus died to save them and that God raised Him from the dead, is saved. Because that is what salvation is. Believing the free gift of washing our soul clean is real. God is not a tyrant God waiting to cast us away into hell over breaking His rules. God is a loving God who sent the Word to sacrifice Himself to save us from hell.
--------------
Now this was the end of this article, but I felt that I should continue it with some other explanations. Things that every Christian should know, but many if not most, do not.
The word "Repent"
There is a false definition of this word going around that has led to some false teachings. Many are saying that to repent is to turn away from sin. It is not. Some say it is to have a change of heart where you change your ways. It is not. Those teachings were created by people who believed sin is what sends us to hell. Who believed breaking Gods rules is why He casts us into hell. By people who confuse salvation with our personal relationship.
The Greek word that was translated to "repent" is the word "metanoia". Its definition is quite simple. It is to have a change of mind.
Unfortunately, many Christians do not use Strongs. They just google the words. When you do that, you find the Webster dictionary definition of the word 'metanoia', and it give a meaning that is more in lines of a life changing change of mind. The problem is that Webster's definition does not line up with scripture.
Ephesians 1:13 NASB
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.
In this scripture, it says that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit upon believing the gospel of our salvation. There is no chance of having a change of life when you first hear the gospel, but yet you are sealed already then. So where is the repenting here? Before you heard the gospel you did not believe. After hearing it and believing, you have had a change of mind. You have repented. This verse makes it pretty clear that simple definition of having a change of mind is all it means. We do not need to make Gods word mean something more just because we dont think the the current meaning is powerful enough. God's truth is more powerful than any meaning we can come up with.
-----
The Virgin Birth
In case you didn't catch it, I eluded to this earlier in this article. We often dont understand why it was so important for Jesus to be born from a virgin. Many think it is just a way of showing He is God, or making God His Father. The truth is, if Jesus had an earthly father, He would have been born with a soul that was corrupted by sin, just like anyone else who is born. There is simply no way His sacrifice would have been pure enough to save us unless He was born of a virgin.
-----
The Two Swords
At the last supper, Jesus did something peculiar that most brush past. He tells His disciples to go buy swords. One of the disciples than responds and tells Him that two of them already have swords. Jesus says "That is enough". Why did Jesus want them to have swords?
That night when the soldiers came to take Him, those disciples tried to defend Jesus and they drew those swords and attacked them. One of them cut the ear of the secretary of the High Priest. Jesus then stops them and interestingly, He did not tell them it is wrong to use violence. He simply warned them that if you live by the word, you will die by the sword. Then Jesus went willingly with the soldiers.
Now if there were no swords, and the disciples did not try to defend Him, it would have just been another case of a leader of a group being taken and killed. Because they did attack the soldiers, and because Jesus stopped them then went with them willingly, and because Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him, it changed from being taken against His will to Him willingly laying down His life for us. His death, because of that action, became a sacrifice.
False Doctrines on Salvation:
Saved by Works
Saved by Water Baptism
Saved by Repenting of Sin
