They say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Today, I would like to give you 7 “pictures” of the salvation we have in Christ. These are seven descriptions of salvation that paint a different side or explanation of our salvation. They all explain our salvation, but from different angles. Each one reminds us of all that we’ve been given through Christ. And when they’re understood as a collective group, we understand that Jesus, in purchasing our salvation, has covered every need of our lives that sin has broken. The very things I needed the most are the things that God has given to me through Christ. That’s the essence of salvation. So, let me start…
1. Substitution: Jesus died in my place.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…” (1 Peter 3:18).
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
At the cross, Jesus died for you, in your place. The Perfect One died as your substitute and sacrifice. You and I should have died for our own sins (Romans 6:23), but Jesus was your Substitute.
2. Justification: Jesus made me right with God.
Jesus was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Because of my sin, I was not right with God, but Jesus gave me His righteousness. He credited His righteousness to me! He deposited His own perfect righteousness in my account…the righteous for the unrighteous!
3. Reconciliation: Jesus made peace with God possible for me.
2 Corinthians 5:19 tells us that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…” Because of my sin, I was at odds with God. I was disconnected from Him. His enemy. But God brought me to God, and reconciled me to Him. Jesus is the bridge between God and man.
4. Adoption: Jesus made me a part of God’s family.
God “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Romans 1:5-6)
According to Romans 8, we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, and we are God’s children, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17).
5. Redemption: Jesus purchased my salvation with His blood.
Jesus paid the debt of death I owed when He died on the cross for me. He shed His blood as the payment for me…to redeem and ransom me from my sin and lostness.
God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). I was a slave to sin, but Jesus has paid the debt to free me.
6. Propitiation: Jesus satisfied God’s justice for me.
1 John 2:2 states that Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” The justice of God demanded that our sins be atoned for. Jesus’ death satisfied what God’s justice and righteousness required of me.
7. Forgiveness: Jesus sent my sins away from me.
Ephesians 1:7 states, “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” As Psalm 103:12 declares, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” By His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus removes our sin.
A picture is worth a thousand words. When we see what Christ has done for us from different angles, we appreciate all that He has done. In saving us, He has met every need that I have. When we see everything that Jesus has provided for us, we will more fully understand how great of a salvation we have (Hebrews 2:3), and what a great, glorious Savior!