Lesson Fifteen

HOW TO BE SAVED - FROM DEATH (1)

Burden to Impart:

We may be saved from death both now and in the future, both spiritually and physically, by believing in the resurrected Christ, calling upon His name and confessing Him to be our Lord (Rom. 10:8-14). The One who died for our sins was also raised from the dead! Therefore, He is living and is able to be our Savior!

Memory Verse: "That if you confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from among the dead, you shall be saved" (Romans 10:9).

Facts to Teach:

  1. Death entered into the world through sin and was passed on to all men, for all have sinned (Rom. 5:12). "Death" does not only refer to a future threat of the termination of our life and happiness, it also refers to our present condition before God. In the sight of God all men are "dead in offenses and sins" and are "estranged from the life of God" (Eph. 2:1; 4:18).
  2. Physically, death operates in us from the moment of our birth. Death causes us to grow old, become weak, sick, and die.
  3. Spiritually, death causes us to feel empty, unfulfilled, and unsatisfied in the deepest part of our being. This is because we lack God's reality in our spirit.
  4. The New Testament teaches us that salvation is the result of our faith in Christ, particularly, in the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. To merely believe that the Lord Jesus came to earth and died upon the cross will not save us. Most historians believe this fact, yet they are not saved. We must "believe in our heart [not only in our head!] that God has raised Him from among the dead" in order for us to be justified by God and approved by Him (Rom. 10:9-10). Believing in His resurrection means that we realize that Jesus was not only a good man who one day died on a cross. He is the "Lord," that is, the Creator, owner, and master of each one of us; yet He came to die for us. Because He was not a sinner, God accepted His death as our substitute and therefore raised Him up from the dead (Rom. 4:25). To believe in His resurrection includes all of this.
  5. Once we believe in the Lord Jesus and His resurrection we will spontaneously desire Him to be our Savior and will call upon His precious Name in order to be saved (Rom. 10:13-14). The resurrected Christ is near to every one of us (Rom. 10:8). We only need to open up our heart to believe in Him and open up our mouth to call upon Him and we will be saved! By believing in Him we are justified and approved before God. By calling upon Him and confessing Him to be our Lord we are saved and separated before man.

[See Gospel Outlines, subject 157, by W. Lee; also Hymns #123.]