IT'S SIMPLE
Some of the more important things in this life are oftentimes the most complicated. Taxes are relatively important and they are on many people’s minds during this time of year, but they are far from simple. You need a trained professional or specific computer software or a personal working knowledge of the ins and outs of the tax codes to get them done correctly. Taxes are called many things by many people, but they certainly aren’t called simple. Love isn’t simple either. The love you share with your spouse or with your children or with your parents is a complicated thing. It’s a delicate balancing act at times between emotions and personalities and situations. Love is an important part of every person’s life, but it is far from simple. Life itself isn’t simple. Life is more than just eating and breathing and sleeping, of course. How are you going to live your life? How are you going to spend your time? Where are you going to call home? What are you going to do? What other lives are you going to involve your life with? Therapists and psychiatrists and lawyers and authors have made a lot of money because life is anything but simple.
But ironically, the most important thing in this complicated life is the simplest thing of all. Your salvation - the way in which you end up in heaven with your Lord for all eternity - is not complicated in the least. It is straightforward and undeniably clear. Because God tells us exactly how simple our salvation is in his Word: “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” It’s that simple. There’s nothing else to it. There is no hidden meaning. There are no extra requirements. There is not another part of the story somewhere else. Salvation really is as simple as the Bible says it is: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And so since it’s that simple, don’t make it more complicated than it really is! Sinful human beings from the very beginning have always tried to make this simple and comforting fact about salvation more complicated than what is laid out for us in Scripture. People have always assumed that there is more to it than that. It’s too easy! It’s too free! There’s got to be something human beings have to do for their salvation! That’s the only way it makes sense!
Any non-Christian religion - and even some church bodies that claim to be Christian - base their entire body of doctrine on the thought that we have to do something to be saved. Whether it is to lead a good life or try your best or perform the right ceremonies or accomplish the right tasks or make the right decision, there are millions of people who think that they must meet certain requirements in order to make salvation theirs. The apostle Paul was fighting that same mindset right here in the book of Romans. He was talking to his readers about the Jewish nation, of which he was a part. And he says, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge… They did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own… Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: ‘The man who does these things will live by them’” (Romans 10:1-3,5). The man who does these things will be saved. That was the thought process of Paul’s countrymen and that is the same basic thought process of most people still today. And it’s all wrong! There is nothing we have to do for our salvation because there isn’t anything we can do for our salvation. We’re too wicked! We’re too sinful! We’re too imperfect! Even the good things we try to do are tainted with sin and so they wouldn’t measure up to God’s perfect standard anyway.
But this isn’t just a fault found in “other” religions. Even we fall back into that way of thinking at times, that what we do affects our salvation. When we commit a sin that is embarrassingly awful, something grossly out of line with God’s Word, we sometimes start to wonder about the surety of our salvation, don’t we? We begin to think, “What I did was so bad. What I thought was so disgusting. And it’s even something I promised God I wouldn’t do again! But I did it anyway! Even though I knew better! Even though I knew what I was doing the entire time! And it’s probably going to happen again no matter how hard I try! Why would the Lord ever forgive someone so rotten as myself? How can I ever be sure of my salvation when I am constantly so sinful?” My friends, when we think like that we are bringing what we do into the equation of salvation - a place where our actions don’t belong. Our salvation that the Lord gave us through the cross of Christ didn’t depend on how good we were then; and it will not depend on how good or how bad we are now. The way we live our lives does not affect the promise of salvation in any way. Because the Bible clearly says, “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You may very well be a horrible sinner. In fact, I’m sure you are. I know I am. I’m a repeat offender of the worst kind. But I also know that I’m saved. I am saved despite the stockpile of my sins that grows greater and grimier each day. Because God himself promises me and he promises you: the faith that is in your heart and comes out as a confession from your mouth saves you.
Could you answer a quick question for me out loud? Do you believe that Jesus is your Savior and that you do not have to do anything to get to heaven because he has done everything for you? If so, just simply answer “yes”. [Yes] That’s it! You’re saved! That’s a confession of what you believe. That one word answer is a confession of the faith that the Lord has placed in your heart through his gospel. “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You believe in your heart because I have just heard the confession from your mouth. And they aren’t really two different things at all. Your confession is a verbal expression of what is in your heart. You are saved! Your sins are forgiven. You are going to heaven because that’s God’s Word.
Of course, your act of confession did not save you. The content of your confession saved you. You confessed that you believe in Jesus as your Savior from all of your sins and that you do not have to do anything to get to heaven on your own. That is the gospel and the gospel is what saves. Salvation didn’t come into effect only when you verbally proclaimed your faith. Salvation came into effect when the Holy Spirit worked faith into your heart for the very first time. Your confession is simply announcing what has already happened. And that confession is simple.
I think some people have the wrong impression about what it means to confess your faith. It doesn’t have to be a big production. It doesn’t have to be done in a public setting - although it sometimes is. It doesn’t have to be an extended explanation of what you know about each teaching of Scripture. A confession of faith can be something as simple as what you just did: answering “yes” to the appropriate questions. When a new member is brought into our congregation, they answer “yes” to a series of questions so that the rest of the congregation can hear that they agree with Scripture in both doctrine and practice. Their answer of “yes” is an adequate confession of faith. When a Sunday School teacher asks their students, “Who died on the cross for your sins?” and the answer is a resounding, “Jesus!” - that is an adequate confession of faith. When Jesus healed a man blind from birth and then asked him if he believed in the Son of Man, this newly healed sinner said, “Lord, I believe.” That was an adequate confession of faith. When we join together in a worship service and repeat the words of the Apostles Creed in unison, “I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord…” - that is an adequate confession of faith. When we come to the end of the service and sing together the “Amen” in response to the Lord’s blessing - that single “amen” is an adequate confession of faith. The confession itself isn’t the point. What we confess is. We simply state what we believe. And the Christ in whom we believe saves us.
Isn’t it wonderful that our salvation is so simple? We don’t have to be in a constant state of panic like the prophets of Baal were at the time of Elijah: slashing themselves and screaming at the top of their lungs to somehow impress their fake god. And we don’t have to try to survive under a system of ceremonies and sacrifices like the Jews did during Paul’s time and some Jews still do today: rigorously following the Old Testament customs and laws of purification in fear that they won’t be worthy to stand in front of their God on the Last Day. And we don’t have to live under the weight of a guilty conscience like so many people in this world do, well-intentioned people who are striving and determined to do every possible thing they can to please an almighty and perfect God who demands from them an exact accounting in every aspect of their lives. Of course, all of their striving and all of their determination won’t do it. First of all, because no sinful human being can keep God’s law perfectly. And secondly, because Christ already has done it all. And without faith that Jesus has done everything for them, they will never enjoy the blessings of heaven. They will never know what it is like to be saved. They have complicated salvation by trying to add to it something they do. And in doing so, that simple salvation that the Lord won on the cross has escaped them.
I don’t want it to sound like the Christian life that you live means nothing. It means a lot! The way you live this life as a Christian is the outward demonstration of what you believe in your heart. Your life is really a non-verbal confession of faith in many ways. But you don’t have to lead a Christian life to be saved; you automatically strive to lead a Christian life because you already are saved. The simple gospel moves you to live a life of thanks and praise. The simple gospel fills you with a driving desire to do everything you can in appreciation to your Lord. The simple gospel is in your heart and so it is naturally in your life and in your mouth as well. Your salvation is not complicated. It’s as simple as it can be. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He rose from the dead to solidify your salvation. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? [Yes] You are saved.
Amen.
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ Praise the Lord.” - Psalm 106:48
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