Jesus is the Source of Our Salvation

Every religion in the world is a do religion, except for Christianity! Every religion in the world is a do religion, except for Christianity… Christianity is a done religion. If you look into every religion in the world: Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and others, they all have one thing in common: they are religions of works. They are religions where you must do good works, be a good person, say and do the right things, and keep on doing those things all your life in order for you to eventually achieve salvation. But the sad reality of every religion of works, is that you can never know for sure if you are good enough. So, when you are a religious person, when you are trying to prove that you are good enough for God to accept you – you live in a constant state of guilt and fear, you live in a constant state of not knowing if you measure up, you live in a constant state of uncertainty, because as much as you try to be a good person, you know that you fail to love God as you should, you fail to love others as He does… so you’re never have any assurance that God will save you.

But when it comes to Christianity, following Jesus is not a religion of works, but a relationship of grace. Jesus is the one who did for you what you could not do for yourself – to take away your sins, to remove God’s wrath, to make you pure and acceptable in God’s eyes, and to give you a new heart and life with God that you didn’t deserve. All because God loved you and gave His Son for you to make you His own. Christianity is a done religion, because when Jesus hung dying on the cross and said, “It is finished,” He proclaimed that He alone paid for the sins of the world with His blood once and for all. And now when you believe in Jesus and the work He did for you on that cross, you receive salvation by grace. It’s God’s gift to you in Jesus. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 In other words, salvation is God’s gift to unworthy sinners. There is not one person who can earn salvation by their own good works. Otherwise, salvation would no longer be a gift.

Now, why does this matter? It matters because so many people today don’t truly understand God’s grace. It matters because so many people have been deceived into believing that if they do enough good things, if they’re a decent person, then God will look upon them with favor and give them a free pass into heaven when they die. But that’s just not true. At least according to God’s Word. So today, the Bible addresses the matter of salvation thoroughly and clearly. In fact, the author of Hebrews has been continually hammering this point home: Religion doesn’t save you, it’s Jesus who saves you. Your good works don’t save you, it’s Jesus who saves you. It’s almost as if the deception of good works is so ingrained in our culture, that we need to be awakened once again to the good news of God’s grace to us that’s found in Jesus.

So today, as we return to the book of Hebrews, the author looks us squarely in the eye and gives us a straight answer. Speaking of Jesus, he says, “He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (5:9). In other words, there is a great need for us to understand what Jesus did to save us. And why He’s the only one who can save you. And to do that we need to answer three questions. Now, these are not my questions. I borrowed them from Professor Richard D. Phillips. They will serve as our roadmap today: 1) What does salvation require? 2) How did Jesus become the source of what salvation requires? And finally, For whom is Jesus the source of eternal salvation?

The answer to the second and third questions is found in our passage this morning. So, I want to encourage you to open your Bibles to Hebrews 5:7-10. But before we see how this passage reveals Jesus as the source of our salvation, we need to answer the first question: what does salvation require? So, let’s look at that now:

1. What does salvation require?
Another way of asking this is to say, “what is necessary for someone to enjoy eternal fellowship with God?” – to know God and experience a relationship of grace with God. The Bible’s answer is that to have fellowship with God one must possess perfect righteousness, the perfect righteousness set forth in God’s law. We might consider this in both a positive and a negative sense. Positively, one must perfectly manifest the holiness set forth in God’s law – fulfilling all of it. Negatively, one must not be blemished with any guilt or corruption, any transgression of the law. You can’t break any one of His laws and still be righteous.

Jesus often addressed this during his earthly ministry. When the rich young ruler approached Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus replied, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” Matthew 19:16-17 An expert in the law asked Jesus the same question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. The man answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered correctly, “ Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Luke 10:25-28
The basis of salvation, then, is righteousness. And to be righteous before God is to keep His law perfectly, both in thought and deed. Both the rich young ruler and the teacher got this right. But where they went wrong was in claiming they had actually achieved it.

In Matthew, Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet makes this point quite clearly. A man who tried to infiltrate into the kings’ feast was discovered and removed. Matthew says, “When the king comes in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 22:11-13
In other words, God requires us to be clothed in Christ’s wedding garment – in Christ’s perfect righteousness. This is a great problem for us. For our problem is not merely that we are morally flawed, but that we are morally corrupt; not that our garments are slightly less than pearly white, but that they are horribly soiled by our sin. People find this hard to stomach today. No one wants to identify themselves as sinners before a holy God. So, they mask their sin, believe the lies that they are good enough as they are. But God’s Word clearly teaches us this truth: “None is righteous, no, not one” Romans 3:10 People don’t like to hear this, but one day when they stand before our holy God, they will not be able to deny it. This is the picture God gives us in His Word. Without righteousness, we cannot stand before God. This is why we need the righteousness God gives us in the salvation that comes through faith in Jesus.

Paul explains this in his letter to the Romans declaring the good news: But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Romans 3:21-22 So the good news is that God provides a way for us to be made righteous in His eyes. The righteousness God requires is given to you when you believe in Jesus. So now, let’s look at our text and see how Jesus made this possible:

2. How did Jesus become the source of what salvation requires? What did Jesus do
to become the source of eternal salvation? During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. Hebrews 5:7-9 The writer of Hebrews reminds us time and again, that Jesus lived his days on earth in the flesh, as a human, as one of us. As such, he endured the same trials and temptations we endure. But the difference in Jesus, as he endured the same struggles and temptations we face, he never failed. Jesus didn’t just not sin. Jesus fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the law.

This is the very point being made in the opening scenes of Jesus’ public ministry, with his baptism and then his temptation in the wilderness. John the Baptist had been calling sinners to be baptized for repentance. But when Jesus shows up wanting to be baptized, this took John by surprise, for here was the One he had foretold who would be so much greater than himself. Matthew records this encounter: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Matthew 3:13-15
Then following his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tested. Listen to how Richard Phillips explains this. He says, “The wilderness is where we live, the place of testing before the Land of Promise. This is what it meant for Jesus to be in the flesh, that he was in the wilderness where Israel had failed so badly, and where you and I likewise struggle with sin. But in the desert, with pain and hunger and temptation, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness so that He might be the source of our salvation.”

We live in the wilderness today. Now looking around at how well we have it here at Robson Ranch, you might not describe where we live as a wilderness. But it is. You see, we work hard all of our lives to make life like the garden of Eden. And certainly we have our moments of joy and bliss in this life. But if we are truly honest with ourselves, we are weak, we struggle, we fail and fall into temptation We get angry when things don’t go our way. We don’t fulfill all righteousness. We don’t love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength. We don’t love our neighbors as ourselves.

But when we come back to our passage we see how Jesus lived in the wilderness, “Jesus offered up prayers and petitions, with fervent cries and tears, to Him who was able to save him from death ” (Hebrews 5:7). In the desert Jesus stood up to all Satan’s trials, no doubt often praying and crying out to God for help. And God heard Him not merely because He was His only Son, but “he was heard because of his reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:7).

Let me say just a word about Jesus’ reverent submission to the Father’s will. As Jesus experienced the trials associated with our human condition, he learned how to obey His Father in our human condition. He never pulled out his deity card to help him overcome the same trials and temptations we face. Instead, he suffered greatly as he sought to obey His Father. And it was through his suffering that Jesus truly learned how to submit His will to His Father’s will…

We see this lesson played out as Jesus grappled with His Father’s will in the garden of Gethsemane. He cried out in tears to see if there was any way the cup He was about to suffer could be removed. He agonized over doing God’s will. But in the end, He submitted saying, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Then he went to the cross, enduring its humiliation and pain, even as those around him taunted him, tempting him to come down from the cross and save himself. But as Jesus hung there in excruciating pain, he never wavered in His obedience. For on that cross Jesus fulfilled the Father’s plan to bring about our salvation. As Paul recorded in 2 Corinthians: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Therefore on that cross, in His obedient suffering “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6 So Jesus was obedient unto death, even death on the cross.

In other words, Jesus obeyed God perfectly, completely, in all things, never entering into sin, never failing his Father and never falling under the condemnation of the law. This is what was prophesied about Jesus before His coming: “Righteousness will be His belt, and faithfulness the sash around His waist” Isaiah 11:5. So the writer of Hebrews sums this all up for us saying: Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. Hebrews 5:8-9

Which now leads us to our final question: For whom is Jesus the source of eternal salvation? The answer is clear: He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:9). What does it mean to obey Jesus Christ unto salvation? Jesus himself gave the answer to us in John 6, when the crowds asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” John 6:36

However, there is a warning for you in this: For if Jesus is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, then if you choose not to trust in Jesus, the good news becomes bad news for you. For Jesus himself taught, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). So then, if you are willing to trust in His saving work, Jesus Christ will become your savior. His sacrifice will remove your sins, and His righteousness will become your righteousness. For Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.

But don’t think this will be easy. For if you are to obey Jesus Christ, then you have to own up to some things and denounce some others. You’ll need to confess that God is right to condemn you for your sins. This is not a popular sentiment today. But if you can do this, Jesus will save you.

And you’ll need to confess you have no righteousness in you, nor that you are able to make yourself righteous, because of the sin that’s in you.

And you’ll need to renounce your good works – recognizing they have no power in or of yourself to save you. You need to recognize that all your religious practices: your showing up for worship, your giving to God’s work, your acts of service, cannot make you righteous. For God’s Word says, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” Isaiah 64:6).

And if you can come to this place, where you confess your own lack of righteousness, your need for a savior, and renounce your good works as worthless – then you can reach out to Jesus by faith and receive His free offer of salvation, trusting in His righteous life and His sacrificial death for that salvation. For Jesus is the source of eternal salvation for those who obey Him.

At the moment you put your trust in Jesus alone – When you obey Jesus by believing in Him for what he did for you on the cross that is when God removes your sin.
When you obey Jesus by believing in Him – that’s when God no longer holds your sin against you. And when you obey Jesus by believing in Him that is when God gives you eternal salvation and makes you, His child. All because Jesus was willing to do what the Father sent Him to do, to suffer and die in your place, so He could become the source of eternal salvation for you.

So, let me ask you? Are you done trying to save yourself by your own good deeds? Are you done trying to appear more righteous than you really are? And are you ready to obey Jesus and trust in Him?

If you that’s you… then God’s inviting you to turn to Jesus, reach out to Jesus and put your trust in Jesus, for He is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. Are you ready to trust in Jesus? Do you want the forgiveness, the righteousness He’s ready to give you? If you do, would you express your trust in Jesus right now by praying with me now?