“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Our Salvation in a Nutshell
Salvation is Yahweh’s gift to us. Paul explained it succinctly:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of Elohim; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2: 8-9)
No one can earn salvation. Either we accept salvation by faith as a gift or we don’t have it at all. Stated another way, no one can earn his way to heaven by doing good works, because what we call “good” is not good enough.
Yahweh’s standard for goodness is perfection. The Messiah is the only Person in Earth’s history who met that standard. Therefore, He is the only Person who is qualified to be our Savior and Redeemer. He paid the price for the sins we committed and became our atoning sacrifice. We are saved through His perfect righteousness, not our own goodness. He is our righteousness, and apart from Him, we have no righteousness.
Having faith in Yahweh means to believe in Him, but it is not merely believing that Yahweh exists. As James said,
“You believe that there is one Elohim. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” (James 2: 19)
I call saving faith “the faith of Abraham” and “faith with legs”. It is a faith that is willing to go where Yahweh says go and to do what Yahweh say do. In other words, it is a faith that is willing to be obedient to Yahweh. Paul called it “being led by the Spirit of Elohim”:
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of Elohim, these are sons of Elohim.” (Romans 8: 14)
See The Trilogy.
Point 1: All of Us are Sinners
“Then I said, ‘Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh Sabaoth.” (Isaiah: 6: 5)
Point 2: Our Best Efforts are Not Good Enough
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. All of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64: 6)
Point 3: The Messiah Paid the Price for Our Sins
- “But He was pierced for our offenses. He was crushed for our wrongdoings. The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53: 5)
- “By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living for the wrongdoing of My people, to whom the blow was due? (Isaiah 53: 8)
- “But Yahweh desired to crush Him, causing Him grief; if He renders Himself as a guilt offering…” (Isaiah 53: 10)
- “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied. By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, for He will bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53: 11)
- “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the plunder with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was counted with wrongdoers. Yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the wrongdoers.” (Isaiah 53: 12)
Point 4: Yahweh is Our Savior/Redeemer
“I, even I, am Yahweh. There is no savior besides Me.” (Isaiah 43: 11)
Point 5: Yahweh is Our Righteousness
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live securely. This is His Name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh Our Righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
Point 6: The Messiah is Yahweh
“For a Child will be born to us. A Son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty El [El Gibbor], Eternal Father [Aviad], Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9: 6)
For this reason, Elohim highly exalted Him [the Messiah], and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name [Yahweh], so that at the Name of the Messiah [Yahweh] every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that the Messiah is Yahweh, to the glory of Elohim the Father. (Philippians 2: 9-11)
See His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition.
Point 7: Faith in Yahweh Secures Our Salvation
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Yeshua at night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from Elohim as a teacher. For no one can do these signs that You do unless Elohim is with him.”
Yeshua responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of Elohim.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”
Yeshua answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of Elohim. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going. So is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
Yeshua answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: The Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him. For Elohim so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For Elohim did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged. The one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of Elohim. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in Elohim.” (John 3: 1-16)
[…]
“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of Elohim remains on him.” (John 3: 36)
Point 8: The Messiah Payed the Price for Our Sins, and He Paid it in Full!
After this, Yeshua, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So, they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore, when Yeshua had received the sour wine, He said, “Paid in full!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19: 28-30)
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
