Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO The Lord's one-two punch Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA August 13, 2006 Main Scripture text: Romans 10:8-13 Many Christians think of salvation solely as "the thing that makes it possible for a person to go to heaven instead of hell." That is a key aspect of salvation, but it is not the total of it. We have all sinned. We've broken the Law of God. The penalty of death hangs over all our heads. The remedy for the situation is that we get "saved" -- that we get delivered from the law of sin and death. To experience the fullness of this salvation Paul says there are two required actions. To give you a metaphor, there is a "one-two punch" that'll knock out sin and death every time. You must: 1) "Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord"; and 2) "Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead." Paul's explanation is that "with the heart we believe and are justified," and that "with the mouth we confess and are saved." To be "justified" means "to be declared free of blame." In the sense that Paul uses it in Romans 10, it means to free of the guilt and penalty attached to sin. God no longer holds our sin against us. We have been pardoned! Paul says we gain this justification simply by believing what God has declared to us in Jesus Christ -- namely, that His death is the payment for our sins and His resurrection opens to us the way to life in heaven. Most of us call that "being saved" -- we equate justification with salvation. But Paul says that, beyond justification, we must -- to be "saved" -- "confess with [our] mouth Jesus is Lord." The Greek word we translate "saved" means to "heal, preserve, or make whole." Paul is saying the provision of Christ is not only can we be rescued from penalty of sin (i.e. death and hell), we can be made whole! God wants to protect us from the horrible consequences of what personal sin does to our lives. So, in Christ, He has made a way for us to overcome sin. This is what theologians call "holiness" or "sanctification." Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God enables us to overcome temptation and to submit to God's laws. We receive this "wholeness" by confessing "Jesus as Lord." To do so means we obey Him. We do the things He says. As we obey Him and submit ourselves to his transforming power, we begin to be made like Jesus -- now, in this life! The bottom line. God will get us from justification to glorification by His power. All we have to do is stay in the faith. Through Christ, we can be rescued from the penalty of sin, then from the power of it -- and finally, when we reach our heavenly home, from the very presence of it. This is God's provision for you -- if you "confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead." Supporting texts: James 2:10 | Galatians 5:19-21 | Galatians 5:22-23 | Romans 8:28-30 | Romans 12:1-2 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (32 min.). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of the sermon summarized above is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 060813a: The Lord's One-Two Punch. © 2006 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us