The Full Meaning Of Salvation — Sandeep Poonen

Salvation From Sin and Toward God's Purpose

When we think about salvation, I wonder what we think about. I don't know what comes to your mind when you think, when I say, do you want salvation? I don't know what is brought up in your mind. If you were to tell somebody else, you know, Jesus offers salvation or Jesus saves me, Jesus can save you.

What are you communicating to them and what are you excited about when we say that Jesus saves? What are we excited about when we say, about when we think about salvation? And that's something that has been on my mind for the last few days.

The goal, Jesus came, it says in Matthew chapter one, that Jesus came to save us from our sins. I don't know if you know that verse, Matthew chapter one, verse 21. You can, we can start there, salvation of our soul, salvation, Jesus, you shall call his name Jesus or he shall save you from our soul, from your sins.

That was intricate to the name of Jesus is salvation from our sins. But I believe that having sin to be the center of our lives and salvation from sin to be the center of our lives is to reduce the full purpose of what Jesus is trying to do.

When he is trying to save me, he is not trying to save me just from all my sins, but he's trying to save me also to an end. He's trying to have an end in mind, which is more than just an absence of sin.

The Image of God Stamped on the Heart

I want to read an expression that I heard from John Wesley, that John Wesley said that salvation of our souls, I want to read this, salvation of our souls, this great gift of God is none other than this.

Now, here's the word salvation is, that struck me in a new way, is the image of God freshly stamped on our hearts. Let me say that again. The salvation of our souls is that the image of God be stamped on our hearts.

Dying to Self and Erasing Personal Identity

What struck me about that statement is it had nothing, it had no, the word sin was not in there. It's, and I used to, I keep thinking that salvation is to be saved from, but not saved to, and I can always think about my life in the negative, you know, how many sins I did or didn't do, but sin is a negative idea, sin is a negative concept, but if I think about salvation as the image of God freshly stamped on our hearts, that's a positive idea, and I'm not trying to preach positive thinking versus negative thinking, but I'm asking if our salvation is so exciting because we want God's image to be stamped in my heart, not anything to do with me, and there's another layer of self-erasing, erasing myself, and my name, and my identity, and my opinions, and my preferences, and my reputation, and my honor, and my feelings, and my future, it's erasing all of that, wiping the blackboard, or the whiteboard, or whatever it is, chalkboard clean, so that the name of Jesus can be stamped on it.

Now, I didn't ever use the word death to self, but that's what death to self is. Death to self is erasing the chalkboard so thoroughly of all of self, and it's this chalkboard that is in my life, that is on my heart, that has the name Sandeep written all over it, and what death to self is, is wiping that chalkboard so completely clean of all the trappings of Sandeep that are still wanting to be relevant.

Can somebody please think about me, keep me in mind, hear my thoughts in the family conversations, just keep my opinion, and not completely shut it down again and again, and in so many different ways, the name of Sandeep is still somewhere in there, and the Christian life is saying, God, I'm trying to, Jesus is saying, I'm trying to save you, save you more.

I want you to so wipe this chalkboard clean, and then we're not done. There's no good with an empty chalkboard, but so that the name of Jesus can be stamped on it. If Jesus has healed us from the leprosy of sin, if we are deeply thankful, if we see of what Jesus has done for us, if we see Jesus to be like this treasure we found in the field, in our joy, we will wipe the chalkboard clean.

Joy, Faith, and the Treasure of Christ

In our joy, we will say, let's get that chalkboard clean so that the name of Jesus can be stamped on it. It's in our joy that you'll die to self, that we'll die to self. It's in our joy of the treasure that is in the field, as we heard in Matthew 13 44, Luke 17 16, the leper, because I'm so thankful for Jesus healing me.

I worship him, I fall at his feet, I say, let's wipe this chalkboard clean of everything to do with me. And that's why we get so angry against unbelief, because unbelief is that attitude to say, don't wipe that name out.

What can you do? What can I do? Jesus said, if I can, Mark 9 23, all things are possible. All things are possible to him who believes. You believe in me? Well, wipe the chalkboard clean of your name in this situation.

Get rid of the name of Sandeep. God is showing his perfect patience to us. As he says, I'll give you another chance. I'll wake you up tomorrow again. Wipe the chalkboard clean. And this is the great daily fight that we must have.

Repentance, Trials, and the Final Outcome

And the end result is, as we heard in Second Corinthians chapter seven, here's the end result. You can have a salvation. It says in Second Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10, you can have a repentance that leads to a salvation without regret.

Lord, I have no regrets for wiping the chalkboard clean. I have no regrets for choosing the way of debt to self, because the name of Jesus got to be stamped on my life. And let me end also with another thought that goes with that, which is a verse that I've talked about before, from James chapter five, verse 11, that this is the end of the story of all of our trials.

James chapter five, verse 11, is the final part of every one of your stories. This is the final conclusion that God wants to write in the chalkboard of our lives. Dear brothers and sisters, let me fast forward all of our lives to our deathbed, and we are lying, dying on our deathbed, and we just have a few more minutes to live.

I don't know if you can picture that 40 years from now, 20 years from now, maybe two days from now, if the Lord tells you you've got only a few more minutes to live, imagine yourself on this deathbed.

What will be the final conclusion of everything in your life? James chapter five, verse 11, you've seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings with Sandeep. That's what I'll be saying, Lord Jesus, as I look at the outcome of the Lord's dealings with Job or Sandeep, it doesn't matter.

Here is the outcome, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. That's what's on my chalkboard. Your chalkboard has nothing to do with Job. Nope, this is not about Job. Yeah, Job's the name of the story, but the whole purpose of the story of Job is to tell you one thing.

This is the big chalkboard over Job's life. God is merciful and compassionate. On our deathbed, I hope all of the circumstances in life, we'll be able to look back and say, so Sandeep, as you're dying, what's the final outcome out of all the things that you've gone through in life?

In my few gasps of breath left, I hope I will finally get to learn the lesson that God is trying to tell me. It's not about you, Sandeep. That chalkboard wanted to be completely clean of you, and what is written over that chalkboard is, God is compassionate and merciful.

God is full of compassion and merciful, and there's no spot of that word, Sandeep, anymore on the chalkboard. That is the conclusion of the story, and God's trying to do that, dear brothers and sisters, in our lives, through our trials.

Refining Faith Through the Fire

He's trying to erase our name. Praise God that he sometimes takes a blowtorch and a fire to come to get the way our names have been etched into our chalkboard, and God says, a little towel, wet towel, is not going to take care of this.

A baptism in water is not going to get this etching out. I need a blowtorch to get this etching out, and so I'm going to come with a fire, and he's not trying to destroy us, as I've said. He's trying to get our name out from being etched in our chalkboard.

That's all. He wants the name of Sandeep to be absolutely irrelevant. He wants your name to be absolutely irrelevant, but why? Because he hates you? No, because he loves you, and he wants every bit of that chalkboard to say, God is full of compassion and merciful.

Let me add, I said one last verse, but let me add one more verse to that. 1 Peter chapter 1. I think I talked about this too. Yes, I did. I think I talked about this last week or the week before that.

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 7. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 7. God's bringing a blowtorch. God's bringing a fire, and he's testing your faith, and he's testing it through different circumstances. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 7, so that the proof of your faith be more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor as Christ is revealed.

Salvation as the Imprint of Jesus' Name

Then when the chalkboard is revealed, when my chalkboard is revealed, it's not the name of Sandeep anymore. Glory and praise and honor to Jesus Christ, and then you see in verse 11, even though you don't see him, you love him, and even though you don't see him now, you believe in him.

In all these circumstances, you don't see him now. You believe in him now in this circumstance, and you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Verse 9, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, obtaining as the final outcome of all your testings of your faith, salvation.

Finally, Sandeep has been saved. What does that mean? That the name of Jesus has been completely imprinted on his heart. The name of Sandeep has been gone. That's the final outcome of our salvation of our souls.

It's not about sin, dear brothers and sisters. It is about sin, but that's not the goal. There's so much of sin and self that our names need to be get rid of, but that's just the preparation for the real positive thing, which is the imprinting of the name of Jesus for the praise and honor and glory.

That when our chalkboard has been relieved, revealed at the coming of God, God says, let me show to the whole world. Let me show to all of the devil and his demons, all of the testing of their faith that you went through and all the fires you went through.

Let me finally show this masterpiece that used to be Sandeep, that used to be each of you, dear brothers and sisters. Here's the final revealing. Jesus has been imprinted. That's all it's saying. And so that's why God's saying, I want to, can I, can I work on you today?

Surrendering to God's Refining Work

Can I bring the fire in your life today? Can I raise your name a little bit more through your difficult spouse, through your difficult children, through your different coworkers, through misunderstandings, through gossip that is wrong, through feelings and hurtful situations with family or work, whatever.

Can I come to you? Cause I'm trying to get your name out of your life. Trying to pull it away. I'm going to raise this chalkboard so completely. Believe me, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm deep at work within you, etching my name in you, but your name is conflicting with your, my name.

I don't, there's no place for your name. It's just my name alone. You know, brothers and sisters, let's, let's surrender. Let's submit to his fires and let's embrace the etching of the name of Jesus. I know dear brothers and sisters, we all value his name.

Hallowed be your name. Lord Jesus, we value your name. Well, let's mean it. Let's mean it. Cause it's going to come at the expense of our name being removed. God will help us.