Complete Salvation and How to Recieve It - Part 2 — Derek Prince

Derek Prince Ministries, proclaiming the inspired word of God around the world. Derek Prince is an internationally recognized Bible teacher and author. Through books, audios, videos, and radio broadcasts, Derek seeks to reach the unreached and teach the untaught.

In over 50 years of ministry, Derek has reached over 100 nations in more than 50 languages. And now, Derek Prince.

Salvation as Deliverance, Healing, and Preservation

This eighth chapter of Luke contains wonderful examples. Going on a little further, Jesus returned to the other side of the sea of Galilee and he was in the crowd and the little woman with chronic bleeding or an issue of blood came up behind him and touched him.

And Jesus knew somebody had touched him and he said, who touched me? And she was afraid. She didn't want to admit. You know why? Because according to the law of Moses, a woman with an issue of blood was ceremonially unclean and she was not permitted to touch anybody.

But she was so desperate she went against the law. So then it says, when she realized Jesus knew what had happened, she came trembling and fell down before him and confessed what she'd done. And in verse 48, Jesus said to her, Daughter, be of good cheer.

Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Guess what that is, has made you well? Your faith has saved you. That's right. So, deliverance from chronic bleeding is just a part of salvation. And then in Luke 8 50, Jesus at that time was on his way to pray for the daughter of Jairus who was at death's door.

Well because he got delayed with the woman, Jairus' daughter died. So these well-meaning negative people sent a message to Jesus. Be careful of the well-meaning negative people. And they said, Don't trouble the master.

She's dead. But this was Jesus' response. Verse 50. Jesus heard it. He answered him saying, Do not be afraid. Only believe and she will be made well. Guess what the word is? She will be saved. What happened to her?

Brought back from death to life. What's that? Part of salvation. Okay. Then in Acts 4 verse 9. This is the aftermath of the situation in which Peter and John had brought miraculous healing to the lame cripple who sat at the gate of the temple begging for alms.

Typically of the religious leadership of the day, they had to have an inquiry. What had they done healing this man? I don't know whether you've noticed, when Jesus healed people, and he usually did it on the Sabbath day, they never bothered about the fact that people got healed.

All they bothered about was that the regulations for the Sabbath which they had, had not been observed. And I have to say in a way that's rather typical of religious people. We tend to get so absorbed with our little rules that we miss the really important things of God.

Anyhow, Peter and John are arraigned by the Sanhedrin. And this is what Peter said in Acts 4 verse 9. If we this day are judged for a good deed done to the helpless man, by what means he has been made well?

Guess what the word is? Saved. That's right. So the restoration of strength and life to the body of a cripple is called salvation. And, just a little further on, in verse 12, Peter says it was through the name of Jesus of Nazareth that this happened.

And then he says, nor is there salvation in any other. So what was the healing of that man? Salvation. See? And just one more example, two more examples. Acts 14 verse 8. This is something that happened when Paul was preaching in Lystra.

Acts 14 8. And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. This man heard Paul speak. Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, stand upright on your feet.

He leapt and walked. Paul saw that he had faith to be what? To be saved. That's right. And then a completely different use of the word in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8, verse 18. 2nd Timothy 4 18.

Paul right at the end of his life, in jail, facing probable execution says, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me to his heavenly kingdom. Guess what the word preserve is? Save.

So salvation is also the ongoing process of being preserved in every situation. So there are eight examples where this basic word for save or salvation is applied to things other than the forgiveness of sins.

In other words it's the all-inclusive benefits of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It covers every area of human personality. It covers every need in any human life in time or eternity. Whether it's spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, financial, it's all covered by the one sacrifice of Jesus.

Calvary as a Perfect and Complete Work

Now I have spent years meditating on this because when I was sick in the land of Egypt in 1943 in a British military hospital, God sent a precious sister, a brigadier, a lady brigadier in the Salvation Army, aged about 76, who was a warrior of the Lord.

She came in and got permission for me to go out and sit in the car and they prayed together. God spoke to me through another sister in that car and he said, consider the work of Calvary a perfect work, perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.

Now when I got out of the car I was just as sick as when I got in. But God had showed me where to find the answer. The work of Calvary. It's a perfect work, perfect in every respect. It doesn't matter what kind of need you have, it's perfect.

Perfect in every aspect, it doesn't matter from what angle you view it, it's perfect. And I could say, I think truthfully, that for the last 46 years I have been considering the work of Calvary. And I never get to the end of it.

There's always something new. In the course of time I made two discoveries, or I found two ways of communicating this to people. There are two key words which I believe God has given me to explain what took place when Jesus died on the cross.

The first word is exchange, the second word is identification. Let me take a little while now to explain the nature of the exchange that took place. I think the key verse is Isaiah 53 verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way.

That's the problem of the whole human race. That's the one thing of which we're all guilty. We've all turned to our own way. We haven't all robbed a bank, or committed adultery, or got drunk, or stolen.

But there's one thing we have all done, we have turned to our own way. And God says, your way is not my way. And then the latter part of the verse says, and the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, or made to meet together on him, the iniquity of us all.

So going our own way, turning our back on God, is called iniquity. It's a very strong word. But I've researched this word in Hebrew, gone through the Old Testament. The Hebrew word is avon, if anybody wants to know it.

And I've discovered that it means not just doing wrong, but the penalties and the judgment that follow doing wrong. It's one all-inclusive word for iniquity, and God's judgment and punishment on iniquity.

And so the revelation is that God visited on Jesus, the iniquity of us all, and all the evil consequences of iniquity. They all came on Jesus on the cross. He took the evil by a divine exchange, that in return God might make the good available to us.

Do you see that? I like to help people do this a little bit vividly, with the left hand and the right hand. So be careful you don't hit your neighbor on the nose. But let's, I'll do it first and you see.

God, well let's put it this way. The evil came upon Jesus, that's the left hand, that the good might be made available to us. Now can you do that with your hands? The evil came upon Jesus, that the good might be made available to us.

Let's do it once more. The evil came upon Jesus, that the good might be made available to us. Now there's no reason for that. God didn't owe it. We had no claims on it. It's purely his measureless grace, and his incomprehensible love.

You know what grace is? Grace is what you can never earn. Most Christians don't really know what grace is, because they're always trying to earn it. But you cannot earn what Jesus did for you on the cross.

If you try to be good enough, you'll never receive it. It is purely grace, and it's received only by what? Faith, that's right. By grace you have been saved through faith. This is God's grace. I mean, I spend time sometimes just meditating on what Jesus did on my behalf, and my mind never can fully comprehend it.

The grace of the Lord that he came down, took our place, my place, and endured all the inexpressible evil that should have come upon me in my place. But he did it out of grace. And then I'd like to just very quickly go through about eight aspects of this exchange.

Forgiveness and Healing Through Christ's Suffering

I often preach this as a complete message, but I just want to do it briefly here this evening. Staying in Isaiah 53 verses 4 and 5, it says,. Surely he has borne our griefs, but the correct literal meaning is sicknesses, and carried or endured our pains.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement or punishment for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes or wounds we are healed.

It's totally logical. And there are two aspects of the exchange. First of all, Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Because he bore our punishment, God's justice is satisfied and we can have peace with God.

Being justified by faith we have peace with God. And then Jesus took our sicknesses, bore our pains, and by the wounds inflicted on his body he procured physical healing for us. Now let's do these. First of all we'll do the spiritual, then we'll do the physical.

I'll do it once and then you follow me. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Are you ready? Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Now the physical. Jesus was wounded that we might be healed.

Do you believe that? Then you know one thing you have to do, say thank you. If you really believe it you have to say thank you. And thanking is the purest expression of faith. Many times we miss out because we don't say thank you.

And then in Isaiah 53 10 we read these words. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. So on the cross the soul of Jesus was made the sin offering for the world.

Now according to the ceremonies of the old covenant, when an animal was brought as a sin offering, the man who brought the animal confessed his sin to the priest. The priest laid his hands on the head of the animal and symbolically transferred the sin of the man to the animal.

Then the animal paid the penalty for the man's sin. What's the penalty of sin? Death. So the animal died as a substitute for the man. Now the writer of Hebrews says it's not possible for the blood of bulls or goats to take away sins.

That was merely a prefiguring of what was to happen when Jesus died on the cross. But when Jesus died on the cross, his soul became the sin offering for the human race. Again there is no way our minds can begin to comprehend what it meant for the Lord Jesus in all his purity and holiness to become identified with the awful sin of humanity.

I'm not an outstandingly priggish person but when I think of some of the sins that are being committed in our society today, some of the awful sexual abuses and abnormalities, I shudder to think what it would mean even to me to have my soul identified with those sins.

And that's just a tiny, minute fraction of what happened when Jesus' soul was made sin with all our sinfulness, yours and mine. But it put away sin, you see. The writer of Hebrews says in the sacrifices of the Old Testament there was a reminder again being made every year of sin.

They never put away sin. They just reminded the people, you're sinners, it'll be covered for another year and then you'll have to come with the sacrifice again. But Jesus, the writer says, by one sacrifice of himself put away sin forever.

He dealt with sin by that sacrifice. So Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. Now Paul is quoting Isaiah 53 10 in 2nd Corinthians 5 21. A lot of people don't realize that because of the fact that it's hidden in the language.

2nd Corinthians 5 21. For God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see the exchange? Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with his righteousness.

Not our righteousness. Not the best we can do because Isaiah says all our righteousness is a filthy rag. And Isaiah 61 10, one of my favorite verses says, he has given me a garment of salvation and wrapped me around with a robe of righteousness.

Now never stop short with your garment of salvation. It's wonderful to have that. But once you have the garment of salvation you can be wrapped around with the sinless righteousness of the Son of God.

And it doesn't matter from what angle the devil looks at you, he's got nothing to say against you. The writer of Isaiah says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for he has given me a garment of salvation and covered me with a robe of righteousness.

Sharing Christ's Life Through the New Birth

I find that the majority of Christians have not even realized that. That we are covered with the righteousness of Jesus. Going on with the exchange, in Hebrews 2 verse 9. You really don't need to attend there.

The writer says that by the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for every man. In other words, he tasted death in the place of every human being. I want to say human being. My understanding is every descendant of Adam.

God began the human race in an extraordinary way. As far as I understand Adam was created in a different way from any other creature. Because it says by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all their hosts by the breath of his mouth.

But when it comes to creating Adam, God molded a figure of clay with his own fingers. And then that divine being, the second person of the Godhead, the Word of God by whom all things were made that were made.

Listen, he stooped and put his divine lips opposite the lips of clay and he breathed into him the breath of life. The Hebrew word there for breathe is so powerful. It's vayipach. The P sound is a plosive and the chet sound is an ongoing breath.

God exploded himself into Adam. He imparted his life to Adam. And think of the physical consequences. A body of clay became a living human soul with eyes and ears and organs and functions. What did that?

The Spirit of God. So you see, really to believe in divine healing is very logical. Because if your watch goes wrong you don't take it to the bootmaker. If your body goes wrong at least it's reasonable to take it to the body maker.

Who is the body maker? The Lord and especially the Holy Spirit, you see. Because it was the Spirit of God that did that. But when God came to redeem man, listen, he stooped a lot lower. He stooped to the death of the cross.

And when he'd risen up again on the resurrection Sunday evening, he reenacted the first creation in the new creation. And it says Jesus breathed into them and said receive the Holy Spirit. The word for breathe there in Greek is the word used for a flute player breathing into the mouth of his instrument.

This is just a personal opinion. I don't myself envisage Jesus breathing collectively on all of them. I envisage him coming up to each of them individually and breathing in the breath. Not just of divine life, but listen, resurrection life.

Life that had conquered sin and death, hell and the grave, Satan. A totally victorious life. I was teaching on this recently somewhere and God gave me these words. I hope I can get them right. Because they just came to me.

Eternal life, divine life, incorruptible life, undefeatable life and indestructible life. What's that? That's the new birth. They were born again. They were saved. They passed out of Old Testament salvation, which merely looks forward to New Testament salvation.

It looks back to an accomplished historical fact. You see, to be saved New Testament wise you have to do two things. You have to confess Jesus as Lord and what else do you have to do? Believe that God raised him from the dead.

That was the first time they believed. That's New Testament salvation. All right, so Jesus tasted death for us that we might share what's the opposite of death? You don't have to be a theologian to say that, do you?

Let's do it then. Jesus died our death that we might share His life. Let's say it again. Jesus died our death that we might share His life. All right, let's go on. Galatians 3, 13 and 14. Here's one of the most neglected aspects of the exchange.

Redemption from the Curse and Reception of Blessing

But God is bringing it out into the open these days. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written cursed everyone who hangs on a tree and the cross was a tree.

That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So what's the exchange? What's the bad thing? The curse. What's the good thing?

The blessing. All right, so Jesus endured the curse that we might enjoy the blessing. Can we say that? Jesus endured the curse that we might enjoy the blessing. Now this, many of you have heard me teach for an hour or two on this.

I can't afford that now, but it opens a whole new door of deliverance and healing and peace. We can't dwell on it, we just have to observe it. If you want a picture of a curse, look at Jesus on the cross.

Rejected by man, forsaken by God, under darkness, in agony, not on earth, not in heaven. Totally rejected, totally unacceptable, total darkness. That's the curse. But thank God he was made a curse that we might enjoy the blessing.

Abundance, Glory, and Acceptance Through the Cross

Then going on very quickly now in 2nd Corinthians 8 9. 2nd Corinthians 8 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich.

Now again, you don't have to be a theologian to see the exchange. What is the bad thing? Are you sure poverty is a bad thing? You better be sure. What's the good thing? Rich. Now I don't use rich when I do this because it's been abused by wrong teaching.

I use the word abundance. Because abundance means you've got enough for yourself and more to give to somebody else. Let's do it quickly. Jesus endured our poverty that we might share his abundance. Now there are two other aspects which I won't go into the Scriptures because our time is almost gone.

But there are aspects of emotional healing which are also provided by the cross. I'll just say them briefly. Jesus endured our shame that we might share what's the opposite of shame? Glory. That's right, that we might share his glory.

I don't know whether you've ever pictured Jesus hanging naked on the cross with people walking by and laughing at him. It was shame. It says he endured the cross despising the shame. But it was shame.

And oh how many people today are tormented by shame. But I have good news for you. Jesus endured your shame. One main source of shame, to be very frank, is that children have been sexually abused in their early years.

But praise God there is an answer. Jesus took the shame that we might share his glory. And then finally, and this is the ultimate, Jesus endured our rejection that we might share his, what's the opposite of rejection?

Acceptance. Let's say that. Jesus endured our rejection that we might share his acceptance. You see, on the cross the Father rejected him. Because he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And there came no answer. The first time that the Son of God had ever prayed and got no answer. And he died a few moments later of a broken heart. It says in Psalm 69, picking up reproach has broken my heart.

Jesus did not die of the effects of crucifixion. He could have lived quite a while longer. He died of a broken heart. What broke his heart? Rejection. Why did he endure rejection? That we might have his acceptance.

We are accepted with God as members of his family. And God has no second-class children. There again, in our contemporary culture, I think at least 50 of the people around us are struggling with rejection.

Because of the failure of parents, because of divorce, because of the general cruelty of human beings to one another. But we can walk out into that world and say we have the answer. It's provided by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This salvation that we are enjoying covers all your emotional needs. It's perfectly perfect. It's completely complete.