October 3, 2025
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This session (led by Pastor Josh with elder Billy Schick) explores the doctrine of salvation through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology and his 40 doctrinal questions. It emphasizes how clarity on salvation transforms personal faith, ministry practice, and leadership in the church.
- Personal Testimony & Importance of Salvation
- Billy shares his journey from assuming salvation through upbringing and works, to truly grasping the gospel as God’s work in Christ by the Spirit.
- This clarity now fuels his ministry to college students, helping them know what they believe, why they believe it, and how to live it out.
- Election: When and Why Did God Choose Us?
- Rooted in Ephesians 1, election is God’s choice before the foundation of the world, based solely on His sovereign will, not human merit.
- Students often jump to the tension between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, but leaders emphasize starting with the “bigness of God.”
- Practically, people wrestle less with “why me” and more with “why not someone I love?”
- The Gospel Message
- Not a formula, but the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).
- Must include the bad news of sin (Ephesians 2, Titus 3) to make sense of the good news.
- Common misunderstandings:
- “I need to clean myself up before God will accept me.”
- Self-love as prerequisite for faith.
- Prosperity gospel distortions that tie faith to guaranteed blessings.
- Born Again / Regeneration
- From John 3: regeneration is a secret act of God, giving spiritual life where there was only death.
- It is wondrous and humbling: we cannot cause it, only God does.
- Leads to worship and personal reflection: “Why me?” rather than despair over “why not others?”
- Repentance and Saving Faith
- Two sides of the same coin: turning from sin and turning to Christ.
- Not one-time acts, but an ongoing lifestyle like breathing.
- Martin Luther’s first thesis: the Christian life is to be marked by continual repentance.
- Repentance is not about perfection or a process leading to salvation—it is fruit of being born again.
- Justification
- Defined (per Grudem) as an instantaneous legal act of God where sins are forgiven and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us.
- It is scandalous yet liberating: God declares sinners righteous not by works, but through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
- Gives hope and assurance amid doubts and struggles, grounding believers in God’s work rather than their performance.
📌 Key Quotes
- “Do I know the gospel, or am I just assuming salvation because of my upbringing?”
- “Election is God’s choice before the foundation of the world, not because of any foreseen merit in us, but His sovereign good pleasure.”
- “Christ died for our sins—that phrase captures the essence of the gospel.”
- “Regeneration is a secret act of God in which He imparts new spiritual life to us.”
- “Repentance and faith are like breathing—ongoing responses of turning from sin and trusting in Christ.”
- “Justification is scandalous: that God would declare someone like me righteous in His sight.”
