God’s Goodness in Salvation with Matt Smethurst
Today we get to hear from Matt Smethurst about salvation. Matt is managing editor of The Gospel Coalition and author of several books. He and his wife, Maghan, have three children and are planting a church in Richmond, Virginia. In this conversation we dig in deep, tackling topics like election, calling, regeneration, conversion, and justification. We pray this episode encourages you to look to God as the author of your salvation, and to praise him for the work he has done to make salvation possible for us!
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
What is the Bible’s story of salvation? How do we see that story unfold throughout Scripture?
How can we be saved?
What is it we are being rescued from? What are we being rescued to?
What are some of the inner-connected themes that help us see the Bible’s story of salvation weaving its way throughout the whole book?
What is the order of salvation? Why is that significant?
What role does the Holy Spirit play in salvation?
The words “election” and “calling” can often be trigger words, but where do we see evidence of this in Scripture?
In John 3:16, does “the world” refer to the elect or to all of humanity?
Is salvation merely spiritual? Or is it both spiritual and physical?
What would you say to someone who doubts their salvation?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“It’s been said that the Old Testament is Jesus Christ concealed, and the New Testament is Jesus Christ revealed.”
“The more I've learned, the more I’ve studied...and really immersed myself in the stories of the Old Testament, the more I’ve come to see that it’s not a bunch of disconnected stories in the Bible, but there’s actually a story of the Bible, a narrative thread—a through-line—that runs from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 22.”
“The story of salvation begins when humanity sins in Genesis 3, but of course it begins in the mind of God even before this.”
“The Bible is a really long book because God is a really long-suffering and patient and merciful God.”
“God’s salvation promise in Genesis 3:15 takes on something of a national and even ethnic character in the Old Testament as God works through his chosen people Israel and makes promises to them, but also promises that will eventually have spill-over effects for the entire world.”
“Israel was expecting a Messiah; they did not expect someone quite like Jesus.”
“The whole Bible is about Jesus, but you could say that the Old Testament is anticipation, the Gospels are manifestation, Acts is proclamation, the Epistles are explanation, and Revelation is consummation. But the whole thing is pointing toward the life, death, resurrection, and current reign and future return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the hero of the Bible.”
“Our most fundamental and serious problem as human beings is not economic, it's not horizontal in any way, it’s actually vertical. The problem is that we have all built our lives around things other than God.”
“We were created to know and enjoy and bring glory to God, and instead we have lived lives for ourselves.”
“When we turn away from the source of life, what else is there but death? When we turn away from the source of light, what else is there but darkness?”
“We have cut ourselves off from the God who made us for himself, and therefore we are lost, we are separated from him, and we deserve an eternity apart from him.”
“All you must do in order to be made right with this holy God is to simply turn away from your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ his Son.”
“It will take us an eternity to plumb the depths of God’s manifold mercy.”
“We’ve been rescued from the penalty of our sin, which is the righteous wrath of God.”
“We’ve been rescued from God, we’ve been rescued by God, and we’ve been rescued for God.”
“God in the person of Jesus Christ invaded the world. And in the incarnation of Jesus, heaven came to earth and the future broke back into the present in the person of King Jesus and in the Kingdom he inaugurated.”
“For 33 years he lived a life of perfect, unflinching devotion to his Father; in other words, he lived the life that I have failed to live. And then on the cross, he died the death—in my place—that I deserved to die. And on that cross God treated Jesus as if he had lived my sinful life, so that through faith he could treat me as if I had lived Jesus’ perfect life. And three days later he got up from the dead—not just spiritually or mythically, but bodily—and he rose and walked out of the tomb so that anyone who turns and puts their faith in Jesus will rise right along with him with a resurrected body fit for a resurrected, renewed earth.”
“We’ve been saved from an eternity without God, the one for whom we were made. And we’ve been saved to not just an eternity with him, but even an abundant life now, where we can have the freedom to live for his pleasure and glory, but not the crushing burden of having to do so in order to earn or retain his favor.”
“We don’t work for our salvation, we work from our salvation.”
“The image of God is created, fractured, incarnated, it’s being restored in us, and one day it will be perfected.”
“The process of sanctification in the life of a believer in whom the Holy Spirit resides is the process of that marred, shattered image being progressively restored.”
“So many of our struggles as Christians are downstream from the fact that we have forgotten who we are.”
“The image of God is being restored in you.”
“Sanctification is the Bible’s get-rich-slow scheme.”
“The order of salvation begins in eternity past, before the beginning, with God’s electing love.”
“Election: an action of God and his initiative, him setting his love on people who don’t deserve it
Atonement: Jesus accomplished the will of God by dying in the place of sinners
Calling: internal successful call of the Holy Spirit in someone who has been predestined or elected
Regeneration: when the Holy Spirit ‘turns the lights on’ inside and makes you see what you were formally blind to and makes come alive what formerly bored you
Conversion: the result of regeneration, comes through repentance and faith, turning away from sin and trusting and treasuring Christ
Justification: being pronounced by the judge of the universe to be in the right before him, declares us innocent in his courtroom
Adoption: our criminal trial becomes an adoption ceremony because the judge is taking us home as our father
...followed by Sanctification, Perseverance, and Glorification”
“[Studying the process of salvation] pulls back the curtain to show us what’s going on in heaven from across the ages, which reminds us that we’re caught up in a story much bigger than ourselves, and that the decisive actor is not us, or our ability to persuade people with the gospel; it’s a sovereign act of God. Salvation is of the Lord.”
“The Holy Spirit’s job is to apply the work that the Father arranged and the Son accomplished.”
“The Spirit convicts us to sin, he drives us to the Savior, and he turns the lights on so that we can finally see.”
“Read the Bible slowly; don’t skim over the way things are phrased. Think about what it’s not staying as a way to better understand what it is saying.”
“In heaven there will be no applause for me when I arrive. God gets all the credit.”
“We need God to change a heart in order for that person to be saved.”
“Assurance of salvation is a community project; we need other Christians in our lives to be able to see evidences of God’s grace that we are blind to.”
“You are saved not by the strength of your faith, but by the object of your faith.”
“The most important thing is not the intensity or consistency of your faith; it’s the object of your faith.”
“For every one look at yourself, give ten looks to Christ” - Robert Murray McCheyne
“God has never regretted saving someone. He saved you not only with full knowledge of your past sins, but also of all of your future sins, and he wanted you anyway.”
“The Christian life is the churched life; and the churched life is the Christian life.”
“The God who has choreographed everything from eternity past to eternity future, he is not going to forget about you. The God who has been faithful to you over the course of ten thousand yesterdays, you can trust for tomorrow.”
“If your ‘gathering with your church muscles’ have atrophied and it’s hard after the past 18 months to get back in the rhythm of going to church, I just want to encourage you, sister, to get your body there and let your heart catch up. Don’t wait until you feel like going to church until you do, because your heart is not your king, your feelings are not your king. Sometimes the discipline comes first and we’ve got to trust that the discipline will give way to delight.”
RESOURCES
The Story of His Glory, Brian Hedges
3 2 1: The Story of God, the World, and You, by Glen Scrivener
Long Story Short: The Bible in 12 Phrases, by Glen Scrivener
The Cross of Christ, by John Stott
Conversion, by Michael Lawrence
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
SIMPLE JOYS OF KNOWING AND LOVING GOD
The joy of good food
The joy of church
The joy of knowing that no matter how bad things get, if Jesus Christ really got up from the dead (which he did), then everything is going to be okay
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How would you describe the story of salvation? Write it down or verbalize it out loud to a friend.
By whose power are we saved? How does this happen?
What is it that we are saved from? What are we saved to?
What Scriptures help you most clearly see God’s glory in salvation? Consider memorizing one of these passages.
What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
Affiliate links used are used where appropriate. Thank you for supporting the products that support Journeywomen!
FOR MORE OF JOURNEYWOMEN
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Follow Us: Instagram | Facebook
Support the podcast by writing a review
