The title to this message is “The Pentagram of Salvation.” That sounds a bit ominous, doesn’t it? It sounds almost Satanic, but I assure you, that’s not the way I intend to use it.
But before I get that, I’d like to begin with an obviously fictitious story about a presidential assassination. This is OBVIOUSLY fiction because this particular president is nearly universally loved. Three years earlier he had been elected by 82% of those who voted, and his ratings have soared to 92%. He is a kind, wise, grandfatherly figure who people find hard not to love. But not everyone voted for him, and not quite everyone loves him. On a Monday afternoon, he is visiting a nursing home to meet and honor a WW2 veteran who is celebrating his 105 birthday. But as the president is stepping out of his car, he is shot by a deranged man from a block away. A bullet rips through his back and bursts out his chest, tearing apart one of his lungs. The assassin is immediately beaten to the ground by the group of presidential admirers. The security detail cover the president’s wounds and call for medical assistance; he is rushed to hospital. During the trip his heart stops beating. The EMTs do everything they can to restart it. 30 seconds pass, a minute, then two. Everyone fears that their beloved president has died. But then as the ambulance reaches the nearest hospital, a sinus rhythm begins once again.
It is a long ordeal, but over the next nine months the president sufficiently recovers from his deadly wound. And when the trial for the assassin begins, the president speaks out about him for the first time. The nation isn’t surprised, knowing his character, but their president expresses his concern for the man who shot him. He doesn’t repeat what so many others have said – that the man deserves to die. The president says he forgives the man, and he wants to go to the prison to meet him. Still obviously weak and sore, he goes where no other president has willingly gone before. As he enters the assassin’s cell, his hand is out, and when the man reluctantly reaches for it, the president pulls him to him and gently hugs him. The president tells the man that he forgives him, and he and his wife would like him to come to dinner, offering to let him spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House. He says that he would like to pay for the man’s medical and mental treatments – out of his own pocket. Then he tells him he is concerned for his soul and he’d like to explain to him the gospel of the Christ Jesus. He sincerely desires to create a full – and eternal – relationship with the man who attempted to kill him – the man who, at least temporarily, did kill him.
What I hope to show you this morning is that forgiveness is a multifaceted gift. Salvation, and particularly salvation from sin, isn’t a simple, one sided, act. It isn’t a Biblical press-release, It isn’t created by the simple prayer, “Lord Jesus, forgive me; come into my heart and save me.” Salvation involves a minimum of five major points, and without all of them working together, there is no gospel salvation.
And to illustrate those five points, I have drawn a “pentagram” for you. Most people, when they hear the word “pentagram,” think of an upside down, five pointed star. In our society it is identified with the occult – with Satanism. But history shows that it was a Christian symbol before it was stolen by the Christ-haters. Originally, it was used to symbolize the five wounds of Christ Jesus – His hands, His feet and His side. But today, I’d like to use it slightly differently.
Let’s say that this circle encompasses the blessings of peace and forgiveness with God. Here is salvation. At the center of this star is the Lord – the infinitely holy God, the One whom each of our sins has offended. The five points of this star represent five aspects of our forgiveness and salvation. They push salvation out to its intended – and maximum – extent. Salvation includes five essential points: regeneration, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation and sanctification. Together they bring us to the Lord, and without any of them we are without God and without hope for eternity.
Please pray that I can teach these things without putting anyone to sleep.
One of the rays on this star is REGENERATION.
It might be argued that the man who shot the president in my illustration – killed him – he died for a while. Whether that was actually the case or not, that attempted murder should be worthy of capital punishment. And as the man who tried to kill the most popular president in history, you might say that the assassin became a dead man walking. Even in prison, he’d have to be kept in isolation, or the murderers already there would murder him. The assassin is as good as dead – by law and by circumstances. And that assassin represents us – all of us – we who in the past have assassinated God in our hearts. We are dead – spiritually dead men and women.
“Regeneration” is a Biblical principle which addresses our spiritual death. As the Prophet Ezekiel says, “The soul that sinneth it shall die,” reflecting on God’s word to our father Adam, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam’s spirit died the moment he sinned, but admittedly his body lived on for many years before it died. If God had not graciously forgiven that man, upon his physical death his soul also would have died. Death reigns over every aspect of our being – body, soul and spirit. So James tells us, “Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” And the Apostle John adds, “Unbelievers, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars will have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” There is not a person alive, who has not already died, and who should expect more death to come.
But there is a remedy for the worst part of that death; we call it “regeneration” or the “new birth.” It is spiritual; it is eternal; it is rooted and empowered by God through the crucifixion of Christ Jesus. In salvation, the death of Christ is imputed or transferred to the believer – and so is the life of Christ. In speaking to believers the Bible says, “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins…” “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Regeneration reverses the death that is in us – by giving us God’s eternal life. The life which a believer is given is given to him as a new born child of the God. The new life is not just new; it is the very life of the God against whom we have sinned. “As many as receive (Christ as Lord and Saviour, to them gives Christ power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” REGENERATION abundantly meets the needs of our spiritual death – it super abundantly meets them.
A second spoke on this star is REDEMPTION.
To “redeem” something is to buy it back. The New Testament word actually refers to the “agora” – the community market place. In fact it could refer to the market where Roman slaves were bought and sold.
Long before that assassin pulled the trigger, he was living as a slave to his sin. His hatred was viewed as murder in the eyes of the omniscient God. He was already an assassin. And… that hatred, pushed him, pulled him and motivated him to buy a rifle with the enslaved intent of killing the president. By the time he squeezer the trigger there was no turning back, because his heart was tyrannized and engulfed. To use Paul’s words, “he had already sold himself under sin.” But our fictitious president was willing to pay the price to buy that man out from under his servitude. He risked his authority to take the man from his prison. He was willing to pay for the man’s treatment. He sacrificed his respect by bringing him to the White House.
But of course, this is just a story. I made it up, and it may not even be logically feasible. But the price which our Saviour paid, was no fiction; it was not imaginary or figurative. In John 10 the Lord Jesus called Himself the Shepherd of His flock. He said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” He gave His life not only as an exchange for the death of the people He chose to save… But He gave His life to actually and literally buy those dead and enslaved souls out of the market place of sin.
The Old Testament has several illustrations of this redemption. For example, the death of the Passover lamb, paid the price of the Israelite’s escape from Egypt. And the Old Testament law permitted the death of a lamb to pay the price of a larger animal – Exodus 13:13. And if a man was forced by poverty to sell his family’s property – his birthright – any other member of the family could pay off the debt and buy it back for him. “If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold” – Leviticus 25:25.
These were just Old Testament pictures of the upcoming redemption of Christ. Zacharias praised God at the promise of Jesus’ birth saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and REDEEMED his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us…” That horn of salvation was the Son of God, who came to “give Himself a ransom for many” – Mark 10:45.
While REGENERATION answers to the sinner’s spiritual death, REDEMPTION solves the problem of his sin. There will be myriads of regenerated souls in heaven who will be singing songs of praise to the Saviour. “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast REDEEMED us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” – Revelation 5:9. And Peter in writing to a group of believers said, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not REDEEMED with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
So here is a sinner – a murderer, thief a liar, who has been given eternal life and been redeemed from his slavery. These things are good – they are great. But they are not enough, if we know that the God we tried to murder is still angry with us. There must be more – and there is.
The third ray on this pentagram of salvation is RECONCILIATION.
Reconciliation simply refers to a restoration of friendly relations. Our fictitious president may not have known there was an assassin filled with hatred out there to kill him. But you can be sure that God knows exactly what IS in our hearts and what has been in our hearts. He has heard the quiet whisper when you thought, “I will not have this God to rule over me.” He has a divine record of every time you thot, “I don’t care what God hates, I’m going to do it anyway.” The man who attempted to murder my make-believe president had no plans of ever enjoying a meal – or a handshake – or an eternity with his intended target. And my president had no plans on that fellowship either.
That illustration can’t begin to come close to the spiritual reality between God and us. We are all sinners in the sight of God. “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” – Psalm 58:3. By nature we are aliens and strangers, “having no hope, and without God in the world” – Ephsians 2:12. There is a statement in Psalm 7:11 which comes across as a very mild statement in English. But it isn’t. “God is angry with the wicked every day.” God isn’t mildly angry; He is furious with each and every sinner. They are an abomination to Him. God can’t stand to look at them. As far as the east is from the west, He will have nothing to do with them while in that sinful condition. And there is not a thing in the world they can do to correct the problem, even if they wished they could. No sinner is interested in being reconciled to God, except if on their terms.
And yet in salvation, the wounded, offended party – God – has graciously established a reconciliation. “It pleased (God) the Father that in (Christ Jesus) all fulness (should) dwell. And, having make peace thought the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself… And you, that were (before) alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he RECONCILED” – Colossians 1. II Corinthians 5 – “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath RECONCILED us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of RECONCILIATION; To wit, that God was in Christ, RECONCILING the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
RECONCILIATION is that part of salvation which brings the sinner into fellowship with the offended God.
The fourth ray on the star of salvation is PROPITIATION.
Please don’t tune me out, or turn off your ears, just because you aren’t familiar with this word. Yes, I know that it is rarely used outside the Bible-preaching church. But that might be all the more reason to take the trouble to learn it.
In Paul’s great study of salvation, he spends a chapter pointing out our horrible sinfulness. “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that… seeketh after God.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” – Romans 3. Following this, the Apostle speaks of Christ, the Saviour of those who repent and trust Him. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth to be a PROPITIATION through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sin that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
PROPITIATION refers to work which Christ accomplished in SATISFYING the demands of the law against us. As Ezekiel said earlier, “the soul that sinneth it shall die.” Why will that soul die? Because that is what God’s law demanded. But in a slightly different nuance, not only did Christ’s death become a substitute for my death. And not only did Jesus’s shed blood pay the price to purchase my soul from the slavery of sin. That death and Jesus’ blood SATISFIED the demand of the law against me.
In surprising way, the Greek word translated “propitiation” is also translated “mercy seat” in Hebrews 9. We know about the mercy seat almost entirely from Old Testament references. We read of the high priest, pulling back a corner of the veil which separated the holy place from the most holy place – first in the tabernacle and then in the temple. Only on the day authorized by God, he entered behind the veil and sprinkled the atoning blood on the mercy seat, between the two gold cherubims – Hebrews 9:5. And in that act, the anger of God and the demand of His law against sinners was satisfied – it was propitiated.
PROPITIATION answers the demand of the law – satisfying its requirements. And once again, it was accomplished by the blood of the Saviour.
The final spoke on this star is SANCTIFICATION.
What if, in my story, that would-be assassin didn’t want to wait for the president outside that nursing home? What if he tried to bring a handgun into the White House? What if he tried to hide in the Lincoln bedroom? I’m reasonably sure he wouldn’t get very far. He wouldn’t get in because only special people have that kind of access. Not only must those who visit the president be special people, but their behavior must be regulated. Bringing a weapon into the presidential palace will not be tolerated by a stranger like this.
The same is true of the visitor – or the would-be resident – to heaven. Just because you have been forgiven… just because you have been made spiritually alive and reconciled… Just because God’s law has been met, and the Lord is willing to be reconciled to you… There is one more necessity. You must be made holy enough to spend eternity with the holy God. Sinners, with weapons in their pockets will not come into God’s presence. Reformed sinners, and even reclaimed sinners, are not welcome. Only the holy soul will be granted access to the Lord.
But, like every other part of salvation, God has that under control as well. And once again, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 1 – “Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” The Lord has made possible the holyfication – the sanctification – of those He saves possible – again through our Lord Jesus Christ. “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through SANCTIFICATION of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – II Thessalonians 2.
The devil and his people have been stealing God’s signs and symbols for years. For example, years ago he stole the cross and corrupted it by putting a dead body on it. More recently he has stolen the beautiful symbol of the rainbow. And before that, it was the pentagram. All of these belong to the Lord, but they’ve been stolen and abused. The pentagram was once a Christian symbol, and perhaps it should be again.
As to its meaning, as Paul said of himself in II Corinthians, God has made me an ambassador. God has commissioned me – He has commissioned all the children of God to be evangelists. To us has been given the privilege to share with you the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. I pray you in Christ’s place, be ye reconciled to God – repent before God and put your faith in the Saviour.