Louie Giglio - I Got Saved, Now What?
This collection is called «Jesus Saves.» Can we say that together? Jesus saves! We’re talking about the doctrine of salvation, and it’s not just about theological information; it’s about life transformation. If I could just say it today, our prayer in this journey is that we will know what it means to be saved, but more than that, that we will be saved. To make it more personal, our prayer is that you would be saved. God’s heart today, from His word, is that none would perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. God’s heart in heaven today is that none would perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth, and that’s our prayer as well.
We talked about salvation being by grace alone. This is where we ended last week: through faith alone, in Christ alone. If you’ve been around our core class in that same vein, we talked about the results of salvation being rescue, right standing, and renewal. Last week, we looked at these seven words of salvation. I want to just go back through them today, knowing that some of you might have missed last week. This was our foundation: depravity simply means that we are all sinners. By this, we imply, and God shows us, that sin doesn’t make us bad people; it makes us dead people.
We’ve said that, I don’t know, a thousand times at Passion City Church, and we’ll say it a thousand more so that all of us understand that we’re not getting graded on a curve. So when you get into a conversation with somebody and they say, «Well, I think I’m a pretty good person,» that’s great! We all want to be pretty good people. But sin doesn’t make you a bad person, a really bad person, or a slightly bad person. Sin makes you dead spiritually. The wages of sin, the scripture says, is not that we’re bad; it’s that we are dead. And that’s all of us, and we’ll see that in just a moment. We just read it in the text that we all read together.
And because we’re sinners, the judgment of a holy God is coming. I think sometimes the church wants to back away from teaching this reality, but this is simply holiness meeting unrighteousness—the perfection of God meeting the sinfulness of man. When that collision happens, judgment happens. It’s not that God is walking around with a 2×4 wanting to crush people; it’s that God is moving through eternity holy and perfect, and everywhere the light of His perfection comes, the darkness of depravity has to flee. So the wrath of God is simply when things are made right. People say, «Well, you know, Pastor, I really don’t like talking about wrath and judgment.» Unless somebody does me wrong, then I’m all about it. You come and break into my house and steal all my stuff, and I want some judgment.
«Oh, God being judged? No, I don’t want any of that!» But if you steal my car, somebody’s going to pay. This is simply the way good and evil work, and we see that at the zenith when the judgment of a holy God comes against all sin. But here’s the good news: the love of God is in the story. Amen! God has mercy on His people; there was an atonement. What does that mean? It means that Jesus dies in our story as a payment for all sins so that people can be forgiven. How are we forgiven? Somebody paid. How do we get off? Someone didn’t get off. And then, more than just being forgiven, which is our debt canceled by the sacrifice of Jesus—this is the crazy part—we are justified! I love it! I hear it every single time from my days when I was raised in church and we were talking about justification: «just as if I never sinned.» Justification is not just that I got forgiven, that my debt was canceled because Jesus was an atoning sacrifice; more than that, I got made righteous in Him.
And then the last part of salvation—this is what we’re really zeroing in on today—is sanctification. Salvation is a process that transforms our lives. Salvation is not insurance. Amen! It’s coming to life—a life that ultimately matures into the image of God. Seven words of salvation! Let me give you three ways to think about them, and then a fourth way that we’re going to lean into today. The first part is this: there’s an «Oh No» moment for everyone who gets saved. The «Oh No» moment is this: I’m sinful, and God is holy. Oh no! This is what Isaiah realized in Isaiah 6 when he had this vision of God. He hears these angelic beings, these seraphim, and they’re calling out, «Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!» At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
So what did Isaiah say? Wow, that’s amazing? No! Isaiah said, «Woe to me! Oh no, I’m getting a glimpse now of how holy God is, and my response isn’t, 'Wow, that’s cool! ' No, my response is, 'Uh-oh. Oh no! I am ruined! Why? For I am a man of unclean lips.' That’s very clear to me right now in the presence of God. Not only that, I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!» I am aware right now that I’m in a really bad spot. You do not get saved casually or accidentally; you get saved when you realize, «I am in a really difficult place.» We all were! We just read it from Ephesians 2. We all were, by nature, deserving of wrath.
Oh no! We talked about it last week—the wrecking ball and the teacup. Now let’s just take a vote. This wrecking ball weighs somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds—about as much as your car. Now let’s take a quick vote: Who’s voting for the teacup? Show of hands! Who’s voting for the wrecking ball? Well, this was the easiest vote we’ve ever done here! Don’t know about Cumberland, but anybody at home? Zero votes for the teacup. It could be the nicest teacup ever! It could be the most well-meaning teacup! But the teacup doesn’t have a chance! That’s the «Oh No» moment of the gospel. It’s not realizing that, «Oh, if I just get a little nudge, it’ll push me right into grace.» No! If I can just get one more badge on my jacket, then I’ll be good with God! No! It is realizing I am dead in sin, and the wrath of God is my due, and I can’t do a thing about it! This teacup and the saucer and the table are going to get smashed to smithereens, and there will be no putting them back together again. That’s the «Oh No» moment of the gospel.
But the gospel—these seven words—also has a «But Wait» moment! Ours is right here in the very next line: «By nature deserving of wrath, but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive even when we were dead in sin. It is by grace you have been saved.» There’s a moment in the «Oh No» of the gospel. We talked about it in 2 Corinthians 5:21: God made Him who knew no sin, Jesus, to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. There’s a «But Wait» moment in the gospel: «Oh no, the wrecking ball is coming! All sin is going to be judged! But wait, there’s good news! There’s a gospel in the middle of the story!» And we looked at that in Isaiah 53 last week. I love this! I know we can’t, but I’d like to preach on the gospel every single Sunday for the rest of my life until Jesus comes! Because most revivals began in history when people in church got saved. That’s how revivals begin: when people who are sitting in the seats actually come alive to transforming new life in Christ, and the church explodes, and the gospel moves out into the streets!
Surely this is a prophecy of Jesus from hundreds of years before in Isaiah: «He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him,» Jesus, can you just say this with me, let’s read this together: «Yet we considered Him punished by God! Stricken by God and afflicted! But He was pierced for our transgressions—not His. He was crushed for our iniquities—not His iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed!» Oh come on! I’m with you on that! Praise God! For we all like sheep have gone astray; that’s the depravity part. All of us have gone astray; each of us—every one of us! Nobody in this building today has a story that goes like this: «I was actually an amazing person. Never once did I ever turn my back on God. Of course, I’m saved!» No one has that story! Each of us has turned to our own way. But here’s the «But Wait» moment! «And the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all!»
There were two cups on the last night before Jesus died. You remember the two cups? The first cup was at the table with His followers when He lifted up the cup and said, «This cup, this wine in this glass symbolizes my blood, a new covenant between God and man.» In other words, what Jesus was saying was, «I’m pouring out my innocent life to make a new deal between you and God. It will not be based on your effort; it will be based on my righteous life.» But then there was a second cup in the garden as He was there at Gethsemane praying alone, and He said, «God, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done.» That cup did not have His innocent blood in it, poured out from the table earlier at the Last Supper. No, that cup had in it our sinfulness that He was now going to take on His innocent life. His life poured out; our sins were absorbed into His innocent life. When the prophet said that He is going to be pierced for our transgressions, what else did he say? He’s going to be crushed for our iniquities. He was thinking about the fact that Jesus was going to be willing to take on the sin of the world, and the wrath of God was going to fall on Him. And it did! And it smashed Him into smithereens. That’s what happened at the cross.
Someone will often say, «Well if God can do anything, and He’s a loving God, and a merciful God, and He’s all-powerful, why doesn’t He just move the table?» I’ll tell you why—because you want Him to be just! But now Romans 3: «Apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There’s no difference between Jew or Gentile, for all—there’s our depravity again—have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.» Comma, that’s everyone! We need to always say that when we get there! And are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Stay with Paul for a moment: «God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement» —there’s one of our seven words—"through the shedding of His blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because, in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—all these people who lived and died before Jesus. He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.»
God could do anything, and He certainly could have moved the table, but if He had moved the table, He wouldn’t be just! And how could we trust and follow a God who’s not just? So, He put His Son under the wrath so He could say, «You can trust Me, I’m just.» He put His Son under the wrath so that He could say, «And you can trust Me! I want to justify you!» Oh no! But wait! The third part of the gospel is «No way!» No way! You’ve got to be kidding me! And that’s simply understanding that Yahweh has done something extraordinary to exchange the guilty for the innocent, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! That we might be justified! Christ’s righteousness now our identity!
But there is a fourth part of the seven words of salvation, and the fourth part is «Now what?» And that’s where we are today! Now what? I love how this beautiful text that we have been digging into in Ephesians 2 ends: «It is by grace that you’ve been saved through faith. It’s not of yourselves; it’s a gift of God.» All this wonderful salvation and saving work of God—but it ends in verse 10 as things shift: «For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.» So, we didn’t get saved by works, not of works, but what we got saved for are works! Amen! Which God prepared in advance for us to do!
So, we’re understanding now: oh no! But wait! God is in the story! No way! Righteous in Christ! But now what? And that’s why we’re calling this message, «I Got Saved! Now What?» Philippians says it this way, in that amazing passage where it ends with, «Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.» All of this work of Christ, He came in the likeness of man, gave Himself even unto death, even death on a cross. So all this gospel is happening, but the very next part of Philippians 2 says, «Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—this is Paul writing to these believers—not only in my presence but now much more in my absence—look at this line: continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.»
This is salvation! God did it; now, you work it out! Oh, how am I going to work it out? Well, God’s going to help you work it out because God is at work in you to do two things. I love this! When I saw this for the very first time as a twenty-something-year-old, it absolutely changed everything about my walk with God! God is working in me both to will and to act! Some translations say «to do,» both to will and to do! In other words, when I don’t want to, I pray that God would give me the want to! Amen! And if I don’t even have the want to want to, I’ll ask God to give me the want to want to! Because God works in us both to will and to do! Why is He working in us to will and to do? So that we can work out our salvation! Salvation is a process! It begins the moment that you place your faith in Jesus, and it ends the moment that He says, «Well done, good and faithful servant!»
And salvation, its focus is life, not heaven. The goal and the aim of salvation is maturity, not just heaven. The thing you don’t want to do is make it into heaven, by the grace of God, Paul refers to it in another one of his letters basically by the skin of your teeth, and to get into heaven immature, having never grown up into the reality that God saved you for! That’s the last thing you want to do—know for sure that you’re going to heaven and then live immature your entire life until you get there! The goal of salvation begins the moment you put your faith in Jesus, but it ends the moment that He says, «Well done, good and faithful servant!» We are in the process, the scripture says, of being saved. Now, be very careful here! Zoom in on this with great focus today! We are not saved by works, but salvation works itself out! So all of us who placed our faith in Jesus are in the process right now of being saved. He doesn’t stop saving you, by the way! The moment you put your faith in Him, He starts saving you! He’s been working toward bringing you to that moment! That’s why in 2 Corinthians 2, you can circle this and look at it later, verse 15, He says, «Among those who are being saved!» It doesn’t mean those who are, you know, earning their way to heaven. It just means those who are aware of the fact that this is a process!
I was conceived in my mother’s womb! I was 100% a human being, and everything I am and will be was in her womb! Amen? But man, I had a lot of growing to do! And that’s what the scripture talks about in Hebrews 10:14. It says, «For by one sacrifice, He has made perfect.» You’re like, «Oh man, I think I’m far from perfect!» Well, that’s who you are in Christ! That’s your new identity in Christ! That’s your spiritual birthright! «He’s made perfect forever those who are being made holy.» For by one sacrifice right here, He’s made us in Him perfect! Oh, but hang on! We’re working it out! We’re being made holy! This word «being made holy» is where we get the word «sanctified.» And sanctified means the process by which believers are made holy through the work of the Holy Spirit, aligning them with God’s will and character.
And so, saved? Yes! Yes! But being saved and being sanctified now is what is the goal! We’re perfect, but we’re also being perfected! You’re like, «Well, Lou, you don’t um… You don’t have to understand all that to get saved!» The thief on the cross, he just cried out to Jesus, and he got saved! He didn’t know anything about soteriology! He only knew, «Today, you’re going to be with me in paradise!» And we all have heard stories of people who were near death, and at the very end of it all, they said, «I need Jesus! I’m calling out on God to save me through the blood of Jesus!» And He does! But that’s not the norm! The thief on the cross is not the norm! And the deathbed conversion is not the norm! Most people, after they get saved, they live the next day! Amen? And when they live the next day, they understand that the entire thrust of this scripture and primarily the New Testament—the primary thrust of it all—is about you becoming more like Jesus! That’s what it means to be saved: to become more like Jesus!
I am alive in Him from the dead, not by works, but by grace through faith! It happened! There was a conception and a birth! But the aim of the birth was maturity in Him! Amen! I love these incredible texts of salvation! But I’ve enjoyed the last few weeks noticing that every great salvation text I’ve been in ends in a sanctification text! Let’s just start with John 3:16! For God so loved the world—everyone knows this one—that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life! For God did not send His Son—Amen! —into the world to condemn the world! Why? Because they were already under the wrath of God! He didn’t need to do any more condemning! He sent His Son into the world to save the world through Him! Whoever believes in Him is not condemned! But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son!
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil! Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed! But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done has been done in the sight of God! We were just over here: «So loved the world that he gave His only Son!» And just a sentence or two later, we’re in the light, living in the light, sanctified—becoming set apart and made into all of what God has put in us at salvation!
We looked at this text last week in Titus, Paul speaking to one of his proteges. At one time, we too were foolish! But look at verse four: «When the kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy! He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior! So that, having been justified—there’s the „You got to be kidding me!“ moment! —by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life! This is a trustworthy saying! And I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone!
Saving! Saving! Saving! Saving! Savior! Savior! Savior! Savior! Sanctified! Salvation texts end up being sanctification texts because salvation is a process! So how are we sanctified? Let’s talk about that, and we will land this thing! Four ways we’re sanctified; we’ll go through them quickly. Number one, we’re sanctified by being immersed in the word of God! The end goal of the word is not just that it encourages me—but we do go there for that, and that’s awesome! It’s not just that I go here and it leads me, although it does, and that’s awesome! That I go here and it comforts me, although that’s amazing!
The primary thing we should be thinking when we immerse ourselves in this word is: Shape me! Don’t just give me encouragement for the day! Don’t just give me wisdom for the moment! Don’t just give me light for my path! Shape me! I want You through this word, God, to shape my life! Ephesians 5: Paul’s talking about husbands loving their wives, but he makes an interesting correlation: „Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy.“ Not to get her to heaven, but to make her holy—cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to Himself as a radiant church! Here comes sanctification—without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless! How? By the washing with water through the word!
Jesus said this! He said, „I’m coming"—He’s talking to His Father—"to You now! But I say these things while I’m still in the world so that they, us, may have the full measure of My joy within them!» And then look down to verse 15: «My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one! They are not of the world even as I am not of it! Sanctify—there’s our word—them by the truth! Your word is truth! Sanctify them by Your word, Father, as You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world! And for them, I sanctify Myself so they too may be truly sanctified by the word.»
The second way we’re sanctified is to be woven into godly community! You will never be sanctified alone! Sanctification is not a solo endeavor! The proverb writer said it this way in Proverbs 27: «As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another!» I read recently someone was saying that each one of us will be shaped by the five people we’re closest to in life! So whoever those people are, that’s what ultimately you’re going to be. And if you’re in there right now going, «No, I’m the Lone Ranger here! I’ve got five wackos around me, but I’m going to fix them all!» No! You’re not going to fix them all! You’re going to become like them! You’re going to become like the aggregate of them! That’s why there is a body, and that’s why there is a family of faith! And to be sanctified, you’ve got to be woven into—not popping in and out of, but woven into—godly community! You gotta have people around you who, as iron sharpens iron, are sharpening you!
And that sword, by the way, has beautifully two edges. One of them is the one that slices and goes, «Hey man, that’s not it.» You got that person? Yes! I’m sorry sister, but that ain’t it! But there’s another edge on that sword that cuts open and says, «Hey! Wow! This is it!» I’m thinking about that passage where Paul is writing about the height, the depth, and the breadth and the length of the love of God! And he says that «you might be able"—talking in plural—to comprehend with all the saints the height and the depth and the breadth and the length of the love of God! In other words, you’re not going to get it unless you get it in community! You’re not going to get the fullness of this in your closet! Go in the closet, but come out of there and get woven into some other people!
The third way we find sanctification in our life is through persevering in trials and training. James said, «Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.» How you doing on that one? I’m not doing so great on that one! «Yay! Another trial! You’re not going to believe this! I’m in it again!» Why would we be joyous when we face many kinds of trials? Because you know and I do know this—I don’t like it, and I often forget it, but I do know this—that the testing of your faith produces perseverance! There is no sanctification without training! And all you F45 people give me an Amen! You people going to the box, getting in there with the ropes— hey, you’re not doing that alone! You’re going in there with people. They’re saying, «That ain’t it, but this is it!» And the reason you’re in there is that you realize to be made what you want to be made, you’ve got to go through some trial and training with the ropes, and a dude or dudette saying, «That ain’t it, but this is it! Let me show you! Push that sled some more!» Anybody push the sled this week? How’d you do? Did you do good? Did you get it? Was it tough? Did you quit? You kept going! You grow through trial and training!
Romans 8, that amazing promise, God works all things together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose—says in the very next phrase that all of those He knew were coming to salvation, that His plan for them was to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ! And conforming is most often not a gentle process! Michelangelo, when they asked him about his amazing ability to sculpt, he said, «I saw the angel in the marble, and I carved until I set him free!»
The last way we’re sanctified is surrendered in worship! And by worship, I don’t mean singing songs before somebody comes up and opens the word of God and does a talk! I mean a life that is surrendered and serving! You want to be sanctified? You’ve got to be serving somebody! There is no way around serving! And if you want to be more like Jesus, then you’ve got to tell us today where you’re serving! Where are you showing up for free and serving somebody, caring about people? It’s in giving! It’s not just the way that we’re able to do what we do; it’s an act of worship to God! It’s in beholding—it’s in moments where you’re taking on glimpses of God Almighty in the face of Christ!
So that, as we’ve read so many times in the Psalms, He said about those who made those idols, «And all who make them will become like them. All who trust in them will be like them.» Ultimately, that idol that has eyes but can’t see, ears but can’t hear, a mouth but can’t talk, and hands that can’t do anything—you keep worshiping that, and you’re going to have eyes and won’t be able to see, ears and won’t be able to hear, a mouth and you won’t be able to say anything worth saying, and hands that will do nothing! You worship money, you’ll become money! If you worship things, you’ll become things! If you worship status, you’ll become status! Because what we behold, we become! If you want to be sanctified, then get glimpses of the Holy One!
Worship and sharing! We’re going to talk about that next week! This amazing gospel! And we’re like, «Amen! This is phenomenal! I can believe that God did all this on our behalf! But do I believe it enough that I want to worship Him by telling the whole world what God has done?» I was thinking about Lulu Gribben, a 16-year-old who was 15 at the time. She and her twin sister were swimming when she gets attacked by a bull shark, loses an arm, ultimately a leg, and becomes a story! It’s in my feed every day for weeks! Miraculously lived! We talked about that last week! You talk about rescue! You talk about somebody coming and literally grabbing you out of the jaws of death!
That’s what happened to Lulu! A father of three, not thinking about his girls, thinking about that girl literally grabbed her out of the mouth of the shark and took her to shore! Just so happens two doctors were in the water! One of them had specialized training and knew exactly where to put the pressure on the arteries to keep her from bleeding to death! A nurse was there who had prepared! As soon as she saw it, she began preparing everything necessary for her to be treated in a life-saving way! She’d had a dream about this very moment, and she knew exactly what to do. The thing about Lulu that blew my mind was just seeing the account—Lulu strong! And seeing how quickly she got up out of that bed and started walking down the hall! A few of these images are coming from her page from not long after—we were just scrolling through these. «I’m going to have to learn how to dribble a basketball!»
This was more recent. Bethany Hamilton, God bless her! I don’t know if you remember Bethany Hamilton, but what an amazing person! Bethany Hamilton lost an arm to a shark and came back! Bethany Hamilton did to become a world champion surfer again with one arm! But she uses her time, talent, and platform to provide a place where people like Lulu can go! This happened recently! I was loving looking through Lulu’s page and seeing some of the moments of that! There she is with Nan McMahan, the all-star of Passion City Church, who has been a huge inspiration to me personally and everyone in our family! And there’s Lulu and Nan under Bethany’s care being encouraged!
Lulu, and I’m not kidding, can hit a golf ball better than I can! And that’s not saying a lot! But she has one arm and one leg, and she’s determined she’s going to hit this golf ball! She’s living life! Her story isn’t, «I got saved!» Her story is, «I got saved! Watch me go live my life!» Oh come on! Lulu’s probably going to see this at some point! God bless you, Lulu! You keep going! You are an inspiration to me and all of us! Salvation is God’s gift to you! Surrendering to sanctification is your gift to God! Do you want to be sanctified? Yes? I’ll back up a step—do you want to be saved? Do you want to be saved? The savior is here! You’re like, «I’m not good enough!» None of us were! I haven’t done enough! None of us had! I don’t—I could never earn that! Same! But God! He loved us! He loved you! And to all of us who are confident today that we are saved in Christ by grace through faith: do you want to be sanctified? Do you want to be holy? He’s the one who gives the will and the do to live out His good pleasure!