Kingdom Principle: What are you trusting in for your salvation? If it is anything other than Jesus it is not sufficient. Jesus teaches us here, that faith is required to be saved, but that faith must be in the one who can save. Jesus is the always the proper object of our faith.   

1. Jesus Save You, Not Your _________________ __________________

Luke 17:12–13 (ESV) — 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 

Why does the Samaritan turn around and the others don’t? He had nowhere else to go. 

Samaritans faced systematic exclusion from Jewish community life during the first century. The 1st century was a time of very strained relations between Jews and Samaritans.1

The conflict ran deep. Jews called Samaritans “Cutheans” and would not accept them as blood-relations.1 Beyond genealogical rejection, the legitimacy of their worship of Yahweh was questioned.1 This theological dismissal had concrete consequences: Samaritans were excluded from practicing the Jerusalem religion, Jews were prohibited from intermarrying with them. Samaritans were treated as Gentiles in practice.1

The social reality reflected this legal and religious framework. Jews and Samaritans avoided contact with one another3, and Jews regarded Samaritans as “foreigners,” using the same term applied to non-Jews excluded from the Jerusalem temple.3 Rather than occupying an intermediate status, Samaritans were functionally treated as outside the covenant community entirely.

Jesus does not discriminate based on ethnic boundaries. Jesus discriminates based on one thing. Do you have faith in him or not.

Galatians 3:29 (ESV) — 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. 

Hebrews 8:13 (ESV) — 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 

John 1:29 (ESV) — 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 

Romans 1:16 (ESV) — 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

Jesus is at the center of salvation not a religious system.

1. Jesus Saves You, Not Your _______________________

Luke 17:12–19 (ESV) — 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” 

It is really important what we put our faith in. The object of your faith matters. And we must also be careful, that faith does not become the object of our salvation. 

“It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ; strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith.” — B. B. Warfield

Questions to Consider

• In what are you trusting for your salvation? What does it look like to trust in Jesus to overcome your sinful habits and tendencies?

• How might faith become the object of salvation? How do we protect against this?

Author: Robert Lowrie