Courtesy of "Good News for Catholics."
gnfc@gnfc.org
Since Jesus’ death on the cross was enough to pay for all sin, God is now able to make you a wonderful offer. He wants to forgive your every sin—past, present, and future—and to stamp the record of your sins PAID IN FULL. He wants to break the power that sin has over you, make you a new creation, and change you into the likeness of Christ. He is ready to bring you into his family and have you live with him in heaven forever.
God is willing to do all this for you “by grace.” Acting out of his love, generosity, and kindness, he wants to bless you beyond description. This great salvation, the above verses tell us, is “the gift of God.” It costs you nothing, for Christ has already paid its awful price. You do not have to earn it. It is “not by works.” What could you do to earn forgiveness and eternal life in heaven anyway?
“I think I’ll make it to heaven,” a Catholic woman told me as we stood in front of her parish church, “by going to church, living a good life, and keeping the Ten Commandments. I think I have a pretty good chance.”
That poor woman hasn’t any chance at all. The Bible says that no one will get to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. That is not their purpose. God gave them to us to show us how far short we fall of his perfect standard. Through the law “we become conscious of sin” (Romans 3:20). It helps us to see that we need a Savior, that we need Jesus.
“I think the good in my life will outweigh the bad,” a man told me outside the same church.
That poor man hasn’t a chance either. All the good works in the world can’t make up for one sin. Neither can suffering for a time either here on earth or later in some imaginary place, like purgatory. The penalty for sin is death, eternal separation from God.
Don’t even think of trying to work your way to heaven. It’s hopeless. Instead, praise God that he sent his Son to die for you! Thank him that he is willing to forgive your sins and give you eternal life as a gift.
A lost sinner once asked the apostle Paul life’s most important question, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:30-31). Here the Word of God tells us what we must do to receive his gift of salvation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Maybe you are thinking, What’s new about that? I’ve always believed in Jesus.
No doubt, you accept the basic historic truths about Christ. You have probably recited the Creed at Mass more than a thousand times.
Believing in Jesus for salvation, however, means more than agreeing with certain facts about him. It is to rely upon him to make you right with God. It is to place your faith in Christ as the one who died in your place, taking your punishment for you. It is to trust him, and him alone, to rescue you from the coming wrath. God’s Word says that salvation is in Jesus and “no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
If you have never trusted Jesus to save you from the punishment of sin, you can receive him as your Savior now. Here’s how.
* Salvation starts with repentance. If you have not done so already, humble yourself before God, admitting your sin and guilt. Express your desire to do his will, trusting him to give you the ability to do what is right.
* Next, place your trust in the Lord Jesus to save you. Tell God you are relying on Christ’s death on the cross as the complete payment for your sins.
* State before God that you are not going to depend upon anyone or anything else for your salvation—not yourself, your priest, Mary, the saints, the Church, your baptism, your participation in the other sacraments, your attempts to obey the Ten Commandments. Not even your good works. Tell God you have decided to trust Jesus, and him alone, for your salvation.
* Thank God for his free offer of forgiveness and eternal life. Acknowledge that you do not deserve such generous treatment, but humbly accept it as a gift from God.
You can do this today, speaking to God in prayer, using your own words. Once you do so, tell your family and friends of your decision to repent and trust Jesus to save you. Encourage them to do the same. The Bible says that God’s offer of salvation is for “you and your household” (Acts 16:31).
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Christian criticisms
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
There are three great criticisms, as I see it, that followers of Christ often receive in this day and age, in countries that practice religious freedom: i) the exclusivity and offensiveness of the Gospel message they preach and spread; ii) the manner in which they claim their understanding is correct; and iii) the seemingly "disunity" of the churches.
Firstly, Jesus' claim He was "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) is at the heart of the Gospel. Christians rightfully echo the declaration of Peter and the early apostles: "Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The Gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16). We preach the free gift of salvation through no one's merit (Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:18-19, John 6:47, John 5:24). John MacArthur, one of the leading Christian voices in the world, is often criticized for his views on cults and heretics in Christianity today, and all those outside of Christianity today. His answer is what our answer should be. "There is nothing more loving than the truth."
Secondly, are Christians arrogant? Do they lack the humility that Jesus Christ always had? Well, of course we do, and of course, in some respect, we like all people will have some degree of arrogance in our corrupted beings. But its a false argument to say Bible-believing Christians are arrogant in their knowledge of "the way, the truth and the life." If we believe Scripture, we are believing what God has chosen to tell us, as the author, overseeing the Superintending Holy Spirit, and speaking through the character and literary style of those whom recorded His word. The Gospel message needs no interpretation. God cannot lie or deceive, and He does not change His mind or His will (Psalm 19:9, 33:4, Malachi 3:6, Romans 3:4, James 1:17, Hebrews 6:17-18). Jesus not only proclaims the word of God as nothing less than truth, but He asks the Father to "sanctify" us by the truth (John 17:17). Thus, being assured of what He has told us through Jesus Christ and the Scriptures is not only warranted, but it is part of the believers' responsibility and conformation.
When I was in school I was arguing with somebody over a topic. Somewhere along the line, we both realized we were being foolish in arguing over this topic, because when we were honest we knew we didn't really know the whole truth about the topic. When we picked up an authority on the subject, and read about it together, we were easily able to understand what the truth was on that topic (whether we liked it or not, whether we admitted we were wrong or not, etc). This was because though we hadn't initially seen eye to eye on the topic, we did see eye to eye on the authority of that topic.
Thirdly, when we learn about God and what He has thus far revealed to us, in His Word, we understand whom our Creator is and whom are Joy is. While small differences in non-Gospel related subjects have led some Protestants to worship in some churches rather than others, one of the great joys on this earth are we are always united by the truth and joy of the Gospel, the gift of our eternal life. We are truly brothers and sisters of the same body and we are constantly working together to do the Lord's work and praying together for each other. On any given Sunday in my church, you are bound to find not only members of other Methodist churches, but members of Baptist churches, Pentecostal Churches, Congregational Churches etc. When my wife and I go away we will attend any close Protestant church. On some Sundays, even when we are home, we will attend an Episcopalian Church to rejoice with our brothers and sisters there. The love and unity of believers is something that cannot be adequately put into words.
I remember one day when I was working at a place serving food. Two of the other servers were from a local Pentecostal Church. Pentecostals have a reputation of being a bit more, lets say, outgoing. As they served folks food they would be singing hymns, telling each recipient that Jesus loved them. Now this wasn’t a Christian shelter- I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed by it all. Surely, some folks just wanted a hot meal without the personal conversation. But sure enough, as the day progressed, I felt more and more at ease with my brothers’ way of evangelizing and walking as Christ walked, and surely, so did some of those folks at the shelter.
While I have never been to a Pentecostal Church, I learned a lot about how these brothers and sisters lived and worshiped that day. At some point they formally invited me over to their church for service. It was a bit on the other side of town, and while I could certainly make the trek, I haven’t yet, and may never (I don’t even think I have the address anymore). Maybe sensing this, maybe not, when we were all walking out, the bigger guy of the two stripped off his hairnet and turned to me. “Hey brother, we’ll catch you on the rebound.”
“The rebound” may be an odd term, but I kind of like it. He was referring to the afterlife, where he knows, as well as I do, the promises of God in the Bible will come true for all believers. We may not see each other in the meantime, but both those guys are part of my walk as a Christian, and we are all part of the body of Christ.
The body of Christ is visible and strong. It preaches one way back to God, Jesus Christ. It is confident because it believes God and Jesus Christ. And while the body of Christ may not worship in the same buildings, we all worship in the same truth and spirit (John 6:63), and through our relationship with each other, the community, and the lost, we try to live a life worthy of our calling, always in the unboastful understandment that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
There are three great criticisms, as I see it, that followers of Christ often receive in this day and age, in countries that practice religious freedom: i) the exclusivity and offensiveness of the Gospel message they preach and spread; ii) the manner in which they claim their understanding is correct; and iii) the seemingly "disunity" of the churches.
Firstly, Jesus' claim He was "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) is at the heart of the Gospel. Christians rightfully echo the declaration of Peter and the early apostles: "Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The Gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16). We preach the free gift of salvation through no one's merit (Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:18-19, John 6:47, John 5:24). John MacArthur, one of the leading Christian voices in the world, is often criticized for his views on cults and heretics in Christianity today, and all those outside of Christianity today. His answer is what our answer should be. "There is nothing more loving than the truth."
Secondly, are Christians arrogant? Do they lack the humility that Jesus Christ always had? Well, of course we do, and of course, in some respect, we like all people will have some degree of arrogance in our corrupted beings. But its a false argument to say Bible-believing Christians are arrogant in their knowledge of "the way, the truth and the life." If we believe Scripture, we are believing what God has chosen to tell us, as the author, overseeing the Superintending Holy Spirit, and speaking through the character and literary style of those whom recorded His word. The Gospel message needs no interpretation. God cannot lie or deceive, and He does not change His mind or His will (Psalm 19:9, 33:4, Malachi 3:6, Romans 3:4, James 1:17, Hebrews 6:17-18). Jesus not only proclaims the word of God as nothing less than truth, but He asks the Father to "sanctify" us by the truth (John 17:17). Thus, being assured of what He has told us through Jesus Christ and the Scriptures is not only warranted, but it is part of the believers' responsibility and conformation.
When I was in school I was arguing with somebody over a topic. Somewhere along the line, we both realized we were being foolish in arguing over this topic, because when we were honest we knew we didn't really know the whole truth about the topic. When we picked up an authority on the subject, and read about it together, we were easily able to understand what the truth was on that topic (whether we liked it or not, whether we admitted we were wrong or not, etc). This was because though we hadn't initially seen eye to eye on the topic, we did see eye to eye on the authority of that topic.
Thirdly, when we learn about God and what He has thus far revealed to us, in His Word, we understand whom our Creator is and whom are Joy is. While small differences in non-Gospel related subjects have led some Protestants to worship in some churches rather than others, one of the great joys on this earth are we are always united by the truth and joy of the Gospel, the gift of our eternal life. We are truly brothers and sisters of the same body and we are constantly working together to do the Lord's work and praying together for each other. On any given Sunday in my church, you are bound to find not only members of other Methodist churches, but members of Baptist churches, Pentecostal Churches, Congregational Churches etc. When my wife and I go away we will attend any close Protestant church. On some Sundays, even when we are home, we will attend an Episcopalian Church to rejoice with our brothers and sisters there. The love and unity of believers is something that cannot be adequately put into words.
I remember one day when I was working at a place serving food. Two of the other servers were from a local Pentecostal Church. Pentecostals have a reputation of being a bit more, lets say, outgoing. As they served folks food they would be singing hymns, telling each recipient that Jesus loved them. Now this wasn’t a Christian shelter- I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed by it all. Surely, some folks just wanted a hot meal without the personal conversation. But sure enough, as the day progressed, I felt more and more at ease with my brothers’ way of evangelizing and walking as Christ walked, and surely, so did some of those folks at the shelter.
While I have never been to a Pentecostal Church, I learned a lot about how these brothers and sisters lived and worshiped that day. At some point they formally invited me over to their church for service. It was a bit on the other side of town, and while I could certainly make the trek, I haven’t yet, and may never (I don’t even think I have the address anymore). Maybe sensing this, maybe not, when we were all walking out, the bigger guy of the two stripped off his hairnet and turned to me. “Hey brother, we’ll catch you on the rebound.”
“The rebound” may be an odd term, but I kind of like it. He was referring to the afterlife, where he knows, as well as I do, the promises of God in the Bible will come true for all believers. We may not see each other in the meantime, but both those guys are part of my walk as a Christian, and we are all part of the body of Christ.
The body of Christ is visible and strong. It preaches one way back to God, Jesus Christ. It is confident because it believes God and Jesus Christ. And while the body of Christ may not worship in the same buildings, we all worship in the same truth and spirit (John 6:63), and through our relationship with each other, the community, and the lost, we try to live a life worthy of our calling, always in the unboastful understandment that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Assured of Heaven (2)
My friend Doug recently posted on the meaning of eternal life assurances from Scripture http://lifewithoutcaptions.blogspot.com/2009/10/assured-of-heaven.html. It's both thoughtfully practical and practically thoughtful. It made me think, amongst other things, of what exactly it means to me.
I think the answer for me has two parts. Firstly, the assurance of eternal life is part of the faith of a believer. Romans 4:25 - "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." The redeeming power of God can be seen as 1) the finished work of the cross or the declaration, "Telestai" and 2) the Resurrection of Jesus by God the Father.
God's Redeeming Power, i.e. the Power of the Gospel (Romans 1:16) is faith in the atoning life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is the power of God to save us through Him. How can we believe in a righteous God, claim Jesus and claim saving faith if we don't trust in Jesus for our salvation? And if we claim all these things (in some form), how can we deny the assuredness of Heaven if we believe Jesus?
Secondly, not only did Jesus testify to what the Law and all the prophets were saying (Romans 3:21), by again showing the Jews that the revolutionary way to eternal life was Him (John 14:6), but he showed the Jews what eternal life actually was (John 17:3) viz. "knowing God". Thus, having eternal life is knowing God presently, because He is Life.
We much too often (guilty as anyone) bicker over exegetical matters, in which the complete answers are beyond our comprehension. True, Scripture holds everything needed for salvation; but we rightfully struggle to understand "it all" because we live in the limitations of a small number of dimensions and with a small number of neurons. The same problem arises when we are asked, "when were you saved?" I can answer with some assuredness "it was when I believed the Gospel." But it wasn't and isn't that simple for me - and many others, I suspect, can relate. For me it was more of a process, maybe when the few neurons caught up with my heart stuck in those few dimensions, and I realized, I trusted Jesus Christ with my life because He is Life, the only Way back to God, and not my best option - my only option. For me, that is what is meant by "repentance unto life."
As the Body of Christ we can bicker amongst ourselves if this process starts at Infant Baptism or one peculiar Sunday in Church or when the piercing truth of our wretchedness drops us to our knees one night. But, I suspect, The real answer is this: "I was saved before the creation of man and earth. I was saved because God chose to love me when I was like the clay of the potter. I was saved because God chose to still love me when I was the rebel in the Garden. I was saved because God chose to still love me when I was the lover of iniquity, the Son of Satan, the worst sinner of all." I think when we start to wrap our head around the awesome assuredness of anything God does with purpose, in particular, love, it becomes an impossible thought that death, or life or angels or principalities....or anything could separate us from the Love of God (Romans 8:38-39). I suspect this is what Paul means earlier in Romans 8 ( And those he predestined he also called, those he called he also justified, those he justified he also glorified). In other words, we are assured of eternal life because we were predestined, just like we were predestined because we were glorified. Time isn't an issue with our God, thus we can say I was saved before the creation just like we can say I will be saved at the bodily resurrection.
So being assured of having eternal life is being assured of knowing God, and that can only be accomplished if we are convinced in our minds and our hearts that Jesus Christ died for our sins. And as a result, the response is to trust in the Risen Christ. Again, I suspect this is what Paul meant in Romans 10:10, "For it is with your heart you believe and are justified." And again in Romans 10:11, As the Scripture says, "no one who trusts in Him will be put to shame." And again in Romans 10:13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This, I strongly suspect, is a different faith than what many practice today.
David was assured of Heaven because he, like Noah, and every Godly man I have read about in Scripture, understood the Gospel before Paul could explain it. "guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." (Psalm 25:5) (italics mine)
I think the answer for me has two parts. Firstly, the assurance of eternal life is part of the faith of a believer. Romans 4:25 - "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." The redeeming power of God can be seen as 1) the finished work of the cross or the declaration, "Telestai" and 2) the Resurrection of Jesus by God the Father.
God's Redeeming Power, i.e. the Power of the Gospel (Romans 1:16) is faith in the atoning life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is the power of God to save us through Him. How can we believe in a righteous God, claim Jesus and claim saving faith if we don't trust in Jesus for our salvation? And if we claim all these things (in some form), how can we deny the assuredness of Heaven if we believe Jesus?
Secondly, not only did Jesus testify to what the Law and all the prophets were saying (Romans 3:21), by again showing the Jews that the revolutionary way to eternal life was Him (John 14:6), but he showed the Jews what eternal life actually was (John 17:3) viz. "knowing God". Thus, having eternal life is knowing God presently, because He is Life.
We much too often (guilty as anyone) bicker over exegetical matters, in which the complete answers are beyond our comprehension. True, Scripture holds everything needed for salvation; but we rightfully struggle to understand "it all" because we live in the limitations of a small number of dimensions and with a small number of neurons. The same problem arises when we are asked, "when were you saved?" I can answer with some assuredness "it was when I believed the Gospel." But it wasn't and isn't that simple for me - and many others, I suspect, can relate. For me it was more of a process, maybe when the few neurons caught up with my heart stuck in those few dimensions, and I realized, I trusted Jesus Christ with my life because He is Life, the only Way back to God, and not my best option - my only option. For me, that is what is meant by "repentance unto life."
As the Body of Christ we can bicker amongst ourselves if this process starts at Infant Baptism or one peculiar Sunday in Church or when the piercing truth of our wretchedness drops us to our knees one night. But, I suspect, The real answer is this: "I was saved before the creation of man and earth. I was saved because God chose to love me when I was like the clay of the potter. I was saved because God chose to still love me when I was the rebel in the Garden. I was saved because God chose to still love me when I was the lover of iniquity, the Son of Satan, the worst sinner of all." I think when we start to wrap our head around the awesome assuredness of anything God does with purpose, in particular, love, it becomes an impossible thought that death, or life or angels or principalities....or anything could separate us from the Love of God (Romans 8:38-39). I suspect this is what Paul means earlier in Romans 8 ( And those he predestined he also called, those he called he also justified, those he justified he also glorified). In other words, we are assured of eternal life because we were predestined, just like we were predestined because we were glorified. Time isn't an issue with our God, thus we can say I was saved before the creation just like we can say I will be saved at the bodily resurrection.
So being assured of having eternal life is being assured of knowing God, and that can only be accomplished if we are convinced in our minds and our hearts that Jesus Christ died for our sins. And as a result, the response is to trust in the Risen Christ. Again, I suspect this is what Paul meant in Romans 10:10, "For it is with your heart you believe and are justified." And again in Romans 10:11, As the Scripture says, "no one who trusts in Him will be put to shame." And again in Romans 10:13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This, I strongly suspect, is a different faith than what many practice today.
David was assured of Heaven because he, like Noah, and every Godly man I have read about in Scripture, understood the Gospel before Paul could explain it. "guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." (Psalm 25:5) (italics mine)
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