Friday, July 27, 2007

AM I SAVED?

So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Galatians 4:16

Probably the most well known and loved verse in the Bible is John 3:16-
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
A simple verse with such great depth!

In spite of John 3:16 being the most well known verse, almost no one knows the verses following it.

17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.

Now this verse is very nice. It tells us that Jesus did not come here to condemn people, but to save them. We are to be like Him in this way. As Christians our job is not to condemn people. A question comes up though when we think about the second part of this verse. - the world through Jesus is saved. And what of those who are not? And what about those who are relying on some other way? What is their condition? The next verse tells us:

18. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

It seems that we started out on such a "good" note talking about "love" for the world, and not condemning the world. But we see it quickly turn more sober. We don't condemn the world- because they are already condemned.

Some people want to focus on the love part of these verses, and have a feel good religion where we "love everybody," and don't say somebody is wrong. But what does God want?

We know from the Bible he wants to save people. He wanted it so much that He allowed His Son to die a horrific death to provide the salvation and forgiveness we all need.
How do you think He feels about people who don't value that sacrifice? People who say "I am a Christian," but who don't believe Jesus was the Son of God. What about those who say he was a "great teacher" or "one of many great teachers" who show us "the way."
We don't have to guess at how He feels. The Bible is the Word of God. In the Bible He tells us everything we need to know about both life and eternal life. And we know already from v.18- they are condemned already. We don't have to condemn them. And it is not us who condemns when we tell them that they are.

To love a person does not mean to lie to them, "Oh no, your cancer won't kill you."

When I say to the wicked, "You will surely die," and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand."
"Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I iwll require at your hand.
Ezekiel 3:18,19

Not everyone who says to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?"
" And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you: Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness".
Matthew 7:21,22

I hear people say all of the time, "We are all God's children." But that is just not true.
Everyone is not a child of God. It is John again who tells us this:
But as many as received him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name. John 1:12

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14

Friday, July 20, 2007

Charles Spurgeon Quote

Mike Ratliff at Christian Researh Net brings us this Spurgeon quote:

"If we had lain in hell forever, yet divine justice would not have been fully justified,for after thousands of years of suffering there would remain still an eternity of debt due to God’s justice.


If God had annihilated all the sinners that ever lived, at one stroke, he would not have so honored his justice as he did when he took sin and laid it on his Son,
and his Son bore divine wrath which was due to that sin.


For now there has been rendered unto divine justice a full equivalent, a complete recompense for all the dishonor which it suffered."


In these few words I am struck by two great losses - the fine teaching of the great truths of the Atonement and the ability to write clearly and succinctly in this sort of way to transmit these truths.