December 11, 2005
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Recently, I came across a quote that I would like to bring up for discussion:
“People
can be saved in varying degrees of theological error. There are
regenerated people who do not understand predestination, don’t accept
election, don’t understand federal headship, are clueless about
imputation, Christ’s eternal priesthood, covenant, etc., yet they are
regenerated. They simply haven’t learned those doctrinal truths yet.
Are they condemned for not rightly understanding these very important
biblical teachings? No, because the ones I just listed in this
paragraph are not declared to be essential doctrines by the Bible.”
I agree with you Andrew. I would also like to say to you, Reinhard, the very verse you brought up states that Christ died for the sins of His people. HIS people. Not THE people. The sheep, not the goats. This is another example of election from the Bible. He died for His people, knowing who they were when he died for them. And that is not the whole Gospel. Man cannot simply believe. That is to say that man can save himself. And that wholly contradicts the message of the Bible! We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves. Clearly, believing is not enough to save if this grace through faith is not something we can do (not of ourselves). Our belief in Christ must be accompanied by his grace through a faith that is not ours, but given by Christ. I would suggest you read the books, Hard to Believe by John MacArthur, and The Gospel According To Jesus, by the same.
Dear Brother Bain,
As Christ paid all your sins, as you are justified by faith, do you believe that your now sinless, 100 persent clean and rigteous? When Jesus said in John 17:4 and 29:30 that He finished all the Father commanded Him to do, do you believe that before he died on the cross all God’s people completely saved?
Thank for your visit and service.
In Christ alone,
Brother Ronald D. Jacutin, Sr.
P.O. Box 81802
8000 Davao City, Philippines
G’day Ronald,
Don’t get me wrong. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING REQUIRED of the Elect for them to be justified or redeemed.
No love is needed to obtain forgiveness of sin. No commitments. No thoughts or deeds are necessary for them to gain God’s favour. God the Father is already perfectly satisfied with God the Son’s obedience and sacrifice.
“Much more then being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from the wrath to come by Him” (Rom 10:9) “And we joy before God through Jesus Christ in whom we have now received the atonement” (v11)
Andrew
In response to the comment by Reinhard, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us really is the gospel. You said it yourself, Reinhard. “Christ died for the sins of His people.” Were we to unpack that statement, the imputation of righteousness would have to be mentioned. Why did Christ have to die? Because the law says that the shedding of blood is necessary for the forgiveness of sins. Christ shed His blood. We didn’t shed ours. So how in the world does Christ’s shedding of blood make up for the fact that we have sinned, yet not shed our own blood? Because Christ’s righteouness is imputed to us, and thus our sins can be forgiven by God.
oops, I should have put this here in THIS post… lol.
I agree in that our salvation depends ENTIRELY on what Christ has done, not on anything we have done, it’s HIS IMPUTED righteousness that saves us, not our being righteous. HE was punished in OUR place. THAT is what determines whether we will be saved or not. We must believe, but that belief is not something WE did in our own power to justify our salvation, it was Christs’s righteousness IMPUTED to us. The Bible also says we must repent, but just as it was with believing, so also with repentance. It is something God gave us the power to do. The nature of a regenerated person is that they have been given the ABILITY to believe, and the ABILITY to repent. It’s ALL His work, there is nothing we could have done to make our spititually dead nature alive so that it would want to do that. The same God that says you must repent or perish, turn or burn says that the leopard cannot change his spots. Only God can do that. So also all the perseverance of the saints; are only preseved by the Spirit of God, enabling and keeping His saints unto the end, as there is nothing man can do to merit his salvation in any way. These things are not CONDITIONS we must perform in order to be saved; rather they are the RESULT and naturally flow from the person that has been REGENERATED by the Holy Spirit.
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