Category: Timeline

No comments

When we believe

  By

We are only saved (by the life of Christ) when we confess the Lord Jesus, believe and call upon Him – Paul makes this abundantly clear later on in Romans, in chapter 10 verses 9, 10 and 13 – “if thou shalt confess and believe… thou shalt be saved…..with the mouth confession is made unto salvation….whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  The same truth that you are saved when you believe (and not before) and that we are saved by grace through faith (which is the faith of Jesus Christ, a gift of God) can be seen from Mark 16:16, Acts 16:31, Heb 10:39, 1 Cor 15:2, Eph 2:8 and Gal 2:16.  Romans 5:1 also does not say “all humans are justified by faith”. No, this idea is universalism, Romans 5:1 says “being justified by faith, we….” So this verse says “we” i.e. those Paul was writing to, believers, it does not say all, and it also says that we are justified by faith, so it is obvious that unbelievers (who do not have faith) are not justified, as we are justified by faith.

More to be written, come back later.

One Comment

Finished Work at Calvary

  By

Many people use the phrase “finished works of Christ on the cross” and have built many false teachings around this.  For a response to many of these false teachings, see http://spiritbodysoul.com/finished-work/.  However, let us look at the true origins of the teaching of the finished work of Calvary. This was first taught by William Durham around the time of the Azusa Street revival at the beginning of last century. See for example http://www.revival-library.org/pensketches/am_pentecostals/durham.html.
“William Durham… began a preaching mission at the Upper Room Mission in Los Angeles but, despite his brilliant oratory and pulpit presence, the congregation ejected him over sanctification teaching of the “Finished Work.” This teaching repudiated the holiness doctrine of sanctification as a second work of grace and instead declared that everything a believer would ever need was included in the finished work of Christ on the cross. This repudiation of the Holiness doctrine of sanctification as a “second work of grace,” argued that the “finished work” of Christ on Calvary becomes available to the believer at the time of justification. The benefits of Calvary are therefore appropriated for sanctification over the entire period of the Christian’s life, rather than at a single subsequent moment, as was believed by most Pentecostals in Durham’s day. ”

For more about sanctifiction see http://word.spiritbodysoul.com/sanctification-holiness and http://word.spiritbodysoul.com/sanctification-process. For more about what happened on the cross see http://word.spiritbodysoul.com/on-cross.

No comments

On the cross

  By

What happens at the cross and when we believe?

Central to the gospel is of course Jesus – his death, burial and resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-8).  The good news is that Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6).  God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us so that the world might be saved (John 3:17).

Only by the shedding of blood is remission, cleansing or forgiveness of sin (Heb 9:22, Mt 26:28, 1 John 1:7). So forgiveness is only possible because of what Jesus did on the cross and faith in that shed blood (Rom 3:25).  The Old Testament sacrifices all foreshadowed the complete and final sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for sin (Heb 9:26-28).   All this was done for us so that, if we believe, we won’t perish and are saved from condemnation and have eternal life (John 3:16 and 18).

Salvation is by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus on the cross and not by works (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 3:25).

Through His death on the cross, Jesus has justified us and made us righteous (Rom 3:22-24, 4:6, 5:9, 6:18, Gal 2:16), without works.

Salvation is by grace through the blood of Jesus on the cross and not by works (Eph 2:8-9).

Through the death of Jesus on the cross, our sins have been made whiter than snow (Rev 7:14, Isa 1:18).

This is a list of many of the things that Jesus provided for us when He died on the cross:

Forgiveness of sins

Salvation

Justification

Sanctification

Born again

Made righteous

Made a new creature

In Christ

Redeemed

Regenerated

Receive eternal life

Who is all this for?

Universalists believe all the following happened when Jesus died on the cross, and they believe all these happened to everyone in the world (see http://spiritbodysoul.com/gci-errors/).  So the universalists believe everyone is saved, justified, born again, sanctified, forgiven, etc. The truth is that Jesus provided all this for everyone on the cross, that aspect is all completed, but until a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, none of these are received by that person.  Only when we believe are we saved, justified, sanctified, forgiven, redeemed, in Christ etc.

Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2), but that does not mean that everyone is saved.  Titus 2:14, Heb 9:12, 1 Peter 1:18, Rev 5:9, Rev 14:4 are all clearly written to believers, who are said to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.  Jesus is the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14), but only those who believe in Jesus Christ are saved.