Posted on 12/15/2010 9:33:19 AM PST by wmfights
“All you gotta do is say this prayer.”
Really? If you just say these magic words you’re saved? Think again or, actually, read again…read the Gospels again, the book of Acts again and the Epistles again and guess what you’ll find? Not once does Jesus or any of his followers ever lead one person through “the sinner’s prayer” for salvation!
Saying a prayer never saved anybody. It’s faith alone in Christ alone based on his finished work on the cross that regenerates the lost soul, nothing else.
I was once on a national radio show where a guy called in and wanted to know more about salvation. The host said, “Hey, just say this prayer and you’ll be saved.” I reminded the host that there will be a lot of people in hell who said the sinner’s prayer but never genuinely believed the gospel message. He reminded me that he was the host…(INSERT AWKWARD MOMENT HERE)…But I didn’t back down. Why? Because the way of salvation is nothing to be trifled with on the air or off.
Sure, if you want to lead someone through a prayer of thanksgiving after they put their faith in Jesus that is great. But don’t ever insinuate to anyone that it is the quoting of a prayer of salvation that saves. We are saved by faith in Christ, nothing else (John 3:16,36; 5:24; 6:47; 20:31.)
“You must turn from your sins first.”
No!!! If I could turn from my sins before I came to Christ then why would I need to come to Christ in the first place? We come to Jesus as totally depraved sinners who are totally deprived of the capacity to do good (Romans 3:10.) That means we couldn’t turn from our sins if we tried!
In his classic book, On Christian Liberty, Martin Luther wrote, “…trees must exist before their fruits, and the fruits do not make trees either good or corrupt, but rather as the trees are so are the fruits they bear; so the person of a man must needs first be good or wicked before he does a good or a wicked work, and his works do not make him good or wicked, but he himself makes his works either good or wicked.”
An unregenerate person is unable to turn from their sin (i.e. produce good fruit) until the nature of who they are is transformed through faith in Christ! When we make turning from one’s sin a precondition of salvation we are asking a lost person to do the impossible. Why? Because a bad tree can’t produce good fruit (Luke 6:43.) Only when we are made new in Christ can we begin the process of turning from our sins. And, by the way, we won’t completely succeed at this process until we are dead (Romans 7:21-25.)
“Sure you’re saved by faith in Christ BUT….”
Everyone preaching a damnable message has a big BUT…
…BUT you have to get baptized …BUT you have to surrender all …BUT you have to keep the 10 Commands …BUT you have to _________________ (fill in the blank)
The unbelievable thing about salvation is that it is only through believing! We believe in Christ and we are saved. This simple act of trust transforms us from the inside out and puts us on a trajectory of transformation.
Paul puts it bluntly in Galatians 3:1-3, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”
Adding a “BUT” to the gospel is an act of the flesh. It is corrupting a message. It is a virus that is spreading sickness faster than the flu.
It’s time to wash our hands.
I have shared with you some things NOT to say when communicating the gospel. So what do you say? How about what Jesus said in John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Now that’s good news…no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.
“That God in his grace and mercy created Jesus to pay for and atone for our sins so that we may be save”
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
You miss a couple of big points.
One, that Christ did die upon the Cross, as the passover lamb serving as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.
Two, Christ has forgiven our sins, and so we are forgiven if we accept him and His sacrifice. This is why Children are not damned unless they choose to turn away from Him.
A LOT of bad theology in those 10 points...
Faith alone in Christ alone.
“?”
This is a list of things not to say when sharing your faith.
“Merry Christmas” should be on that list, as it is increasingly forbidden.
Yes.
Let me clarify. My “Yes” was in agreement with your point. Not an affirmative to the question you posed.
No, I give as His Spirit leads me to do. I’m not a Jew.
Faith in Christ is sufficient. Nothing I do can add to his work on the cross.
Repentance is an effect of salvation, not a cause. A cow doesn’t moo to ~become~ a cow... a cow moos because it ~is~ a cow.
"I know I'm right. I know I'm right because I am not able to believe an incorrect thought."
“That God in his grace and mercy created Jesus to pay for and atone for our sins so that we may be saved”
I hope what you mean is that Jesus became flesh in order to pay the price for our salvation. Jesus was “begotten, not made”. As the Word, He was “with God in the beginning”. To say Jesus was created as a sacrifice completely destroys the basic premise of salvation: that He CHOSE to die for my sins.
He took issue with the repent first, then come to Christ call that we hear from so many...
"Turn from your addiction, THEN come to Christ" is WRONG...
He spun it on it's head...
"Take you alcohol, your drugs, whatever your addiction (read: SIN) is, and head straight FOR the cross, for that is where you will find the strength TO turn from it"
Zane Black is one of the speakers at Dare2Share conferences, and his whole testimony was similar - he came to Christ after living a drug-addicted, self-destructive life, and the power of the Spirit slowly led him away from that life to a very genuine Christian faith..
He came to Christ THEN repented...some would argue, then, that his salvation is NOT genuine, that it HAS to be the other way round...that's legalism, NOT the way of grace.
Thanks for your post.
Amen Brother.
Everything follows after that.
Amen
I hadn't thought about the "legalism" of trying to prepare yourself to be saved (repent first).
You apear to be several steps down a conversation I did not have. Where did I say that a Christian who backslides is no longer saved?
Faith or belief that is required to reach the point of repentance involves the first 9 steps.
Point 7 and 8
See post #37. My point was that the perfect sacrifice was created ... not Jesus was created. Bad English on my part.
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