Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield (1851-1921)
Posted on 02/23/2015 5:41:49 PM PST by RnMomof7
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” – 1 Timothy 1:15
Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield (1851-1921)
“Christ Jesus came to save sinners.
Not, then, merely to prepare salvation for them; to open to them a pathway to salvation; to remove the obstacles in the way of their salvation; to proclaim as a teacher a way of salvation; to introduce as a ruler conditions of life in which clean living becomes for the first time possible; to bring motives to holy action to bear upon us; to break down our enmity to God by an exhibition of His seeking love; to manifest to us what sin is in the sight of God, and how He will visit it with His displeasure. All these things He undoubtedly does. But all these things together touch but the circumference of His work for man. Under no interpretation of the nature or reach of His work can it be truly said that Christ Jesus came to do these things. For that we must penetrate deeper, and say with the primitive Church, in this faithful saying commended to us by the apostle, that Christ Jesus came to save sinners.
We must take the great declaration in the height and depth of its tremendous meaning. Jesus did all that is included in the great word ‘save.’ He did not come to induce us to save ourselves, or to help us to save ourselves, or to enable us to save ourselves. He came to save us. And it is therefore that His name was called Jesus—because He should save His people from their sins. The glory of our Lord, surpassing all His other glories to usward, is just that He is our actual and complete Saviour; our Saviour to the uttermost. Our knowledge, even though it be His gift to us as our Prophet, is not our saviour, be it as wide and as deep and as high as it is possible to conceive. The Church, though it be His gift to us as our King, is not our saviour, be it as holy and true as it becomes the Church, the bride of the Lamb, to be. The reorganized society in which He has placed us, though it be the product of His holy rule over the redeemed earth, is not our saviour, be it the new Jerusalem itself, clothed in its beauty and descended from heaven.
Nay, let us cut more deeply still. Our faith itself, though it be the bond of our union with Christ through which we receive all His blessings, is not our saviour. We have but one Saviour; and that one Saviour is Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing that we are and nothing that we can do enters in the slightest measure into the ground of our acceptance with God. Jesus did it all. And by doing it all He has become in the fullest and widest and deepest sense the word can bear—our Saviour. For this end did He come into the world—to save sinners; and nothing short of the actual and complete saving of sinners will satisfy the account of His work given by His own lips and repeated from them by all His apostles.
It is in this great fact, indeed, that there lies the whole essence of the gospel. For let us never forget that the gospel is not good advice, but good news. It does not come to us to make known to us what we must do to earn salvation for ourselves, but proclaiming to us what Jesus has done to save us. It is salvation, a completed salvation, that it announces to us; and the burden of its message is just the words of our text—that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
So that God could understand Job’s suffering.
I laugh at the assertion that the Roman Catholic Church is a church and not a cult.
Constantine comes to mind for some reason....
Hoss
A cursory study on the history of the title "pope" shows that.
The word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning "Father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied, especially in the east, to all bishops and other senior clergy, and later became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century. [O'Malley, John W. (2009). A History of the Popes. Government Institutes. p. xv. ISBN 9781580512275.]
The word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning "Father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied, especially in the east, to all bishops and other senior clergy, and later became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century. [O'Malley, John W. (2009). A History of the Popes. Government Institutes. p. xv. ISBN 9781580512275.]
Hmmmm.
Wonder if that professional historian is giggling. Maybe a small smirk? Laughter?
Hoss
Scripture tells us otherwise, which is what Paul states.
Why don't you believe God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired Scripture?
For God so loved the world that He didn't send a committee, even if it is called the *magisterium* by the RCC.
Catholicism has made salvation FAR too complicated.
It has corrupted the beautiful simplicity of the gospel message and buried it under an avalanche of man made traditions, rules, rituals, sacraments, creeds, catechisms, and other nonsense that keeps men from being able to reach out and find God in genuine and simple faith and trust.
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Not.
:D
Excellent post.
Hoss
Do you think he really wanted to know the answer?
Seems to me he was mocking the Lord’s words - as if to say “I’m government, I’m the ultimate politician. We both know there is no such thing as truth.” A la Obama..........
Obviously not since he immediately turned and asked the crowd who they wanted released.
There are many of those. I can’t find the one from the editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia right now but it’s along the same lines.
There wasn't even a single head of the church in Rome until at least the 3rd century.
Who wrote the Epistle of Clement?
On the Epistle of Clement.
"The letter is anonymous; however, the stylistic coherence suggests a single author. [Holmes, Michael (1 November 2007), Apostolic Fathers, The: Greek Texts and English Translations, Baker Academic, p. 34, ISBN 978-0-8010-3468-8]
Sorry. Don't mean to break your bubble.
There are 1.3 billion Catholics on Earth now and UNTOLD billions who have lived over the years that share that opinion...
Exactly. Great observation
nice haircut.....
Arthur that answer is so sad.
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