A Warning to the Intellectually Convinced - Protestant Caucus/Devotional

Gracetoyou.org ^ | 1993 | John McArthur, Grace Community Church

[Elsie]

thanks

[Faith Presses On]

You’re welcome

[unlearner]

Exactly. It’s been very difficult for me to rid myself of wrong ideas from my youth that came from either bad Bible teaching or my misunderstanding of what I was taught.

I was under the impression growing up that if you said the sinner’s prayer to God and really meant it, you then receive eternal life as a gift. And believers are not supposed to sin, but there is no sin that will cause you to lose eternal life because it is eternal. It sounds good because the Bible does teach that eternal can be received now, it is obtained freely and not earned, and the believer is secure because God keeps him or her. However, this formula lacks much of the essential message of salvation. Jesus did not merely come to take away the consequences of our sins. He came to take away our sins. This means justification/regeneration, sanctification, and glorification are all part of the same package (although they do not happen all at once when we believe).

Romans 6:1-2 NKJV
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Romans 11:27 NKJV
For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.

If we believe that Christ literally and truly died on the cross as a man, and that He rose again from the dead, it should not be surprising that God can change lives. Why should we suppose that a person is forgiven and cleansed of sin supernaturally by God but somehow he or she is not supernaturally changed to have a new heart that is able to seek God?

Matthew 9:6 NKJV
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

While this miracle of healing was used to substantiate the reality of Christ’s forgiveness, changed lives are perhaps an even greater miracle and evidence.

Anyone can claim that sins have been forgiven. Many religions and Christian denominations/sects assert that following their doctrine/message will result in forgiveness of sins. Yet they disagree about how this is accomplished. So, shouldn’t there be evidence to substantiate these claims?