If you want to understand exactly how FREE your salvation is, read 2 Cor. 5. This is truly an amazing chapter. Consider some of the statements:
5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
5:14-16: For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that (the) ONE died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
5:14-16: For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that (the) ONE died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
5:17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
5:18-19: Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (when Christ died), not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
5:21: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
"Not counting their trespasses..." He died for all..."Him who died and rose again on their behalf..." "He made Him who KNEW NO SIN to be SIN ON OUR BEHALF... that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
There truly is no love like the love of God, no mercy like His, No salvation like His, and no salvation without Him. Imagine, on the other hand, rejecting Jesus Christ, whom God allowed to be crucified for you, and seeking another path. Imagine the worst insult you could pay to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ--it would be this: to treat His infinite sacrifice as nothing, and try to get eternal life and heaven on your own or by some other means. "Many paths to God?" Don't believe it. Why would God, whose Son paid the price for your every sin, accept you taking "another path?" Why would the Son say, "It doesn't matter?" It mattered to Him--enough so that He took the hardest path Himself so that you could receive eternal life.
God provided it, but you won't take it? You would so insult the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? You would make His crucifixion, His pain, His death as nothing? If you do that, you are a fool indeed. On the other hand, if you will just reach out and take the salvation He freely offers, and accept it as it's offered, as a gift, YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER WITH HIM IN HEAVEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment