We are saved by Christ's merits

We are saved by Christ’s merits

While Jesus was walking about the land of Israel he was asked by a young man, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

That question has been dogging people ever since. They want to know what they must do. In Luke 18:19-22, Jesus responds to the young man’s question, “…You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false witness, honor your father and mother.’

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ (the man answered Jesus)

“When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’”

Just as we have been talking about the past couple of weeks, we are to abandon everything for Christ.

Like all of us, the man wanted to be able to do something. Needless to say, he followed the commandments Jesus prescribed and most would say the man was living an honorable life. We don’t get the whole story, but we can probably bet the man had an unhealthy obsession with his own finances, and Jesus knew this and he cut to the core, just like He can do with us. In essence, Jesus told the man to get rid of that, which comes between God and us.

 Jesus tells those around him how hard it is to be saved, and they ask, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

What did Jesus just say? Well, he said we couldn’t do it. There is nothing any of us can do to warrant our salvation. So, what saves us then?

Well, Jesus does. Yes, Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin, but his life on this planet up until that time, made him a worthy sacrifice.

As Paul noted in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

So, as Charles Spurgeon noted, we are not saved because of our own actions, we are saved purely on Christ’s merits.

There is nothing else we need. There is no other prescription to our malady than Christ. Many times we focus solely on the cross as our means of salvation, and forget the perfect life Jesus led leading up to that defining moment. One, though, cannot be divorced from the other. The entirety of Jesus, and his deity was placed upon the cross.

The perfect lamb was brought to the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. To suggest there is anything else a soul needs but Christ, is to deny the fullness of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.

In Sunday School classes all across the country children are taught the Roman Road: For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved; For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord; that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation; for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

That is our path. For those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, those who believe Jesus is who He claimed to be, then our sins are forgiven and we can look forward to an eternity spent in the presence of our Savior.

In other words, when the man asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life, his answer, and our answer is Christ alone.

So simple, yet so hard for some to understand, but in the end, it is the only knowledge in this world we truly need — spread the word.

All for Christ or nothing at all

All for Christ or nothing at all.

No, that is not the gospel. Jesus doesn’t tell us to give away everything we have before coming to him, or even after coming to him. Once we are Christ’s everything we have is his, and everything he has is given, or will be given, to us. But, when it comes to the heart, Jesus doesn’t want anything but the seat of honor at our heart’s table.

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life — such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” — Luke 14:25-27

Those who ridicule the faith handed down to us by Christ will say that is a contradiction as Christ and the apostles tell us to love one another, even our enemies. It is true; we are commanded to love one another, so the question begs, “What was Jesus talking about here?”

From scripture we learn that Abraham was a man of great faith. God even asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, to show his faith to God, on Mount Moriah. Abraham obeyed. He took his son, made the trek to what is now Jerusalem, scaled the mountain, bound his son and prepared to plunge a dagger into his chest, but God stopped him, and provided Abraham a substitution sacrifice in the form of a ram. What we see in Abraham is a willingness to abandon everything for God.

This is the same for Jesus and us.

R.A. Torrey wrote, “the affection and devotion to His glory, which Jesus demands, are such as can be properly yielded only to God. As we are to trust Christ for everything, so we are to give up everything for Him, should He demand the sacrifice. This was a doctrine which the Lord repeatedly taught… See at once how uncompromising is the Savior’s demand. Father, mother, son, daughter, wife and even life itself are to be sacrificed, if devotion to Christ necessitates the surrender. All creatures, and all things, and our very lives are to be to us as nothing when compared to Christ. God Himself demands no less of us, and no more.”

So, are we living by faith if we are not willing to give up everything for the sake of Christ? Absolutely not, we are living in denial, and most ashamedly we are not living for the glory of Christ.

Those of us here in America have become spoiled. None of us have been asked to give up everything for Jesus, other than enduring an occasional snicker from a rogue soul there isn’t much we suffer inside this great nation.

Still, we should all be ready for all of that to go away. In fact, it is imperative that we desire the outside world and its corrupting influences to leave us alone so that we can devote every thought, every desire, every wish, every hurt and every ounce of joy to our beloved Jesus, who did give up all of those things in order that we may bask in and share in his glory, bought for us at the cross of Calvary.

So, we come back to our opening line, all for Christ or nothing at all. As Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 5: 14,15, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

Many of us live for many things, and not just worldly and unholy things. Many live for their families, many live to serve others and to offer their assistance if needed anywhere. These motives are beautiful, but the sad truth is, without Christ, they are just empty gestures. It is a good thing to feed a man who is hungry, but if no prayers are offered for him, if the gospel is not shared, his hunger will come back and his soul will be just as hollow as ever.

But, with Christ, the man who desires food spirit will no longer crave for something because it will be filled with the Spirit of Christ.

When and only when we abandon ourselves, as noted last week, will we be able to be utilized by God.

Christians, we are strangers in this land, and with each passing day and minute, our status as one being counted in the fold of Christ, makes us more unwelcome in this wretched world. Knowing this, what makes us hold to it and its wicked enticements? We should seek to throw it all away, even that which is closest to us, in order to serve Christ more fully.

In this day and age of “anything goes,” people the world over say Jesus was a teacher of love, he wanted us to love everybody all the time and spread that love. A whole social gospel has risen up in the terrible wake of this flawed teaching.

Yes, Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God’s love for us. Through Christ’s love, displayed at the cross, we have been reconciled to God. Yes, Christ and the apostles taught us to love one another, but we are taught another lesson, we are to never let anything, even our father, mother, wife and children come between us and Christ.

Jesus was unambiguous — it’s all or nothing.

Hopefully, this is a message we all are hearing, and one that is still being preached to us in pulpits and by the Holy Spirit. Nothing else should matter to us but Christ, and we should be willing to climb the steep heights of Moriah and put it all to death for our Savior, which is mirrored in our salvation when we put to death our sinful selves and become a new creature in Christ.

That is our destiny, and may it come quickly Lord Jesus.

Abandon all but faith

One of the favorite Bible stories told to children is Daniel in the Lion’s den.

It is a wonderful story of faith and trust in God, and in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a story anathema to the old American way of thinking, but one that is all-important for the believer — total reliance.

Before we get to the reading of scripture, let’s do a little background on what was happening around Daniel.

Daniel was a powerful man in Nebuchadnezzar’s administration. Babylon ruled the cradle of civilization and most of the developed world at that time, about 600 years or so before the birth of Jesus Christ. Daniel saw the king’s sons take over for him and the kingdom began to crumble until the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.

Now Cyrus is in charge of the new Middle East empire, and once again Daniel, the Jew, showed himself worthy to the new Persian king, so some scheming officials decided to shut Daniel down. They went to the king and asked him to make a law that nobody could worship any thing but king Darius. The king agreed and made a law. Needless to say, Daniel would bow to only the God of Israel, and the men scheming against Daniel didn’t forget to remind the king of the new law to which he agreed.

 “Then they said to the king, ‘Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.’ When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.

“Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, ‘Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.’

“So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions, den. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’

“A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.

“At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’

“Daniel answered, ‘May the king live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.’

“The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” — Daniel 6:13-23

Quickly, there are three things we must realize and strive to be as representatives of Christ on this dying planet.

• The first thing for us to remember is that we must live lives worthy of the name of Christ. Many can call themselves by that name, but few are the ones who live it. Those that do live for Christ alone standout like a sore thumb in this world of sin. The same was true in Daniel’s day.

For sure, there were many who called themselves Jews, but in name only. They did not live like a separate people unto God, they lived as the nations. But, Daniel lived a life devoted to God and the people saw it, and there were many who hated him for it.

• That leads us to the second point; people will hate us because we live a life not for the world, but for the One who saved us from the world.

Jesus told us in Luke 21:17 “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

Daniel was willing to live that life, even in the face of criminal penalty, because he served his God above and beyond anything else. God had given Daniel everything he had attained, Daniel knew this and he would look to nothing else but God for his needs.

Open you eyes folks and look at the world around you, the forces are arrayed against the God of Israel, the forces are arrayed against those who are called by Christ’s name. There is a deep-seeded hate within people when it comes to Christ.

We cannot expect the world to love us when everything we believe in with Christ stands against everything the world holds up as important. In the world’s eyes a true believer in Christ is the enemy and we should expect to be treated as such.

Daniel was not surprised by the actions taken against him. He did not say, “I’m a good man, I don’t deserve this.” Daniel knew what was coming, and never once did he let that stand between him and God.

• The third thing we must learn, when we abandon everything, all of our so-called knowledge and wisdom, our reliance on others and we completely put ourselves in God’s hands, then God not only will rescue us from the mouths of lions, but he will use us as a witness.

Filling out the rest of Daniel 6, after Daniel was pulled out of the lions’ den, Darius threw his accusers in, and issued a decree across the land that everybody in every part of his kingdom must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.

In John 8, we see the image of a woman caught in adultery and brought before Jesus. According to the Law, death would soon overtake her. As she laid on the ground before Jesus’ feet, she had no other hope, the only thing she could do was to abandon herself to the strange man standing in front of her.

In the face of certain death, Jesus sent her accusers away, then he said to the woman, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?’

“She said, ‘No one, Lord.’

And Jesus said, ‘I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

Her hope was gone, but in Jesus she found life. What happened to her was written in the gospels and because she trusted in Jesus to save her, her life became a witness to others.

In Dante’s “Inferno,” there is a sign for those entering out of limbo and into the circles of Hell, it read, “Abandon all hope ye that enter here.”

For those alive here on earth without Christ, it seems that is their motto. They have no hope, but for the Christian, our sign should read, “Abandon all the world, and enter the hope that is Jesus!”

Each of us must ask this question, are we holding on to something in this world, or are you willing to abandon all for the sake of Christ so that your life can be held up as a witness to the world?

If the answer is yes, then ask Jesus to fill you with his spirit, confess your sins to him, turn away from them and turn to the one who will wash you clean with his own precious blood.

What a wonderful savior we serve.