| Salvation Process is initiated by God |
Create Date: 3-Jan-2019 |
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Last updated: 3-May-2021 |
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| God's Greatest Problem:
Excerpt from the Before the Cross
topic: This author first heard this from Chuck Missler and it summarizes the predicament of human beings. Paraphrasing Chuck: "God's greatest problem is how can He allow sinful creatures into His Presence without violating His Character that exercises perfect justice? The answer required Him making the payment for the sins of mankind." Yes, the scriptures state this exact same point, but this author believes that all of us have heard the Cross story to many times, become desensitized to it, and have forgotten:
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The Scriptures point out that it is God who calls us and invites us to make a decision in Faith to accept Him. No one is capable to seek God unless God first revealed Himself through
which leads us to Faith and acceptance of Jesus Christ as a Personal Savior. Thank God that He chose us and had a plan for us before the foundation of the world.
| John 15:16 | You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. |
| Ephesians 1:3-4 | 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love |
The Salvation process has always been the same throughout time which required our acceptance of God through Faith, not works, that we would have Salvation.
The eligibility given to everyone is by the payment by Jesus Christ on the Cross. The Cross contains many parts, where Jesus Christ's payment on the Cross far extends past a mortal death with the scourging. There was also:
We sometimes forget that God is perfect and no one can go to Him that is not perfect, where our sins prevent us from His presence which is why we had to have a payment for our sins through Jesus Christ.
| Psalm 22:1 | My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning? |
| Matthew 27:46 | And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? |
The world is offended and rejects the message of the Gospel for many reasons. All of us, before accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, find the Gospel objectionable for many reasons which were primarily for five reasons:
Romans 3:10-12 explains our problem.
| Romans 3:10-12 | 10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." |
Literally, the good news is God provided us with His Son's payment on the Cross that we only need to receive the free gift by asking Jesus Christ to be our Savior. If you have not done so then ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior.
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2 Corinthian 5:14-15 |
14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 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. |
| John 1:12 | But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, |
The Scriptures below only show a small part of the Scriptural evidence of the process of God working in everyone's life. Since the beginning with Adam and Eve until the present, there has always been Creation, Angels, Human Witnesses, His written Word and Theophanies for everyone to know that there is a God.
| Through His Creation | ||
| Animals | Job 12:7-9 | 7 But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? |
| Universe | Psalm 19:1 | The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. |
| All Things | Romans 1:20 | For since the creation of the world God s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. |
| Witness of Others | ||
| Witnesses | Romans 10:14 | How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? |
| Acts 22:15 | For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. | |
| Isaiah 43:10 | You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. | |
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Genesis 19:1 Genesis 19:21-22 |
1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and
Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet
them and bowed himself with his face to the earth. {farther down in this chapter, we learn that the two angels cannot have Sodom destroyed until they get Lot and his family out of Sodom. One of the Angels is speaking in verse 22.} 21 He said to him, Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. |
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| 1 Timothy 2:1-4 | 1. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. | |
| As the Chief Cornerstone | ||
| We are at first offended and reject Him | Palm 118:22 | The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. |
| Matthew 21:42 | Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes ? | |
| Acts 4:11 | This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. | |
| Notice The Stone was not made by hands fills the world. | Daniel 2:31-35 | 31 You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. 32 The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. |
| The One to Look to | ||
| John 3:13-18 | 13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. | |
| Salvation Acceptance | ||
| Romans 10:9-10 | 9 If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. |
The scriptures do point to an Age of Accountability threshold for liability to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. The preponderance of scriptures, indicate that anyone who is in the category requirements of the Age of Accountability, after death, will be given the opportunity to accept or reject Jesus Christ as their Savior to enter Heaven.
This also may include others that have been isolated, in life with no means to hear the gospel message and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, which is often called one of the classical objections against the Gospel. This author first heard about this possibility from J Vernon McGee, around the early 1980s on a radio program, and there is a strong possibility of this being an additional availability.
Many Biblical Scholars point out that if someone was not receiving the overwhelming evidence that there is a God in their life, which involved seeking God, then this type of person will not make the right decision after death.
What to read next?
What is Salvation. How do we Worship. The Classical Question against the Gospel. Is it possible to lose Salvation? We have eternal life. Evolution is not real. When a Christian suffers is there benefits from it. Rewards in heaven. Do we Tithe? What does the 3rd Commandment tell us? What is Grace and Mercy? Is there an Age of Accountability? Is there a place of unending punishment and exile form God?