The following is an edited transcript of the audio.
What are the most basic things a person needs to believe in order to be saved?
Paul
says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." He
says, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved."So I take texts like that and begin at the core-the death of Jesus. He died for our sins, which means I must believe I am a sinner. A person that doesn't believe he is a sinner can't be saved. If there is nothing to forgive, Jesus didn't do anything for me. If he didn't do anything for me, I'm not believing him for salvation. If I'm not believing him for salvation, then I'm not saved. So you must believe you are a sinner.
You must believe that there is a God who has created the possibility for sin. That is, sin by definition is the falling short of the expectations of your Creator. So there has to be a Creator God out there who has expectations of humans. God expects humans to trust him, love him and live for him. And we fail.
Which leads us to the third thing we must believe. Because we fail to trust, love and live for God we are under his holy judgment-his wrath. You've got to believe that.
No comments:
Post a Comment