Jesus is necessary

Christians need Jesus and his death and resurrection in their place to be saved. For many, this is no big surprise, it is old news. But do we really believe it? Do we show by what we think and do that this is true?

Let me quote a brief and famous passage from 1 Corinthians 15:

¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1Co 15:13-17 ESV)

Jesus died on a cross about 2000 years ago to pay for the sins of all who believe. God paid an incredible cost to save you and me from death; a cost that had to be paid for there was no other way to do it. It was necessary; without it, there is no way to be saved.

Let’s reflect on this for a moment. If Jesus and his death are the only things that connect us to God, and without them we cannot be saved, that changes everything. Well, it should. We tend to forget this in practice.

We think that if we are good, then God loves us more, and listens to our prayers more. But this is not true – he only listens to our prayers because of Jesus and his death, not because we deserve it in any way! Even the best person ever deserves nothing but eternal death from God without Jesus.

We think that having money or Australian citizenship or status or a good job or a nice house counts for something and makes us somebody. That’s what our society tells us, anyway. But no, none of those things change our status before God. You might be wildly successful in the eyes of the world and yet lost forever from God if you reject Jesus.

We might think that knowing the Bible really well and coming to church every week has to count in our favour with God. These are great things, but they cannot save you; only Jesus and his death can do that.

So often we kid ourselves into thinking that it is our goodness, or our status in the world, or our religion that gives us credit with God. But that is simply untrue, and in our more honest reflective moments we know this is the case.

Without Jesus we are lost without hope. We need Him more than we can imagine. Thank God for his grace in providing such a necessary and generous gift!

1 Comment

stmichael on February 5, 2015 at 12:11 am

“Their ability to do good works is not at all from themselves, but entirely from the Spirit of Christ. And – in order that they may be enabled to do these things – besides the graces believers have already received, there must also be an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit working in them both to will and to do God’s good pleasure. This truth, however, should not cause believers to become negligent, as though they were not bound to perform any duty without a special moving of the Holy Spirit; rather, they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. ”

Thus, the “good” things we do are not to do with favour or credit with God, rather they are done to stir us toward holiness. Therefore,

“…those called and regenerated are more and more enlivened and strengthened in all saving graces, leading to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

Thus, the man who is constantly reminded of God’s grace, but rarely told of his need for obedience in Christ, through striving for holiness, the one who is reminding him, is more-or-less inviting him to be negligent to his own need for holiness. A man alone struggles with striving toward holiness; therein lay the value and import of the pulpit. We shepherd the flock, thusly.

Grace and Sanctification thus need to be addressed equally, lest the man fails to have the Holy Spirit stirred in his heart. Unfortunately desire is stronger than a man’s ability for self-control,
making sinning forever hang over him in everything he does. Thus, man must constantly be stirred toward sanctification, as this is the life of Heaven in the seed, the first fruits, or down payment (Romans 8:23, Ephesians 1:14).

The flock needs to be stirred to the holy life.

Telling a flock that it is saved by grace does not stir it toward the holy life, rather, if anything, it plants a seed of complacency, for nothing the flock does can save it. It is the desire of the sinful heart to seek the path of least resistance, and as it is easier to do nothing than strive toward holiness, the later requires active intervention. Complacency is what a flock learns from a doctrine of Grace Alone without Sanctification in equal measure.

stmichael on February 5, 2015 at 12:11 am

“Their ability to do good works is not at all from themselves, but entirely from the Spirit of Christ. And – in order that they may be enabled to do these things – besides the graces believers have already received, there must also be an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit working in them both to will and to do God’s good pleasure. This truth, however, should not cause believers to become negligent, as though they were not bound to perform any duty without a special moving of the Holy Spirit; rather, they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. ”

Thus, the “good” things we do are not to do with favour or credit with God, rather they are done to stir us toward holiness. Therefore,

“…those called and regenerated are more and more enlivened and strengthened in all saving graces, leading to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

Thus, the man who is constantly reminded of God’s grace, but rarely told of his need for obedience in Christ, through striving for holiness, the one who is reminding him, is more-or-less inviting him to be negligent to his own need for holiness. A man alone struggles with striving toward holiness; therein lay the value and import of the pulpit. We shepherd the flock, thusly.

Grace and Sanctification thus need to be addressed equally, lest the man fails to have the Holy Spirit stirred in his heart. Unfortunately desire is stronger than a man’s ability for self-control,
making sinning forever hang over him in everything he does. Thus, man must constantly be stirred toward sanctification, as this is the life of Heaven in the seed, the first fruits, or down payment (Romans 8:23, Ephesians 1:14).

The flock needs to be stirred to the holy life.

Telling a flock that it is saved by grace does not stir it toward the holy life, rather, if anything, it plants a seed of complacency, for nothing the flock does can save it. It is the desire of the sinful heart to seek the path of least resistance, and as it is easier to do nothing than strive toward holiness, the later requires active intervention. Complacency is what a flock learns from a doctrine of Grace Alone without Sanctification in equal measure.