Tag: salvation

Categories
Salvation

Exclusive vs. Inclusive – Aren’t All Religions the Same?

Many people get “put out” with the exclusive claims of Christianity.
They indicate that Christians ought to be more inclusive. They may hold to the personal idea that “No matter which religion I choose, as long as I’m sincere, each one will lead me to heaven.”
But is this true? The answer from the Bible is a resounding, “No.”

Chess pieces with one off to the side symbolizing the idea of one being exclusive and set apart from the others
Exclusivity – Does One Stand Alone?

Alistair Begg and Peter Cotterell point out:

Truth simply is not a matter of pride or humility. Truth is a matter of fact.

Islam says Jesus wasn’t crucified. We say he was. Only one of us can be right.
Judaism says Jesus was not the Messiah. We say he was. Only one of us can be right.
Hinduism says God has often been incarnate. We say only once. Only one of us can be right.
Buddhism says that the world’s miseries will end when we do what’s right. We say you can’t do what is right, the world’s miseries will end when we believe what is right.

The fact is, the world’s religions may agree about the peripheral matters, but they disagree precisely about the most important matters of all.

Any intelligent person could decide that all religions are wrong.
Any intelligent person could decide that one is right and the rest wrong.
But no intelligent person can seriously believe that all religions are essentially the same.

The simple logic that Begg & Cotterell use clearly points out that in each of the cases above, only one religious group can be right. These ideas are not compatible with one another. They are mutually exclusive. Upon the most cursory of investigations we find out that these different religions disagree with each other on major points. Therefore, all roads cannot lead to Heaven.

And so I encourage you to investigate the truth claims of Christianity. As you do so you will find that Christianity stands the test of scrutiny. As you test it, you may find what many others have… That God is drawing you to Himself.

Alistair Begg again:

You may be a Prodigal Son or Daughter who has been running away from God.
Now He is drawing you to Himself because of His love for you.
The Father is saying to you: “Come on, son; Come on, daughter.”
And then He starts to issue instructions:
Get him a robe for status;
Get him a ring for authority;
Get him sandals for his feet, for only slaves are barefoot, and all of God’s children have shoes.
And let’s go have a feast and a celebration!

I want you to receive that pair of shoes from the Father and for you to join the celebration with us! But that requires you to realize that the claims of Christianity are exclusive, but that they do lead down the only path of salvation.

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Categories
Parenting Salvation

Parents, Children, and Salvation Questions

I often have parents come to me with salvation questions regarding their children, such as:
    Do you think they are ready? and
    Do you think they are too young?

child with hands over his face with question marks floating around - symbolizing salvation questions
Christian parents want their children to know Jesus and His salvation, but they want it to be real. Therefore, parents are often worried about pressuring their children too early.
(This discussion is based out of the Baptist framework of children being baptized after belief in Jesus for salvation.)

So here are a few aspects of salvation that parents need their children to understand:
   (I adapted much of this from another source, and though I usually keep up with sources, I somehow have lost this one)

The Concept of Sin
Every person (including children):
   1. Must understand what sin is.
   2. Must know that he/she has sinned.
   3. Must understand that when he/she sins, it is against God.
   4. Must believe that sin separates him/her from God.
   5. Must feel sorry for his/her sin and want to cease sinful actions (repent).

How do Children Become Christians?
The same way adults do! After hearing the gospel message of what Jesus has done and then desiring to be saved, each of the following elements must be present:
   1. Repentance – not just knowledge of sin, but sadness over the sin & the desire to reverse his/her direction into whole-hearted obedience to God.
   2. Faith – trusting in, believing in, & depending on Jesus for salvation.
   3. Confession – committing one’s life to serve Jesus as Lord (King/Master).

My Child Is Asking Questions About Salvation and Baptism. Is He/She Ready?
Children ask questions about lots of subjects because they are naturally curious. When it comes to their asking questions about salvation, do not confuse curiosity with readiness for salvation. These two items are distinctly different, but the curiosity is a great starting point to begin the conversations with your child about becoming a follower of Christ.

Children need to clearly know the difference between:
   1. Becoming a Christian
      This is Step 1: the most important step – Jesus transforms our lives.
   2. Being Baptized
      This is Step 2: baptism being a symbol that tells the world of our connection to Christ, our obedience to Him, and our fellowship with all other believers.
   3. Becoming a Member of a Church
      This is Step 3: our decision to unite with a local group of believers. The first church we join is the one in which we are baptized, but we are to continue to be connected to a local body throughout our lives so that we can support, encourage, and sharpen one another throughout our lives as Christians.

To the Parent who is worried about whether your child is “ready” or not:
If your child (or children) know the concepts of the ABC’s of salvation well, then I would recommend the following steps:
1. Go ahead and pray with them, encouraging them to confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This is never a bad idea, not even to do multiple times, even if you would like to hold off on baptism for a while to make sure that they understand the gospel and salvation.

2. Have them talk with your pastor so he can sit down with them and ask them the same questions that should be asked of everyone before joining the church, so he can also hear their answers to the questions. That way everyone can be in agreement about whether your child is ready for salvation, baptism, and church membership.

3. You can share with them that you want them to wait a bit longer to be baptized, because you want to make sure of two things that occur with people their age who are baptized:
     a. many times children their age want to be baptized because other people are making the same decision, and while we don’t think that is the case with them, we want to wait just a bit more time to make sure they are certain of why they are being baptized.
     b. many times when children their age are baptized at such a young age, they have a hard time remembering it, and we want them to be able to remember it because it is so important for every person.

I have baptized young children, but I do know that it is harder for them to remember the event the earlier the age at which they are baptized. And that can sometimes lead to doubts later on, such as in the teenage years, of asking: “Did I really understand what I was doing back then?” When that occurs, my questions to them are: Did you know you were a sinner then? Did you believe Jesus died on the cross? Did you believe Jesus rose again? Did you want Jesus to be your Lord? Did you have a conversation about this with your parents and/or pastor? If your answer is yes to all the questions, then yes, you can trust that you were saved and you understood it at a 7-year-old level, and as you have grown older you have also grown in your understanding of Jesus and what He did to save you from your sin.

I was 8 when I was baptized and I don’t remember much about the experience. But I do know I was saved with an 8-year-old understanding and now I understand it with a 44-year-old understanding. I have come far, but I still have much more to learn about salvation. Our church’s current youth minister was 7 when he was baptized and he remembers his experience quite vividly. He also agrees that he was saved with a 7-year-old understanding and now he understands salvation at a deeper level.

So I would say:
1. If your child has a handle on the concepts, then certainly have them pray with you about salvation.
2. Determine if you want them to go ahead and be baptized or if you feel they should wait a bit longer.
3. Let your pastor know what you decide, and bring your child to talk to him.
4. Allow your pastor to go over it again with your child, and if he also feels that they are ready, then celebrate their salvation, no matter whether your decision is for them to “wait-a-while” or “go ahead and be baptized.”

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Categories
Salvation

Admit, Believe, Confess – The Simple Components of Salvation

In my previous post on Simplicity, I stated that I would unpack the concepts of the ABCs of Salvation a bit more in this post. So the simple components of salvation are that we Admit, Believe, and Confess. But what does each of these mean?
the word simple spelled out in scrabble tiles

A – Admit that you are a sinner.

But what is sin?
Simply, sin is any choice you make that isn’t what God wants.
Sin can be when we do something He tells us we shouldn’t do.
    For example, God says “do not steal,” so if we steal something, then we have disobeyed & sinned.
Sin can also be when we don’t do something God tells us we should do.
    For example, God says to “honor your father & mother,” and if we don’t honor them, then we have sinned.

And the Bible tells us two very clear things about sin:
    1. “…all have sinned….” (from Romans 3:23)
    2. “The wages of sin is death….” (from Romans 6:23)
Everyone has sinned, and there is serious punishment because of it.

Since we are sinners, the punishment means that without Jesus we cannot have a relationship with God. Jesus says He is the only way to begin a relationship with God. So how does this work?

We have to realize that we are sinners and that we have done something that God didn’t want us to do. And just as we apologize to another person when we do something unkind to them, we need to apologize to God when we realize we have sinned. In Acts, when Peter told people about having sin, they asked “What should we do to be saved?” And the first thing Peter told them was to “Repent” – to apologize to God and turn away from the sinful things they were doing.

B – Believe Jesus is who He said He is: the Savior of the World

John 3:16 & Romans 10:9 indicate that we are to Believe that:
1. Jesus is God’s Son sent to earth because God loves us,
2. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, and
3. Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God.

Let’s take an imaginary trip back to grade school for an illustration of how Jesus can be the substitute sacrifice for us:
Imagine that you disobeyed a teacher at school and were told that your punishment was going to be seven licks with a paddle swung by Coach McMuscles, and you are fearful of the coming punishment. But just before you are paddled, your best friend comes in and asks to be paddled in your place… that would make your friend the willing substitute. If they allowed that substitution, your friend would be standing in your place and receiving the punishment you deserved so that you could go free without any consequences. Your friend did nothing to deserve the paddling, but your friend was willing to pay the price that you owed.

All of us owe a much higher price than a paddling for our sins. Because we broke God’s commands and committed treason against Him, our punishment is our whole life. Because of your sin, you are condemned to eternal, spiritual death. And no one else could be your substitute because everyone has sinned and everyone owes the same amount. So Jesus, the only One without sin and therefore without the same condemnation, stepped in to take your place – to be a substitute sacrifice for you and to pay the cost of what you owed because of your sin. He did this by dying on the cross, in order that you could have a relationship with God. And now you have to believe that this good news of Jesus dying for you and then rising from the dead is true.

C – Confess Jesus as Lord

Romans 10:9-10 tells us to confess that Jesus Christ will be your Lord, meaning that He will be the one to control your life from this point forward. This means that you will no longer live to please yourself, but that you will commit your life to please Jesus and to show your love for Him. A lord or a king had servants or workers that were obedient to him. When we confess Jesus as Lord, we are saying to Him that He will be our King and will be in control of our lives, because we are committing to serve Him completely.

It is because Jesus loved you first and was the substitute sacrifice for you that you are able to:
A – admit your sin to Him, repent, and ask forgiveness;
B – believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that He died on the cross for you so that you could have a relationship with God;
C – confess that Jesus will be your Lord & commit your life to Him so that He controls all that you do.

So the simple (yet most important) question for each of us is…
Have you Admitted, Believed, and Confessed?

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Categories
Salvation

The Simplicity of Becoming a Christian

Simplicity.
It can be very good.
Back in March of this year, I posted about our need to know the Essentials of Christianity (click the link if you missed it or need a reminder of the 9 Essentials.)

And while the 9 Essentials can help us test whether a religious system is Christian or not, it doesn’t tell us whether an individual person is a Christian or not. Therefore, we also need to know the simple information of how a person becomes a Christian.

First, a person needs to hear the gospel message of Jesus: the story of His miraculous birth, His perfect life, His death on the cross for the redemption of sinful humanity, and His resurrection from the dead. When God then uses the gospel message to draw someone to Himself, the person will want to know: “What must I do to be saved?” And it is at that point that we need to have a clear and simple answer.

Jesus answered simply: Repent and Believe (Mark 1:15).
Paul answered simply: Believe and Confess (Romans 10:9).

These ideas have been pulled together as the ABCs of Salvation, which LifeWay has been using with children for many years in their Vacation Bible School materials. Most importantly, the ABCs of Salvation are biblical. But also, they are simple, they are helpful, and they apply to both young and old.
an image with the phrase The ABCs to symbolize the simplicity of the message of salvation

The 3 words are:
1) Admit
2) Believe
3) Confess

Admit your sins and repent.
Believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross and God raised him from the dead.
Confess that Jesus will rule your life as Lord and Master.

That’s it.
It is simple.
But that doesn’t mean it is easy, because:
–Repentance means not only walking away from ungodly behavior, but walking toward God.
–Belief requires that you trust something (and in this case, someone) that you have not been able to see with your own eyes.
–And Confessing that someone else will rule your life instead of yours requires that you die to yourself.
These are serious and difficult tasks, even though they are simple concepts to understand.

Therefore, simplicity is good, but simplicity can also require difficult decisions and commitments.
In my next post I’ll flesh this out a bit more, but for today, take time to thank God for the simplicity of the gospel!

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Categories
Jesus

How Narrow is the Path that leads to God?

a narrow path

In my previous post I shared the quote:
“No wonder the world has passed by the church. We don’t need reforming; we need to be regenerated. We need to be born again.”
–J. Vernon McGee
            (click here to see the previous post)

But aren’t most of us pretty decent people? Aren’t we pretty good? Do we really need to say such negative things about people in general? No. No we are not. And yes we do. Here is why we must say we need to be regenerated:

We need a new nature because we naturally have a sinful nature, and that sinful nature is not going to make it into heaven. Therefore you have to get rid of your sinful nature. But you can’t do it on your own. You don’t have the ability. If you go to heaven and enter the presence of Holy God, it will only be because you trusted the One who died for you – Jesus.

Your only way to come to God is through Jesus.

Now some will want to argue with this statement and say “That is so narrow-minded. There must be another way. God wouldn’t make forming a relationship with Him that narrow.”

But such ideas go directly against the words of the Bible. Specifically they go against the very words of Jesus who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” That is pretty narrow. But who should I believe? Who do I trust? Jesus? Or someone who is “not Jesus” but who insists to me that there must be another way?

Hmmmm…. I think my best option is to believe Jesus.
I imagine He has a better handle on the situation than Uncle Jim, my neighbor Bob, or even myself.

If I were a betting man, I think it will be a much better “bet” for me to to take Jesus at His Word than for me to hope that my unbiblical guesses about God are right and that He’ll let me into His presence anyway. Can you imagine saying to God: “Oh. Ummm. You mean, God, that you were serious about all those words in the Bible? Such as the fact that I had to choose Jesus during my lifetime on earth? I was kind of hoping that some of those words were wrong. I was figuring that whoever wrote down Jesus’ words didn’t write them down correctly. So is it OK that I didn’t believe them? You’ll let me slide on it, right?”

It would not be wise to end this life with your hopes set with that type of mentality.

God is big enough to preserve His words the way He wanted them recorded. I mean, He’s God. And the words that God has recorded for us in the Bible make it very clear: Your one and only way to be in the presence of Holy God for all eternity is through a relationship with Jesus.

Yes, that is narrow.
But it is very clear.
God Himself tells us: To be with Me for eternity, you need to be regenerated. You need to be born again.