The Bible is clear on the following:

• There are only 2 kinds of people and 2 destinies: 1 – Those who have believed in Jesus Christ = heaven or  2 – Those who have rejected Jesus Christ as Savior = Eternal Judgment.  John 3
• God’s thinking and God’s ways are not the same as ours.  Isaiah 55:8-9
• God is Righteous (in its simple/basic form is the quality of God’s perfection or character that demands goodness). Psalm 119:137
• God is Just (is that characteristic that hates sin). 1 John 1:9
• God is Holy (cannot be satisfied with anything less than perfect righteousness). Psalm 99:5

Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory (the righteousness) of God.  So we have a very basic problem! Man in and of himself cannot measure up to God’s holiness and all that His perfect righteousness and justice demands. A problem that must be solved if we are to have a relationship with God.

God in His grace has provided not just an adequate solution to solve our problem but a complete and total solution to meet our need through the Lord Jesus Christ. 

There is an absolute barrier between God and man, a barrier that separates them. One that man can not do anything in anyway to solve on his own. God says, I have good news for you, I have a solution for your problem, to deal with your nature, the fact that you’re under sin, the fact that you’re dead! 

God’s Solution is the Cross work of Jesus Christ.  A provision God has made for man totally by Grace!

Grace is God giving favor to those who do not merit it or deserve it in any way. In salvation this grace is directed towards those who place their faith in Jesus Christ and is based on the cross work of Christ. 

• It was at the cross that we see Grace manifested. Titus 2:11 
• The Only response that is compatible with grace is faith! Romans 4:16 
• Faith is set forth as an act that is not treated as a “work.” Romans 4:5

A salvation based on God’s grace and extended on the condition of faith eliminates human boasting and pride and thus directs all the glory to God Himself. Romans 11:6

When we accept and put our complete faith in Christ’s finished work of the cross as our only means to break down the barrier between our sin and God we are born again.  1 Peter 1:3 speaks of God the Father “..who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  The power that raised Christ from the dead is the same kind of power that is needed to save men who are dead in their sins.   So reconciliation says very simply that man is changed by God rather than God being changed in His relationship to man.  It involves the fact that man is now a new creature in Christ, that he has been justified by faith and is now seen by God as being in union with Christ.

• “Being made alive together in Christ” Ephesians 2:5
•  “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
•  “Beloved, now we are children of God…”  1 John 3:2

Hearing the message of Christ’s work on the cross demands a response on our part!  What logically do most conclude that the response is to be?

• I’ll join a church! What does that have to do with anything?
• I’ll try to live better! What does that have to do with anything?
• I’ll give some money! What does that have to do with anything?
• I’ll get baptized! What does that have to do with anything?

Not one of them has anything to do with acquiring salvation!  You can do them all and your not one bit closer to salvation, not any closer to heaven.  None of them are the response that God is looking for!

What is to be the ONLY bona fide RESPONSE?

• Believe that God sent His son, Jesus Christ, made Him YOUR substitute and placed YOUR sin, Your guilt on Him so that God is now free to give to you the gift of salvation in response to YOUR faith.  Acts 16:31

We need to accept God’s viewpoint. He sees Christ’s work on the cross as the sufficient and only means of salvation; therefore we need to also.  There is nothing that we can do, No way that we can add to it, He did it all! 
The Gospel, the Good News is that God has provided in Christ the only solution to our dire need. Which is the adequate, complete and finished work of Jesus Christ and we are to rest in it alone for our salvation, our eternal future.

• “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
• “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
• “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved,” Acts 16:31a

 

Edited version of Pastor John Griffith’s study of foundational truths.