Born Again How to Revive Relationship With God
Feedback archive → Feedback 2007
How do people come into a right relationship with God?
If nobody comes to the Father only by Jesus, how did Old Attestation saints get saved?
Published: sixteen June 2007 (GMT+10)
Today we deal with another query from 'Andrew' who inquired previously about God'south foreknowledge of Adam's sin. This time Andrew questions Russell Grigg's claim that the Jews in the Old Testament were able to be saved through organized religion in God shown in obedience and repentance. Russell Grigg replies, discussing how people came into a right human relationship with God in the New Testament and how today. Salvation past faith through grace is integral to our non-denominational statement of faith, and then we idea we would respond in detail.
Andrew writes:
I likewise question you about your assertion that the Jews were 'saved through faith in God, shown in obedience and repentance'. This strikes me as an extraordinary statement. The classical doctrine is 'Outside the church there is no conservancy' (extra ecclesiam nulla salus). Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me' (John fourteen:6). That was his answer to Thomas. Information technology would seem to be a very good answer to the idea that that the Jews were saved through nix more repentance and obedience. It's also fair, I recollect, to point out that the faith, repentance and obedience that you draw is entirely a mechanistic, legal repentance. You get yourself a flawless animal, take information technology along to the temple, go through a ritual, and hey presto! Repentance is yours. But I refer y'all to Psalm 34:18—'The Lord is almost to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are contrite in spirit.' Or (testing Scripture by Scripture) Psalm 51:17 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Yard wilt not despise.'
So then, the idea that Israel was saved past some legalistic sacrificial system is repudiated both past Christ and by the Old Attestation (cf. Isaiah 57:fifteen). I can't aid feeling that your assertion that the Old Testament is 'almost' the sacrificial organization of Israel is, at best, simplistic.
Of grade the really basic problem with all this is that if the Jews could be saved through faith, repentance and obedience, and so why did God bother sending Christ. Wasn't it all rather a waste product of time? I hateful, why didn't he just gear up a few non-Jewish missionaries—the new Jonah rather than Christ, the new Adam. Surely John the Baptist would accept done the fox. No? But why not? Y'all tin can be saved through organized religion without Christ according to your reading of the Former Testament. So isn't the New Testament just redundant?
Russell Grigg replies:
What the Old Testament says about a right relationship with God
Every bit I mentioned in the sermon, and took some pains to point out, people in the O.T. lived before the events in the N.T. Therefore no one in the O.T. knew that Jesus of Nazareth was 'the way, the truth and the life'. Therefore no one in the O.T. could have been saved by believing that Jesus was the manner the truth and the life, because Christ had non nevertheless come and said information technology. Furthermore the Church had not yet been formed, so people in the O.T. were not saved through the Church either. What then?
The only condom footing is to see what Scripture says. All else is speculation. The outstanding effigy for our purposes is Abraham. The N.T. refers to him as 'the male parent of all them that believe'. And then what does God say most Abraham?
Genesis 15:vi says that Abram 'believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.' This is repeated in Romans 4:3, as well as in Galatians iii:half dozen, and in James two:23. James two:21–23 says that there was a certain outcome that proved that Abram (now with his name changed to Abraham) had faith. This was his obedience in offer upward Isaac every bit a cede (Genesis 22:1–18). In the event, only Abraham's willingness was required, but it was nonetheless obedience. So James links religion and obedience together and says in effect that religion that does not show itself in obedience is not faith.
In the process of time, God instituted the sacrificial organisation (see the volume of Leviticus). This was several hundred years after the death of Abraham. Don't forget that the sermon was meant to testify the fourth dimension sequence of the important events in the Bible and how they correlate.
The sacrificial organisation did not, could not, and was non meant to abolish sin, because merely Christ'due south decease on the cantankerous can do that (1 John 3:v). The sacrificial system was meant to evidence that sin was worthy of death, but that God accepted the death of another. It was a means whereby the Israelites could confess their sin and evidence repentance. On the annual Day of Amende, one caprine animal was offered in sacrifice, and another was sent into the wilderness after the sins of the people had been confessed upon its head (Leviticus 16:20–22). All this was meant to cover over sins until the fourth dimension when Christ would come (Romans iv:vii; cf. Psalm 32:1), and it was meant to teach the O.T. Israelites the significant and necessity of the futurity death of Christ the Messiah, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Isaiah 53:6; cf. John one:29).
The sermon was an essay in summarizing things. I began by summing upwardly the Bible in a sentence, 'The Bible is God'due south revelation of Himself to mankind, and how He wants us to come into a correct relationship with Him'. I and so summarized it in a give-and-take, 'Grace'. The style I summed upwardly what God says in the Bible near Abraham was by saying that God accustomed people in the O.T. by religion which showed itself in obedience and repentance.
As well, if you're going to say that the Jews were saved through faith shown in obedience and repentance then you really have to extend a similar courtesy to Islam. They claim religion in the same God equally nosotros do, they are certainly concerned with obedience (the word Islam, after all, means "submission" in Arabic) and they have a like concept of repentance to Christians—probably more than like to the Christian concept than the Temple period Jewish i. And then if the Jews are saved, why not Islam?
Not so, on several counts.
- Muslims worship Allah, whom they may equate with the God of the Old Attestation. Nonetheless, Christians worship the God who has revealed Himself to mankind in the Bible every bit the triune God—three eternal distinctions in the i divine essence, known respectively equally Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three distinctions are three persons, namely, God, whose name is 'I am' (Hebrew: YHWH, Exodus three:14); the Son of God, whose proper noun is Jesus (Matthew 1:21), also called Christ (Matthew i:16; Christ ways 'the Messiah' or 'the anointed one'); and the Holy Spirit, whose name we are not told in the Bible (presumably nosotros will observe out what it is when we go to Heaven).
- Muslims are concerned with obedience, simply obedience to what? The 5-point formula for credence laid downwardly past their founder, Mohammed, is cypher like the personal relationship to God on our part that God calls for and that Jesus described: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your center, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your force' and 'You shall love your neighbour every bit yourself' (Mark 12:29–31).
- If yous interview a Muslim y'all volition soon run into that their understanding of 'repentance' is very dissimilar from the biblical concept. For example, 'loss-of-face up' is of far more than concern to the average Muslim than is sincere regret for one's past actions.
- Christians have the balls that 'if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins' (1 John 1:nine). How can God justly forgive our sins? Answer: because the penalty has been paid past the expiry and resurrection of Christ (Ephesians 1:seven). Since Christ has borne man's penalization for sin, God now remits it in the case of those who believe in Christ (Colossians two:13–14). God is entitled to say on what weather condition man may receive forgiveness. This He has done in declaring that He forgives those who repent and believe on His Son. This gives Christians the assurance that they volition not face up time to come judgment for their sins (Romans 8:i). Muslims have no such assurance. (They don't fifty-fifty believe that Jesus died, let lonely that by Him all things were created—see nether 'A very different deity' in The Koran vs Genesis.) What they promise, but have no assurance of, is that on the Mean solar day of Judgment their proficient deeds volition outweigh their bad deeds.
- Then why are Muslims not saved? Considering they have not entered into a correct relationship with God through faith in His provision for the paying of the penalty for their sins through the death and resurrection of the Messiah (Christ), shown by their repentance and obedience to Christ.
Of course the actually basic problem with all this is that if the Jews could be saved through faith, repentance and obedience, and so why did God bother sending Christ. Wasn't information technology all rather a waste of time? I mean, why didn't he just fix a few non-Jewish missionaries—the new Jonah rather than Christ, the new Adam. Surely John the Baptist would have done the trick. No? Only why not? You can exist saved through faith without Christ according to your reading of the Onetime Testament. Then isn't the New Testament simply redundant?
What the New Testament says most a right relationship with God
It is very interesting and helpful, and fifty-fifty a surprising practise, to go through the New Attestation and note or underline all the verses that have to do with a person becoming a believer/follower/disciple of Jesus, aka a Christian. Jesus used a different approach with about everyone He talked to; for instance what He said to the woman at the well in John iv is totally unlike from what he said to Nicodemus in John three. Nosotros are told of only ane occasion when Jesus said, 'You must be born once more'. This was to the foremost theologian of the day (Nicodemus), and Nicodemus didn't understand (or pretended not to) what Jesus meant.
Christianity is virtually people coming into a right personal human relationship with God. There is no formula laid down, just in the preaching of Jesus recorded in John'south Gospel (which was 'written that y'all may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing y'all may take life in His name' (John 20:31), and of the disciples in Acts, certain concepts occur over and over over again. They are:
From John's Gospel
John 1:12 Receive Jesus. Believe in his proper noun …
John 3:3 Exist born over again
John 3:16 Believe in the Son
John iii:36 Believe in and obey the Son
John 4:14 Drink the living water that Christ gives
John five:24 Hear the word of Jesus and believe
John six:54 Eat Jesus' flesh and drink Jesus' claret (metaphorically)
John viii:51 Keep Jesus' give-and-take
John 10:ix Enter through the door (Jesus)
John 10:27 Hear the vox of Jesus and follow Him
John 11:25 Believe in Jesus
From the preaching and writing of the Apostles
Acts 2:38 Repent and exist baptized
Acts 3:19 Apologize and return
Acts 8:37 Believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Son of God
Acts x:43 Believe in Jesus
Acts 16:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus
Acts 17:30 Repent
Acts 26:xx Apologize, turn to God, do things that prove repentance
Romans 1:16 Believe
Romans 10:9 Confess Jesus as Lord, believe God raised Him from the dead
Eph. 1:thirteen Listen, believe
Eph. 2:eight–nine Through faith, non works
ane Pet. 2:24 Die to sin, live to righteousness
1 John 1:9 Confess our sins
There are patently many other verses that could be annotated, but the above are representative. Just as we summarized what the O.T. said on coming into a correct relationship with God, let us at present summarize what these verses say:
Hear the word of Jesus
Believe that Jesus is God, that He died for our sins and rose over again
Repent of our sins
Receive Jesus
Obey Jesus as Lord
Now equally I run across it, the biblical Christian is someone who has done/is doing all of these things. The Church is not mentioned in these contexts, and so we have to say that the Bible says nothing most conservancy being 'through the Church', despite what Popes have said.
We summed upward what God says in the Bible near Abraham and what God instituted and required the Israelites to do by proverb that God accepted people in the O.T. by faith which showed itself in obedience and repentance. In the same manner I advise that a summary of all the North.T. verses that bargain with hearing, believing, repenting, receiving, and obeying is that today we are saved by faith that shows itself in obedience and repentance.
What are we meant to accept 'organized religion' in?
The question then arises: What is meant by 'religion`? Faith in who or faith in what?
I believe the answer to this question is that God requires us to have faith in what He has said, for no other reason than that He has said information technology.
Consider Abram—what was his organized religion that was and then wonderful that 'it was counted unto him as righteousness'? In Genesis 15:1–five God gave Abram various promises and so in verse half-dozen information technology says that Abram 'believed in the Lord', i.e., Abram believed what God had said. Why? For no other reason than that God had said it.
Consider the N.T. verses nearly salvation. How do we know that believing Christ died on the Cross for our sins saves us? Answer: For no other reason than that God (or the Bible or Jesus) has said it. How do we know that 'if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness'? Answer: For no other reason than that God has said it. And so on.
In summary, then, what God has told us is that we should accept faith in the claret of Jesus, shed on the Cantankerous as a full, complete, once-and-for-all amende for the sin of the whole world, and that religion of the right sort will bear witness itself in our repentance for sins committed, and in our obedience to God in the future. When we believe this about Jesus equally it applies to u.s.a., we are saved. In order to believe it we must see ourselves every bit guilty sinners, in need of forgiveness (which is what repentance is). When we take believed information technology, we will want to obey the Lord who has saved us.
For God to have sent another Jonah or some other John the Baptist would not accept fulfilled any of the above criteria.
Russell Grigg
Source: https://creation.com/how-do-people-come-into-a-right-relationship-with-god
0 Response to "Born Again How to Revive Relationship With God"
Post a Comment