Salvation in the Gospels

Glad you have joined us this morning. Today we move to the fourth installment of a multi-part series titled "I Want to Give My Heart to Jesus." In our first presentation (What Is My Heart That I Would Give to Jesus?), we began with both God's original intention for us, and the nature of humankind after the fall. In the second (Who is Jesus to Whom I Would Give?), we took those findings and said, what about Jesus to whom we would give our heart? In last week's message (Salvation in the Old Testament), we began a rapid-transit journey through the Bible toward our own day surveying the its teaching about salvation.

As we've been advancing over this ground, we've noticed that fallen humankind is born into this world, not guilty, but broken. The effects of the fall are upon him, changing him, preparing him to seek what is evil rather than what is good. In the second message we thought about just what this all meant for Jesus who came "with just such an humanity." We discovered that He became as human as we are so that we might become as obedient as He is. We were very interested last Sabbath as we saw many things about the gospel as particularly shared from Seventh-day Adventism, and there it all was, before our very eyes in the Old Testament! Today we keep moving from the beginning of the New Testament. In the small time that we have, we'll look at something about salvation in each of the gospels.

And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as He that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; That ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:24-30).

Back to Jesus, always we go back to Jesus. And that’s just right too, because we’re not Jews, not Muslims, but Christians. A text:

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God (1 Peter 4:1, 2).

We want to learn how Jesus suffered for us in the flesh, and be armed with the same mind. To that end, let’s explore this Bible book a bit. ===

Being Found in Him

When you read the Bible from front to back, something should jump right out at you: From Genesis to Revelation, one of the most common spiritual problems, is self-righteousness. And at the last ticking of time, in the last fleeting moments before earth’s midnight arrives, it is no different. Our danger of self-righteousness, may be even greater than other generations, for on us shines the full light of Bible truth. God’s sending us great light is no indication of special favor or goodness in us. We dare not nurture the slightest notion of pride, for pride is deadly.

We also live at the age when the Christian world makes light of God’s law, when obedience itself is viewed as suspect. We live in an age of cheap piety and the casting of charges easily, without a second...

The New Theology teaches that the primary problem that the gospel is meant to deal with is not human choice but human nature. “Sin” is made firstly a matter of our nature. One way this is sometimes said is that, “You are not a sinner because you sin; you sin because you are a sinner.”

The problem, according to the New Theology, is not what we end with, but what we begin with. The character at last developed in one’s life, is less significant, while the equipment we are born with, concerning which we have exercised no personal choice, is made most significant. Built into the core of the New Theology is an antipathy to issues concerning freewill, and an exalting of the significance of aspects of the human situation concerning which we can do nothing. In sharp contrast, the messenger of the Lord says,

Contrasting, the New Theology with the true theology

In its early and middle days, it was relatively easy to spot the New Theology. Its proponents openly claimed that, this side of translation, real victory over sin was impossible. But with increasing frequency we hear advocates of the New Theology say that yes, you can have victory over sin by the understanding of salvation that they teach. The “Can you have victory over sin?” test no longer suffices. The disease has advanced to another stage.

Revelation by its nature marks off a boundary. It says, “This is truth and you cannot countermand.” It marks the dividing line between what God speaks by divine authority and what man says in his own authority. God’s information is pure, protected from error by the phenomenon of inspiration. Man’s material is a miserable tissue of speculations and nothingnesses.

Thus, inspired writings can be inconvenient. They get in the way of human ideas. Since Ellen G. White wrote over 100,000 pages it becomes tempting for advocates of error to bend the information. Selected bits of her writings are quoted to persuade the listener that a teaching is sound, while the preferred teaching of the teacher often directly contradicts the truth. Will we use the inspired writings given us by God only selectively, or will we let them speak to us more broadly with their full testimony? In some cases White's writings have been presented in such a manner that they appear to teach original sin.