Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Summer Edition 2005
What Must I Do To Be Saved
The answer is unequivocal. "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31).
What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
It means, preeminently, to embrace that body of truth (called
the "kergyma" ) revealed in the New Testament about a person called Jesus of
Nazareth.
The claims made concerning this Jesus are quite radical. Many
throughout the ages have failed to comprehend them.
We are saved through faith and obedience to a person—Jesus
the Christ—that is the Messiah. He is more than a teacher and miracle-worker,
however, He is the divine Son of God—not in the sense of procreation, but in the
sense of representation and manifestation. He is God manifested in the flesh. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (II Cor. 5:19). This
does not mean that He is the same Person as the Father and the Holy Spirit,
either, but equal with them in the essence of the divine nature. He is fully
God, and He is fully man.
Great mysteries are involved in the concept of the Trinity,
and the incarnation of the Son of God, obviously, but these were never intended
to be the occasion of anyone stumbling in unbelief, for God will have all men to
be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (II Tim. 2:4; II Pet. 3:9).
The simplicity of saving faith, rather, is centered in the
concept of "the Christ." He is the Messiah! This we must all believe, and live
out the radical implications of that faith on a daily basis, in order to be
(eternally) saved.
Many today believe the error that Jesus will BECOME the
Christ when He returns to set up His kingdom. These are not Scripturally saved,
however, because the Christian faith is not grounded in any "becoming" notion,
but in the fact of present reality. Postponement or denial mentalities
notwithstanding, Jesus is now fully the Christ. He will never be any more the
Christ than He was at the time of His first advent two-thousand years ago, or
than He is right now.
It is another Jesus than the Christ of the New Testament,
friends, who is coming back to set up his kingdom, for the Jesus of the New
Testament already did that at the time of His first advent two-thousand years
ago. Those who put their trust in another Jesus than the Christ of the New
Testament, obviously, are not Scripturally saved. In this same vein, Daniel
Steele alleged that the late nineteenth century Plymouth Brethren dispensational
premillennial theory was "a substitute for holiness, or antinomianism revived."
Now it is clear, as well, that Antinomians are not Scripturally saved, for
antinomianism, as it rests in the lawlessness of the carnal mind, is the
antithesis of true holiness of heart and life, and without holiness no man shall
see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).
Many have been taught, in their embrace of Darbyism, a theory
of secret pretribulational rapture-ism, and Jewish millennial kingdom-ism that
is different than what the Christ of the New Testament taught. The Christ of the
New Testament is revealed through His very own words, friends, and people who do
not pay any attention to these words are not Scripturally saved, even though
they may claim to have an "experience."
There are varieties of religious experience, but only one
Scriptural way of salvation. And at the heart of salvation stands Jesus and His
words. The one who goes by the Book, rationally understood, friends, is the true
Christian, for Christ is revealed through, and only through, the objective
written Word of God, rationally interpreted.
Now, is your mind open to the Book, or you trusting for your
eternal salvation in some man's theory concerning another Jesus?
Think about it. Think long and hard about it.
Let God speak to your heart.
Related Article Links
The Gospel We Preach
The Simple Bible Plan Of Full And Free Salvation