Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Salvation Is Impossible

You may have attended a church for many years. You may have heard a lot of sermons. You may have seen a lot of people "come forward" to the evangelist's call. You may have prayed the prayer. But do you really understand what conversion is?



Salvation is not "accepting Jesus into your heart". He doesn't need your acceptance. We need His acceptance!

Salvation is not "making Jesus Lord of your life". He is Lord of your life and everything else in the universe whether you like it or not. And the day is coming when everyone will bow their knee and confess this fact either as a repentant sinner or a damned rebel.

Salvation is when the God of all creation raises someone from the dead. It is a miracle. It is when someone who is dead in sin is resurrected by the God Who raised Jesus from the dead. And God can only do this without violating His righteous justice because of the righteous substitute Who died in the place of sinners.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O LordGod, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live,and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold,a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, andthe breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10)

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)


Are you a new creature?

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