SALVATION-GIFT
Christmas
is based on an exchange of gifts, the gift of God to man – His unspeakable gift
of His Son, and the gift of man to God – when we present our bodies a living
sacrifice.
The Vance Havner Quote Book.
Christianity Today, v. 31, n. 18.
On the one
hand, Christianity is the most exclusive religion imaginable. It insists that
belief in Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for salvation. Jesus is the only
way. You must go to Him to get eternal life. On the other hand, Christianity is
the most inclusive religion possible because it makes salvation accessible to
everyone. Salvation is offered for all people through one Person. Whoever believes
in Him will not perish. Anyone who receives or believes in Jesus will live
forever with God. There are no racial, social, intellectual, or economic
criteria that prevent anyone from joining God’s family. One of the problems
with the other religions of the world is that they all smack of elitism… Only
Christianity offers salvation to everyone as a free gift.
Philip Graham Ryken
Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 36-37.
Salvation is
not something we achieve, but something we receive!
Author Unknown
If any man
ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of
man, he know nothing of grace, and he has not learned
Jesus Christ rightly.
Martin Luther
No more
soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine that sinners
can regenerate themselves, and repent and believe just when they please. As it
is a truth both of Scripture and of experience that the unrenewed man can do
nothing of himself to secure his salvation, it is essential that he should be
brought to practical conviction of that truth. When thus convinced, and not
before, he seeks help from the only source whence it can be obtained.
Charles
Hodge
The only
thing of our very own which we contribute to our salvation is the sin which
makes it necessary.
William Temple
The thief had
nails through both hands, so that he could not work; and a nail through each
foot, so that he could not run errands for the Lord; he could not lift a hand
or a foot toward his salvation, and yet Christ offered him the gift of God; and
he took it. Christ threw him a passport, and took him into Paradise.
D.L. Moody
Day by Day with D.L Moody, Moody
Press.
Salvation is
from our side a choice; from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an
apprehending, a conquest by the Most High God. Our
“accepting” and “willing” are reactions rather than actions. The right of
determination must always remain with God.
A.W. Tozer