SALVATION-MEANS
The only
thing of our very own which we contribute to our salvation is the sin which
makes it necessary.
This is
somewhat of the word which He now speaks unto you: Why will you die? Why will
you perish? Why will you not have compassion on your own souls? Can your hearts
endure, or can your hands be strong, in the day of wrath that is approaching?... Look unto Me, and be saved;
come unto Me, and I will ease you of all sins, sorrows, fears, burdens, and
give rest to your souls. Come, I entreat you; lay aside all procrastinations,
all delays; put me off no more; eternity lies at the door...do not so hate Me
as that you will rather perish than accept of deliverance by Me. These and the
like things does the Lord Christ continually declare, proclaim, plead and urge
upon the souls of sinners... He does it in the preaching of the Word, as if He
were present with you, stood amongst you, and spoke personally to every one of
you... He has appointed the ministers of the gospel to appear before you, and
to deal with you in His stead, avowing as His own the invitations which are
given you in His name.
John Owen
Unless we are
thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God,
as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge.
John Owen
Meditation on the Glory of Christ, 1684, ch. 15.
To tell men
the worst about themselves is not to hinder conversion. On the contrary, the
real impediment to conversion is the absence of conviction of sin. The
preacher’s first duty is to address that fact by awakening the conscience to
the meaning of sin, and to sin understood not simply as wrong action requiring
forgiveness, but as an evil principle governing man’s very heart. A sinner’s
knowledge of his own inability is therefore part of the knowledge which leads
him to recognize that what he needs is a new nature.
Iain Murray
Revival
and Revivalism, 1994, p. 370. By permission Banner of Truth,
Carlisle, PA.
God is none
other than the Savior of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by
knowing our iniquities... Those who have known God without knowing their
wretchedness have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.
Blaise Pascal
Despair of
ever being saved, “except thou be born again,” or of
seeing God “without holiness,” or of having part in Christ except thou “love
Him above father, mother, or thy own life.” This kind of despair is one of the
first steps to heaven.
Richard Baxter
[Affliction
is sometimes] sent for the conversion of the soul. Sometimes in health the Word
does not touch the heart. The world is all. Its gaieties, its pleasures, its
admiration, captivate your mind. God sometimes draws you aside into a sickbed,
and shows you the sin of your heart, the vanity of worldly pleasures and drives
the soul to seek a sure resting-place for eternity in Christ. O happy sickness that
draws the soul to Jesus (Job 33, Psm. 107).
Robert Murray McCheyne
Comfort in Sorrow, Christian Focus, 2002, p.
6, Used by Permission.
And what is
the prescribed response? Is it to walk down an aisle? Is it to fill out a card,
or to lift up a hand? Is it to make an appointment with a preacher, or to
decide to be baptized and join the church? While any of those things may be
involved, none of them necessarily is. The response of the Good News – the
message that Paul preached and other Christians preached throughout the New
Testament – is to repent and believe. Once we’ve heard the truth about our own
sin and God’s holiness, about His love in sending Christ, and about Christ’s
death and resurrection for our justification, then, as instructed by the first
words of Jesus recorded in Mark’s gospel, our response is to “Repent and
believe the good news!” (1:15).
Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 77.
The
redemption of an eternal soul is one sale that I, in my own strength, cannot
accomplish. I need to know that, not so that I won’t preach the Gospel, but so
that I won’t allow my presentation of the Gospel to be molded by what I think
will finally get a response and close a sale. Instead of using all my powers to
convict and change the sinner, while God stands back as a gentleman quietly
waiting for the spiritual corpse, His declared spiritual enemy, to invite Him
into his heart, I’m going to preach the Gospel like a gentleman, trying to
persuade but knowing that I can’t convict and convert and change the sinner.
Then we’ll see clearly just who can really call the dead to life.
Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 127.
The first
link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit
but my misery, not my riches but my need.
C.H. Spurgeon
I learn from
the Scriptures that repentance is just as necessary to salvation as faith is,
and the faith that has not repentance going with it will have to be repented
of.
C.H. Spurgeon
When I was
coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the
Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young
convert is at first aware of this… One week-night, ...
the thought struck me, "How did you come to be a Christian?" I sought
the Lord. "But how did you come to seek the Lord?" The truth flashed
across my mind in a moment – I should not have sought Him unless there had been
some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I,
but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading
the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what
led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all,
and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace
opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I
desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to
God"
C.H. Spurgeon
The first
declaration of the gospel is negative – that every man
is sinful, separated from God, and condemned to hell. A person will not seek to
be saved until he realizes he is lost. Therefore the first step in proclaiming
the gospel is to tell men of their lostness, and the
first step in receiving the gospel is to confess that lostness.
A person will not seek healing until he is convinced he is sick; he will not
seek life until he acknowledges he is dead. Conversion, then, occurs in one who
is willing to accept the death sentence and also the acquittal of God. The man
who does not recognize his condemnation to death has no hope for new life.
John MacArthur
Taken
from Matthew 8-15, by John MacArthur, Moody Publishers, © 1985, p. 59.
The truth is that unless people realize they have a sin
problem, they will not come to Christ for a solution. People don’t come for
healing unless they know they have a disease; they don’t come for life unless
they are conscious that they are under the penalty of death; they don’t come
for salvation unless they are weary of the bondage of sin.
John MacArthur
The Gospel According to Jesus, © John MacArthur, 1988, p. 61.
God requires
satisfaction because He is holiness, but He makes satisfaction because He is
love.
A.H. Strong
All are not
saved by Christ’s death, but all which are saved, are
saved by Christ’s death; His death is sufficient to save all, as the sun is
sufficient to lighten all; but if any man wink, the sun will not give him
light.
Henry Smith
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 29.
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.