…the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe(1 Timothy 4:10 – ESV)
The Gospel is for all people, and all people groups, and yet there is only one way and one Name by which we can be saved (John 14:6 / Acts 4:12). The call has gone out everywhere (Romans 10:18 / Colossians 1:6, 23 / 1 Timothy 4:10 / Titus 2:11 / 1 John 2:2). From every nation God will get Himself a people (Revelation 7:9), but not all people will come to Him in faith and be saved, of this we are sure (Matthew 7:21).
How can we truthfully say, and in what sense is God the Savior of all men? It is not that all men are saved as in universalism but that there is only one Savior for all men; it isn't as if Christians have one Savior and others might have another savior. Notice Paul's point in 1 Timothy 4:10: especially of those who believe; Christ's atoning work is adequate to save anyone, but only effective in saving those who come to Him by faith. Jesus is the only Savior of all mankind; the only way we can have eternal life (John 17:3 / Romans 10:9-13). Salvation wasn’t localized to a particular place or people and is not limited to a particular time period. The call is indeed universal, but only those who will receive it are saved (John 1:12).
There is only one Gospel for all men, only one path, contrary to the people who declare that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all have the same God. Jesus was intolerant of any other way, and God has declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah the Jews were looking for but missed, and God declared that the promise was through Isaac, not Ishmael, so the Muslims are wrong. Also, it cannot be the same Jesus because the Christian Jesus is the Son of God, and the Qur’an says that Allah has no son.
Not all people are the children of God. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were of their father, the devil (John 8:44). You are not a child of God just by being born in America, or having godly parents, or going to church, or taking Communion, or being this or that religion. No, you must be adopted into the family of God (Galatians 4:4-7). We are called children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2, 5:6 / Colossians 3:6) before we are called out of the darkness (1 Peter 2:9) to be children of light (Ephesians 5:8). We are born into the kingdom of men, but we must be born again into the Kingdom of God (Galatians 3:26). Has Jesus signed your adoption papers?
7 comments:
Merry Christmas dear Brother! Or, as a former coworker used to say, "my brutha from anutha mutha!"
"...for all people, and all people groups, and yet there is only one way and one Name..."
How true! And oh, how it irks me to hear people describe the proclamation of the awesome Creator (of the WHOLE earth) as the propagation of western thought, or white man's religion.
I love being American, but I was NOT appointed an ambassador by America or Puerto Rico or Chicago (go Bears), but by the eternal and omnipresent God Himself!
Merry Christmas!
Hey Merry Christmas I'm little late getting home and am trying to catch up on the posts. "Are You Adopted" is a good message JD, even for those who can answer yes to the last question, good to be reminded!
Thank you everyone for continuing to pray for my father in law, JR...
His status as of 12-25-06 - 5pm...
He has been moved to a rehab hospital, and is undergoing aggressive physical therapy...we have seen him move his left leg (the paralyzed side) and left elbow and hand...the physical therapist says she believes that he might regain use of both, but that he must "retrain the brain" to be able to use those muscles again...
He has been given some tracts, and is glorifying God in all of this, and witnessing where he can...
Thank you again for your prayers, I told him today how all of you are lifting him up before God, and it touched him to hear this...
It will be at least two weeks of therapy, but his vitals are good, he is in otherwise good shape...
Pray for his complete recovery of movement, and that souls will be won to Christ...the nurses are already calling him the "all star" because of his cooperative, courageous, and congenial behavior (of course we would use the word Christlike, amen)...
For His Glory
JD
So, can you tell this is a repost from 12/25/06?
Still the timeless truth...BTW my father in law is doing fine now...
You know JD, this can be very confusing! Still a great post.
Christmas in June :)
Yeehaw!!!!!
Yeah, I kinda figured that this was a repost due to some long and complicated discussions on another blog. Thank you JD for your clarity. For those of us that are not so intellectual, (even though I can spell it), we appreciate the simpler explanations.
Yes, Jesus has signed my adoption papers. And now I can CRY Abba, Father:)
woohoo
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