Exhortation to Salvation

J. D. Gallé | Sunday, 2 August 2020

        Keep seeking the Lord Jesus Christ with all diligence until you find him. Keep beseeching the Father to draw you to his Son, without which you will be unable to come to him (Jn 6.44). He is worth everything (Lk. 9.25–33). His blood alone will cleanse you of all your sins (1 Jn 1.7, 9).  Eternal life, age-lasting life, the life of the age, is knowing God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he sent (Jn 17.3). 

        Repent; turn from your sins to God. Live no longer for yourself but for Christ, the one having died and been raised for your sake (2 Cor. 5.14–15). Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Be immersed (i.e. baptised) in Jesus Christ and confess your allegiance to him as Lord, calling upon him for salvation (Acts 2.38; 22.16; Rom. 6.3–4; 10.9–13). You will be forgiven of all your lawless works (Rom. 4.7–8), declared righteous (Rom. 5.1), reconciled to God through the death of his Son (Rom. 5.10–11), and granted a new heart (Ezek. 36.26). You will be regenerated by the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, adopted as a son or daughter into the family of the living God (Jn 1.12–13; 3.3, 5; 1 Cor. 12.13; 1 Pet. 1.3). You will be transferred from the dominion of Satan and darkness into the marvellous light of God and the kingdom of his Son (Acts 26.18; Col. 1.13; 1 Pet. 2.9). Wrath and destruction in the age to come will not be your lot, but incorruptible life in the new heavens and new earth in unhindered fellowship with God, the Lamb, and his holy ones when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead (Rev. 20–22).

        Never be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ or his gospel. Confess him before people. Be seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness principally (Matt. 6.33). Deny not the Lord Jesus. Rather, disown yourself, take up your cross, and follow him for the rest of your days (Matt. 16.24), bearing his reproach (Heb. 13.13). As the world loves the darkness and hates the Light, Jesus Christ (Jn 3.19–20; 7.7), so the world, including false religious professors, will hate you if you are one of his (Jn 15.18–19; 1 Jn 3.13).

        Keep seeking the Lord Jesus Christ with all diligence until you find him.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2020. All rights reserved.

Latest revision(s): modified scriptural abbreviations (2 Nov. 2021).

Christ Died for All: Respond!

J. D. Gallé | Sunday, 31 May 2015

        Strict Calvinists often argue that, if Christ died for all persons without exception (universal atonement), all would invariably be saved (universal salvation). Since the Scriptures portray two disparate destinies of humans, it is reasoned, universal atonement cannot be true.

Salvational conditionality

        Our response is simple: if the New Testament authors view salvation as genuinely conditional in nature, universal atonement does not inevitably lead to the actualisation of universal salvation. The possibility remains that some (if not many) will perish because God has not chosen who will come to a salvational knowledge in Jesus Christ. In other words, there is no election to (or unto) belief. All are to be urgently called to repent and believe in Christ for salvation because Christ has died for all. All have sinned and all likewise need a saviour, but only those who respond positively to the gospel will be saved. The gracious character of redemption is in no way compromised by affirming its conditional nature.

Christ’s redemptive work: appropriation and application

        In Christ God has acted on behalf of the salvation of all humanity. Christ has taken the judgement of God due to sinners upon himself as the representative and substitute for sinful humankind. He bore the curse for us on the tree. By his blood there is redemption and forgiveness of sins, and by his blood believers are declared righteous. Through the death of the Son those who were once the enemies of God are reconciled to the Father. Those who are in Christ are made new creations by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the powerful working of God. Christ has died and risen again; he will never die again. Jesus is now Lord over all. Those who trust in him will not perish but inherit eternal life. They will share in the resurrection life of Jesus by being raised immortal by him on the last day. The kingdom of heaven will be theirs. 

        All may potentially be saved, for Jesus has procured redemption for the whole world via his sacrificial death at Golgotha. Nevertheless, according to the sovereign decree of God, the benefits of Jesus’ sacrificial death are actually applied only to those who cling to the Son as their only hope for obtaining salvation and the mercy of God.

Conclusion

        God has sent Christ to save his wayward creation from the wrath that is to come. Jesus came to deliver those who believe on him from the power and penalty of sin. The message of this good news is to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth until the King returns in glory with his angels at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead. Until the day of his visitation (i.e. the parousia), all are called to repentance towards God and faith towards Jesus Christ.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Cor. 5.14–15, ESV)

        The only question that remains is this: who will respond to the call?

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021. All rights reserved.

Latest revisions: minor emendations made to paragraphs four and five (2 Jul. 2016); omitted two words in par. 2 (15 Apr. 2017); converted one colon to a full stop; altered headings ‘The conditionality of salvation’ to ‘Salvational conditionality’, and ‘The benefits of Christ’ to ‘Christ’s redemptive work: appropriation and application’ (21 Feb. 2018); altered one letter from upper case to lower case (14 Nov. 2019); added emphases in par. 1 moved heading for one paragraph to another; added one word in par. 1; altered one word in par. 2 (10 Dec. 2021).