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. Five Necessary Truths to Understand the Gospel By John Palassis 1. The Holiness of God God is separate. God is absolutely pure. He cannot accept evil and sin in his presence. The angels in God's presence declare: Holy, Holy, Holy (Revelation 4:8). None of us can approach Him without the holiness which God imputes (transfers, gives) to us through Jesus. If God was not Holy, the sacrifice of Jesus would not be needed. Everyone could access Him on our own, without Jesus' holiness in us. But God is absolutely holy (panagios) and allows access to Him only by the mediation (mesitia) of Jesus and because of the sacrifice of Jesus and faith in Him (Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18, 3:12; I Timothy 2:5); we cannot get to Heaven on our own. Only Jesus can bring God and men together, and who is qualified to appease God's Holiness and justice. It cannot be done without Jesus and Him alone. 2. The Deity of Christ. Jesus Christ is God of very God (John 1:-4) and is the only mediator (mesitis) between God and men (I Tim 2:5). Jesus is the Creator (demiourgos) of the Universe and of every living thing visible and invisible and holds everything together (Pantocrator) (Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:2-3). There are false teachers who preach another Jesus, other than the one that is proclaimed in the Bible. St. John said "test every spirit" (I John 4:1). We test the spirits by the word of God--the Bible. 3. We Are Lost Without Christ How bad are we without Christ? The Bible says (in Ephesians 2:1, 5) that we are dead in trespasses and sins (Romans 7:9). That is to say that we cannot respond to God, we are like dead people that cannot find Him, unless we invite Him and comes to us. He will breathe life to us, give us the ability to believe and to see our sin, and see the wonder and the beauty of Jesus. Spiritually, He makes new creations out of us (II Corinthians 5:15-21). 4. Jesus is the Only Sacrifice for our Sins Jesus died for us, the sinners. In I Peter 3:18 it says that "Jesus Christ died for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God" (also in Romans 6: 8-10; Hebrews 10:10, 12, 14). That means that there can be no other way to God. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me" (John 14:6). That is so unpopular today with so many false teachers telling us to reach God by our self efforts (or our good works to commend us to God). Jesus is the only one that can give us the righteousness that we need. Jesus is the only one that met all the requirements of our Holy God. And because we cannot access God on our own, we must come to God in the prescribed way. Jesus is the only name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). There are no other options. There are plenty of gurus, prophets, teachers who proclaim different ways to God. Nobody, but Jesus, can take us to almighty God. No other religion has a savior. 5. Salvation is by Faith and Trust in Jesus Alone Salvation is given to us by God because of our faith/trust in Jesus alone (Romans 10:9-13). There couldn’t be any cooperation between us and God. We could not "do our best," and then God will come along and does His best. When we come to God for salvation, there is nothing that we can do or have to offer (Ephesians 2:8-9). We bring nothing to Him except our great need. The righteousness we need from God is a righteousness that we do not have. We can make no contribution. We do not add to that righteousness and make it more righteous. We do not subtract from it, we simply receive it. That's all we can do in our helplessness and our sin, there is nothing that we can do (Romans 5:17-19). But imagine what this last point denies. It denies that we are saved by our baptism. It denies that we are saved through the sacraments. It denies that we are saved by our own good works, by a church system, a religious organization, or any other works of righteousness we do. It is through Jesus Christ's sacrifice that we transfer our trust to Him, and by that means we are saved. God credits to us His righteousness and His glory. It becomes all ours because of a free gift (Eph 2:8-9), because we humble ourselves and know we cannot save ourselves, we have to cleave to that which Jesus Christ has done for us. That is the Gospel. The Gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation to anyone that believes" (Rom. 1:16). It is power to you if you believe today and you turn by faith to Christ and start trusting Him. The story of a lost boy that told the police, "If you take me to my church I will find my way home." Where is your church? asked the policeman. "It's the one with the big cross on it." "Take me to the cross and I will find my way home" the boy said. Without Jesus we are lost, but if we come to Him and accept His sacrifice by faith alone, He will show us the way to Heaven and take us there. Knowing about Jesus is not enough. You must trust Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart and life. Allow Him to be your Lord. Say and believe from your heart: "I will start trusting in Jesus alone from now on, I will start talking to Him and become friends" (John 15:15). Amen.
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