Friday, March 7, 2008

Exceptions Regarding Salvation (Introduction)


The most popular verse in all of the Bible is most likely John 3:16. Most, I venture to say, Christians know this verse by memory, if not they have some sense of knowledge about the verse. After all, who would not be impressed by The Gideons for passing out the (then) KJV New Testaments with John 3:16 in numerous languages within its front pages.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

In this verse we see the magnitude of God's love. Not that we can comprehend it, but because this verse says it, we know that God truly loves everybody, in the sense that He wants to see them saved. I love this thought: You cannot find one person in this world that God doesn't genuinely love. Simply put by Jesus himself: God so loved the world. I don't understand it, but somehow the Devil has convinced people that He hates them. The Bible does indeed speak of God hating sinners, but again, just like His love, we can't fully comprehend this. And certainly, only God can hate (and love) perfectly. The point is, God wants as many people saved, as could possibly be saved. In fact if it was left to Him, He would have all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

John 3:16 also reveals to us the enormous Salvation invitation: "whosoever." D.L. Moody puts it this way: You, me and everybody else. God invites everyone to be saved. The responsibility of being saved rests solely on the shoulder of each individual. In light of God's invitation to Salvation, every man will answer for himself, as to why they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. An old preacher use to say: "Whatever you do with Jesus, God will do to you. If you receive Him, the God will receive you. If you reject him, God will reject you." And how true that is.

God grants us eternal life, how great is that. To be with the Lord forever. What a wonderful and glorious Salvation awaits us as believers. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation;..." (Heb. 2:3a).

Salvation is great! You would think that everyone is going to Heaven. BUT wait a minute. As great and as grand as Salvation is, the truth of the matter is not everyone is going to Heaven. An old Spiritual says this: "Every body talkin' bout Heaven ain't goin." If you are wondering about God's simple plan of salvation then read here. I am assuming that most of my readers are Christians. Therefore, I write this to you so that you can use these set of verses as tools when dealing with lost sinners about their souls.

2 comments:

Nicholas Z. Cardot said...

Great article. I will definitely be linking to this article from my Watchman Awards segment this Saturday. Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Bro. Hardecker! Can't get any simpler than that!