Who Then Can Be Saved?

Jesus told his disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples cried out, “who then can be saved?” The response is no one! No man can work to earn his salvation. But the sweet blood of Jesus Christ is more efficacious than all the work that a man can do. Thomas Watson, in his Treatise on the Holy Eucharist, comments:

If we had offered up millions of holocausts and sacrifices, if we had wept rivers of tears, this could never have appeased an angry Deity. Only Christ’s blood ingratiates us into God’s favor and makes Him look upon us with a smiling aspect. When Christ died, the veil of the temple was rent. This was not without a mystery, to show that through Christ’s blood the veil of our sins is rent which interposed between God and us.

 

Sovereign Love and Human Choice

Sometimes Christians become confused about the language of Scripture that deals with God’s electing love versus our responsibility to choose Him.

Last evening, First RP concluded another Puritan Paperback (we are working through the series one book at a time). We just completed The Christian’s Great Interest by William Guthrie.

He answers many objections to faith in Christ and has a wonderful section on personal covenanting. Here is his response to those confused about the language of Scripture concerning sovereign love and personal responsibility:

O then, it is a coming on our part, and yet a drawing on His part; ‘No man can come to Me, except the Father, which has sent Me, draw him.’ (John 6: 44.) It is a drawing on His part, and a running on our part–‘Draw me, we will run after Thee.’ (Cant. 1:4.) It is an approaching on our part, and yet a ‘choosing and causing to approach’ on His part. (Psa. 65: 4.) It is a believing or receiving on our part–‘But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name;’ and yet ‘it is given us to believe.’ (John 1: 12; Phil. 1:29.)

Next month we are reading The Lord’s Supper by Thomas Watson. Feel free to join us!