It was asked, "When did God save you?"
Someone answered, "Is this question important? If I am saved, it doesn't matter to me when I am saved. If I am not saved, it is not relevant to me..."
(Imagine
saying, "If I am born, it doesn't matter to me when I am born." ~~
sing)
------
A
response:
Is
this question important?
Read
this short illustration; an accomplished accountant like you will easily
understand.
Supposing
a benefactor FREELY credited a $1b to your personal account and also paid off
ALL your debts while you were condemned and declared bankrupt.
He
then sends his servant to bring the good news to you and calls you to believe
it. (Good news is news of what has happened; good news is not what will happen
if a condition is met, i.e. good news is not a conditional offer!).
And
suppose you believe the good news of the benefactor's FREE and gracious act,
and by faith, you go to the bank to draw on the money.
Wouldn't
it be SCANDALOUS, TREACHEROUS and CRIMINAL of you to claim and insist that
it was your believing the good news and going to the bank THAT CAUSED the gift
to be freely credited to your account, and all your debt cleared by the
benefactor?
You believe and THEN the gift was deposited, or the gift had been deposited and THEN you believed. Put it another way: Is it you believe first and THEN God saved you, OR God saved you first and then you believe (you believe because God has first saved you, making believing possible.)
The
truth is, your believing and going to the bank EVIDENCES the great deed that
HAD BEEN DONE for your sake! If he had not done it for you, there would have
been no such good news for you to believe!
Your
believing or not believing does not in the slightest manner affect the reality
of the things that are already done for you! But your believing enables you to
experience the blessings of those things already done for you by free grace.
Yet
so many insist that... they are justified before God by or through their faith
in Jesus Christ! Upon their believing in Jesus Christ, God justifies them, i.e.
God gives them the righteousness of Christ upon their believing in Christ! What
a lie!
Sola
fide is a great lie of the devil - it is treacherous, scandalous, injurious
and criminal.
Do
you begin to understand the great issue involved? It is not just semantics; the
devil will whisper that into your ears! It is Christ's honour and truth at
stake!
Original
post here:
