Ten Gospel Truths
What the Bible Teaches - Truth #1
- When Christ "died for all," He tasted "death for every
one" (2 Corinthians 5:14; Hebrews 2:9). It had to be the second death that He "tasted," because what we calldeath the Bible calls "sleep," which everyone experiences except those who will be translated (John 11:11-13; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). Therefore there is no reason why anyone should at last have to die the second death except that he has resisted or rejected the salvation already given him "in Christ" (cf. Hebrews 2:3; the Greek word "neglect" in the King James Version means "despise," see Matthew 22:5).
- At Christ's baptism, the Father "accepted" the human
race in Him (Matthew 3:17). Thus He is already "the Savior
of all men" (John 4:42); no one can any longer doubt that the
Lord has accepted him/her "in Christ." But Christ is "especially" the Savior "of those who believe" (1 Timothy 4:10). Our salvation does not depend on our initiating a "relationship" with Him; it depends on our
believing/responding to the "relationship" He has already initiated with us.
- Christ "has abolished death" (the second; 2 Timothy
1:10). Since no one need be lost at last unless he chooses to reject what Christ has already accomplished for him, the only reason he can be lost is his unbelief (John 3:16-19). Christ has
"brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2
Timothy 1:10). For "every one," believers and unbelievers, He
has brought "life," and for those who believe, He has also
brought "immortality."
- In Romans 5:15-18 Paul sets forth what Christ
accomplished on His cross. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation of 1863 illustrates that "verdict of acquittal" or
"justification" for "all men." Lincoln granted every slave in the
Confederate Territories a legal freedom; but none could
experience it until he (1) heard the good news, (2) believed it, and (3) let it motivate him to walk out into liberty.
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