An Arminian Wrestles With Salvation

From the beginning of time God has been trying to teach us about a Savior. When Adam and Eve sinned God clothed them with garments of skin. The innocent paid the price to cover the sins of the guilty. Abel sacrificed to God the firstborn from his flocks. God in a blood covenant with Abraham put Himself on the line. In Genesis 22 Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the lamb. You could even translate this as, "God will provide Himself." John the baptizer will echo these words when he saw Jesus and boldly announced, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Luke simply writes at the birth of Jesus, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born."

What we need is a Savior. What we have is a Savior. The problem is - there is something in us that tempts us to pay our own way. We want to pull our own weight. We want to earn the gift. We want to make the grade. But we are not able! In Louisiana our kids take the LEAP test each year. Before one can go to the next grade or graduate they need to make a certain grade. When the students were unable to perform the temptation is to dumb-down the test. If we make it easier then the students can pass. We have done the same thing with holiness. We have dumb-downed holiness to a list that we can achieve. On the sermon on the mount Jesus not only refused to dumb-down the requirements of the law, He actually made it more difficult. He asked how they were doing with anger and lust. He also said that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. (By the way the Pharisees and teachers of the law had memorized what we call the Old Testament, the Talmud, and the Mishnah.) The audience must have thought to themselves, "Yeah right!"

This is what Paul was trying to teach the Roman church when he said that all have sinned. Every one of us! He also said the wages of sin is death. Therefore God justified us freely by grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The innocent paid the price for the guilty. The requirements of the law were fully met in Jesus! Our need is to be united with Christ. We need to have our sins washed away. We need to die with Jesus in a watery grave and to be raised with Him to a new life. We need to humble ourselves and God will lift us up!

April 18, 2007