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Minister’s Forum

I once asked a man if he knew Jesus as his savior. “That’s personal,” he replied.

“Yes, it is,” I responded. Do you personally know Him?”
The concept of personal salvation is difficult for some to understand. Foremost, some do not believe that anyone can know for sure they will go to heaven when they die.
John, the apostle, declared that he wrote his gospel and his first epistle that we may know that we have eternal life. Anyone  who has ever experienced the tremendous guilt of his own personal sin and been convicted by the Holy Spirit of his own ability to relieve that burden; anyone who has ever reckoned with the teaching of scripture concerning the incorrigibility of the sin nature; anyone who has ever considered the lostness of his soul and the justice due his own spiritual condition and the awful penalty to be paid eternally; anyone who has ever sought forgiveness from Jesus based on the death He paid for him personally; anyone who has experienced the relief of forgiveness and the sweetness of a daily life with Jesus knows beyond all doubt that his soul is safe in the arms of Christ, for He is able to keep the believing sinner secure unto the day of redemption.
More objectively, you can know for sure that heaven is your eternal home because the word of God declares it so. Secondly, collective salvation proposes another theory.
Collective salvation is the exact opposite of personal salvation. It asserts that folks are saved only as a group. All are saved or all are lost as a group when they rise above the ills of society.
As a socialist ideal, it protects rights not normally given by law or government, while no doctrine or author is recognized as fundamental to salvation, no personal relationship with God is required.
All religions are equal, but Christianity is usually claimed as the religion of choice. No decision as part of the group is significant.
The Bible teaches the opposite when it says, “whosoever will may come,” “to everyone that believes He gives eternal life,” “to as many as receive Him to them He gave eternal life.”
The Philippian jailor heard only the words “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
Jesus said, “He that believes shall have eternal life and not come into condemnation.” Numerous verses could be multiplied to these.
Salvation is personal, because every individual must accept his or her offer for himself or herself.
Salvation is personal, because Jesus died for the sins of each person.
Some use proper terminology when they say, “Christ died for all,” but they have an erroneous concept when they believe that Christ died for all mankind collectively, rather than for each individual personally.
When Jesus died on the cross he had you (singular) specifically in mind.
The Holy Spirit convicts and draws each sinner to Christ personally. Each individual sinner must personally (for himself) accept Jesus’ death for himself.
Finally, some believe they can never be sure they have done enough to be saved.
It is not at all a matter of what he has done for himself. It is a matter of what Jesus has done for him.
The cross is enough.
Anyone who adds anything to the blood of Jesus to obtain salvation only diminishes one’s faith in that blood. It is the blood and the blood alone that one must trust.
The real problem is not what Christ accomplished, but a true comprehension of the horrendous decadence of sin.
Only the true knowledge of sin can create an adequate appreciation of salvation.
 

Rev. Olen Evans • First Baptist Church, Brownstown

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