Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Can the Righteous be Saved? Message-ID: Date: 18 Apr 91 07:27:15 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 159 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu A new Christian, reading from the Gospels, commented that he was finding that Jesus did not come to save everyone. Is it possible that Jesus salvation is selective and not for everyone? "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Mat 9:13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32 Paul writes a similar message about Christians who seem to think their sal- vation has been secured: "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repen- tance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and reve- lation of the righteous judgment of God, "-- Rom 2:4,5 (NKJ) "For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. " -- 2 Cor 7:8-10 (NKJ) Let us return to what Jesus had to say: ""I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance." -- Luke 15:7 (NKJ) ""As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." -- Rev 3:19 (NKJ) It is human nature to want to feel secured for eternity. We want to be able to relax and coast into heaven. But does this bring us to a condition simi- lar to those who rejected Jesus, those conceited in their legalism and/or their high credentials from the lineage of Abraham and seats of power in the Sanhedrin? Jesus can save the sinner who comes to Him in repentance. But how can He save the self-righteous? Does it matter if our self- righteous- ness comes from an attitude of law keeping or from an attitude that the law no longer applies? Either way we can convince ourselves that we are ade- quately righteous, no longer repentant sinners and no longer in need of sal- vation. The text says that Jesus is our Savior from sin. He did not come to save us in our sins. So let us be repentant always. And remember that repentance includes a turning away from our sin, nor mere apology. Paul sites himself as an example of the thinking of his day. He felt that he was a perfect example of law keeping, keeping the law blameless (Phil 3:6). But then he met Jesus and discovered his need of repentance, discover- ing that he fell far short of the perfection of God's law. And Paul said, "I die daily", which is another way of saying that he came to the cross in an attitude of repentance every single day. Is not the cross the symbol of Justification? Regardless of the Biblical assurance of salvation for those who follow Jesus, we are admonished to plead our need to be Justified each day. Repentance is not something to exercise once for salvations sake and then to rest assured that such a one time repentance has eternally saved us. Jesus clearly stated - I came to save sinners and not the righteous - that is He came to save those who recognize that they are sinners and not those who proclaim that they are now secured. It is not the law that saves us. Law keeping can doom people to feeling smugly self righteous. But rather the law is intended to bring us to a knowledge of our sin and so to repentance. After what Jesus said about the law it should be clear that nobody should feel smug about law keeping. Without the law there is no knowledge of sin and so no need of repentance. And law keeping, the old way, can make us just as smug as Paul was before Jesus. So, the law of God, especially illuminated by Jesus, serves a very clear purpose, to point out our need of repentance. If we become smug about law keeping, or we proclaim the law done away with, is not the result the same -- self righteousness? The same result being that we conclude there is nothing for which to repent. The law cannot save us because its purpose is to point out our sin, it is a mirror before us. But the law can indirectly save us in the sense that when we discover our sin, we turn to Jesus in repentance. So, the law saved no one, except that they turn in repentance to Jesus. So, the law does play a vital role in salvation, even though it has no saving power of its own. A science museum offered a beautiful example: A large white easel with an unraveled hemp rope down the middle. A small note said to lift the rope aside. It was instantly obvious that one side was grey and the other white. With the rope between us, the grey and even the black of sin looks just as white as the other side. Self righteousness is thinking that we are white enough and in no need of repentance. But if we ask Him to, the scales are lifted from our eyes and we see ourselves as grey and black with sin. That is the Christian paradox. Without Him we feel self righteous. As we draw closer to Him, our sins become increasingly repulsive and so much the less attractive and tarnished tinsel. With His purity illuminating our sin, that sin becomes something we are all the more eager to purge from our lives. Then victory, in Christ, becomes achievable. But then do these victories finally lead us to the day when we can feel smugly self-righteous? No! Besides, without Him there would have been no victory, so why feel securely smug. Let me site one of many Bible examples of Bible heros: "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. "-- Job 1:1 (NKJ) "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."" -- Job 42:6 (NKJ) While the Bible finds Job to be a righteous man, Job says no such thing about himself. And many other examples can readily be sited from the OT and NT. The Bible does not offer affirmative examples of proclaiming "I'm saved". Rather quite the opposite. It is repentance that the Bible examples. Yes, there is security in Christ, in a knowledge that He is our Shepherd and near at hand to save us and with us always. But that does not prompt us to attitudes of self-righteousness. Rather, the closeness reveals our lack of self-righteousness and our even greater need of Him. When peo- ple came to Jesus asking about salvation, did Jesus ever turn to of them and say -- rest assured, you are one of the saved? He pointed out to each their different need and offered them the living water that they could drink every day. Now consider what Jesus said about the self righteous Pharisee (Luke 18:11,12) and the repentant Publican (Luke 18:13,14). Would it be fair to rewrite that story into the following parable? And the Christian went about proclaiming at every opportunity, with a loud voice - "I'm saved, I'm saved, Praise the Lord" - while the Jehovah's Witness knelt before Jehovah God, hardly daring to look up, saying "God be merciful to me a sinner". Is what I just illustrated a heresy? Is it heresy to say that a JW repen- tant before God is more savable than a Christian smug in self-righteousness? No, this is not heresey. Read Romans chapter 2. The evangelists of today have devised all sorts of ways by which to sooth their followers into believing that all is secured eternally for salvation. Full churches are seen as more important than repentance. The need to come to the cross in humble repentance is seen as resting in the past. A sense of secured righteousness is their proclamation. Have we become modern day Pharisees - having invented new ways by which to feel smug and secure? In those days it was the publican, or tax collector, who was seen as being hopelessly misfit for salvation. Does the Jehovah's Witness of today serve as a modern parallel? Would Jesus today turn to those who hand out salva- tion right and left and say what He said about the Pharisee? Would Jesus today turn to a repentant JW and say what He said about the Publican? I think that the parallels are too close to be cast quickly aside. Remember that Nineveh was a city famous for its idolatry: ""The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here." -- Luke 11:32 (NKJ) If anyone was ignorant of the proper formalities of salvation it was those Ninevites. But they became repentant. Do we acknowledge each day that we are sinners and turn to Christ and the cross? Jesus came to save repentant sinners. He cannot save the self righteous until they realize that what they thought was white, is a horrifying grey painted over the deepest black. We discover the blackness of sin when we set aside our smug self- righteous- ness and place our lives in stark comparison beside His perfection. Let us turn to the cross in repentance every day and acknowledge our need as sinners. We need our Savior today. Dave (David E. Buxton)