Who Must We Know?
John 17:3
In recent weeks and months I have read
numerous articles and heard several sermons on the general subject, "How
Much Must You Know Before You Can Be Saved?" In
essence the men were attempting to prove that Arminians, free-willers and
legalists are saved people and are to be embraced as brethren. Upon the surface
that seems to be a charitable thing. And I am sure it is the intention of those
men to be charitable. But I fear their charity is a delusion. I know it is
contrary to both the spirit and letter of Holy Scripture (Rom. 11:6; Gal.
1:6-9; Phil.
The issue of a man's salvation has nothing
to do with how much he must know. The issue is who we must know! No man can be
saved who does not know the one true and living God as he is revealed in Christ
by the gospel. And the Arminian, free-will, works religionist does not know the
living God, his Christ, or his gospel. GOD IS SOVEREIGN. If the god you worship
can be resisted, defeated, or controlled, you worship a false god, an
idolatrous figment of your own imagination. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD
ALMIGHTY. If the Christ you trust is a failure, he is not God, he is a false
Christ. If he lived and died to redeem and save a multitude of sinners whom he fails
to save, he is a failure. And a failure cannot be God!
The gospel of the grace of God is the
revelation of God in Christ. It is a declaration of Christ's finished work of
redemption for sinners. The gospel does not present the possibility of
salvation upon some condition to be met by the sinner. It declares the
accomplishment of salvation by Christ for every sinner who trusts him.
Salvation is not in how much you know, but in who you know. Do you know the
Christ of God?
Don Fortner