How to Know You're Saved - Softcover

Cole, C. Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802436323 ISBN 13: 9780802436320

Verlag: MOODY PUBL, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

With his comfortable blend of Scriptural knowledge and love for people, Pastor Donald Cole addresses on of the most troubling concerns many Christians have: assurance of their eternal salvation. By exploring the tenets of the Christian faith, Pastor Cole gives those who already believe confidence in their position in Christ. This trusted Bible teacher never shrinks from tackling difficult texts, such as those that seem to suggest salvation can be lost, and he explains why a saved person still sins. In this freshened edition of his classic book, Donald Cole’s clear teaching and compassionate voice come through in response to one of life’s most important questions.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

C. DONALD COLE served as a host and commentator on Moody Radio’s Open Line for 26 years before retiring in 2008. He previously served on the faculty at Emmaus Bible College and as a missionary in Angola with his wife, Naomi. Pastor Cole is the author of a number of books, including How to Know You’re Saved and All You Need to Believe: The Apostle’s Creed. Pastor and Mrs. Cole live in Carol Stream, Illinois.

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"But how can I know I'm saved?"

With his comfortable blend of Scriptural knowledge and love for people, Pastor Donald Cole addresses one of the most troubling concerns many Christians have--assurance of their eternal salvation.

 By exploring the tenets of the Christian faith, Pastor Cole gives those who already believe confidence in their position in Christ.  This trusted Bible teacher never shrinks from tackling difficult texts--such as those that seem to suggest salvation can be lost--and he explains why a saved person still sins.

In this freshened edition of his classic book, Donald Cole's clear teaching and compassionate voice come through in response to one of life's most important questions.

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HOW TO KNOW YOU'RE SAVED

By C. Donald Cole

Moody Publishers

Copyright © 2008 C. Donald Cole
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8024-3632-0

Contents

Introduction.......................................................................................................91. The Basis of Salvation How a holy God can save sinful people and still be holy.................................132. The Way of Salvation What sinful people must do to be saved and what God does to save them.....................253. The Question of Sin Why saved people still sin.................................................................63Summary............................................................................................................75Appendix: Examining Controversial Texts............................................................................83

Chapter One

The Basis of SALVATION How a holy God can save sinful people and still be holy

In eighteen years of preaching the gospel in Angola, I never met an African believer who was certain of his or her salvation. No matter how firm these believers' faith in Jesus, they seemed incapable of complete assurance. In their opinion, it was presumptuous to believe that they could or would hold fast to God. The best a believer could do, they thought, was hope that he or she would be believing at the moment of death and, therefore, go to heaven.

Does that sound familiar? That is the position of many sincere Christians. They combine genuine faith in God through Christ with lingering fear that they might miss heaven after all. They hope that they will be true to the end and qualified to pass through the gates of heaven. But they're not sure.

In every case, whether in Angola or the United States or anywhere else, that troubling uncertainty arises from an inadequate understanding of the basis of salvation. On what grounds does God save us? How is it possible for a holy God to save unholy people without compromising His character? In other words, is there a solid biblical basis for salvation? If so, what is it?

The basis of salvation is, quite simply, the cross of Christ. What, then, is the cross? The cross was an event, and the cross is a symbol. Viewed as an event, the cross was an episode in history. Jesus Christ was put to death on a cross. Viewed as a symbol, the cross stands both for the death itself and its meaning as set forth in Scripture. The cross is the supreme symbol of Christianity-the basis of our hope.

The historic creeds of Christendom emphasize the importance of the cross. For example, the cross is the heart of the Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended to hell; the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Only three words in the Apostles' Creed make direct reference to the cross as an event: "suffered" and "was crucified." Everything that follows-"dead," "buried," "descended," "rose," "ascended," "sitteth," and "shall come to judge"-contributes to the meaning of the cross. For example, if Christ had not risen from the dead, His death would have been an ordinary death-and therefore meaningless. His rising invests His death with profound meaning.

The Creed says nothing, however, of Christ's life. That holy life is not an object of belief but of emulation. The main event in Christ's life was His death, and by linking His sufferings with Pilate, the Creed both fixes the time of Christ's death and underscores its historicity. Christ's death was an event in time, and the secular world is forced to confirm it. If the cross is mentioned in secular circles, educated listeners think immediately of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate.

WHY CHRIST DIED

If the cross is mentioned in Christian circles, most listeners think about the meaning of Christ's death. The crucial question is, Why did He die? Nowhere is this aspect of Christ's death more clearly stated than in Romans 4:25 ("He was delivered over to death for our sins") and Romans 5:8 ("While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"). Therefore the answer to the question is that He died for us, for our sins.

Theologians usually express this truth by saying that Christ's death was vicarious, meaning that He died as a substitute for sinners-in other words, He died in our place. This answers the question Why did He die? but raises at least two other questions. First, Why did we need a substitute? And second, Why was it necessary that Christ be that substitute?

The answer to the first question is sin-human sin, which brought all humanity under the sentence of death and the judgment of God. Alone we could not survive God's wrath concerning our sin. If there were no substitute, if we had nothing to offer God but the usual excuses for sin, we would perish eternally-in hell. God's wrath would rest on us forever. We need a worthy substitute-someone who can stand in our place and endure God's wrath for us so that we need not endure it.

The answer to the second question is closely related to the first. Jesus Christ needed to be that substitute because He alone was worthy. He alone was sinless and, therefore, exempt from the universal sentence of death. So, if He would die voluntarily, His death could be vicarious-if that was His intention and if God agreed. He could have died in somebody's place. And that is exactly what He did.

Furthermore, because He was more than a man (He was divine), His death had infinite value. "Infinite" means that by dying He became the substitute for an unlimited number of persons. He died for the whole world, including you and me.

In addition, the way Christ died is important. He didn't die in bed; He died on a cross as the Old Testament predicted in passages such as Psalm 22:16: "They have pierced my hands and my feet." The significance of death by crucifixion is made clear in Deuteronomy 21:23: "Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse." That text explains in part the horror Jews felt when told that Jesus was the Messiah. In their minds, that their Messiah would be crucified was unthinkable. A crucified person was under God's curse. But that, Paul told believers in Galatia, is the point. By dying on the cross, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13 NASB).

Clearly, the manner in which Christ died is theologically significant. By hanging on a cross (tree), He took upon Himself the curse of God. He was treated by God as if He were accursed, as if He were under the curse of God's law, even as if He were sin itself. The curse of the law (that is, the lethal consequences of sin, which were proclaimed in the law) was shifted from us to Him. By dying He removed the curse from those who trust Him. Now the law has no further claims against sinners who trust Jesus; it no longer pronounces a sentence of eternal death against them. As an unknown hymn writer expressed it,

Whatever curse was mine, He bore, The wormwood and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: MOODY PUBL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0802436323
• ISBN 13: 9780802436320
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 93
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar