CA201

Ten Reasons to Believe in the Christian Faith LESSON 10 of 10

Reason 10: Its Offer of Salvation

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Dr. Doug Groothuis: The Christian offer of salvation is

tremendously important. Christianity is not simply a perspective
on life. It is that. It’s not simply a faith rooted in history. It is that.
It is an offer of a new way of life, of hope, ultimately of eternal
fellowship with God and all those that have submitted themselves
to God.

According to the Bible, the Christian offer of salvation does not

depend on what individuals do for God, but on the acceptance of
what God has done for them.

R. Douglas Geivett: What makes the Christian offer or approach

to salvation unique? What distinguishes it from other religious
traditions? Well, first of all, it fundamentally involves trust in
a person, the Person of Jesus Christ. Why trust in Jesus Christ?
Because He lived a distinctive kind of life, and no other religious
figure, however saintly, ever lived. Most saints, acknowledged
saints today, would be the first ones to tell you they’re not perfect.
Jesus Christ is an acknowledged Saint of religious history, and yet
He never confessed sin, he never acknowledged failure. He was
very focused in identifying sin in the world. And He was here, He
said, to deal with sin. But He never gave any indication that He
regarded Himself as a moral failure. So He was a very different
kind of saint, even if we regard Him as a saint. And then in His
death, He died an extraordinary death, which He interpreted as
the source of our salvation.

What other religious figure provides offers of salvation with

God through his own death? Now why is that significant? That’s
significant because every human being is deserving of death as
the just payment for his rebellion against God. But Jesus Christ
inserts Himself into the human situation and says, “I volunteer to
die in their place.” No other religious figure would be a plausible
candidate to play such a role than Jesus Christ.

Finally, in His resurrection from the dead, every other religious

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Lesson 10 of 10 Reason 10: Its Offer of Salvation

figure who ever sponsored or inaugurated a religious tradition is

still in the grave. And if his remains had not been disintegrated,
they could be excavated from the ground and you could say, this
was the body of the man. But you cannot do that with Jesus Christ.
Within a few hours of the death of Jesus Christ, He became alive
again and the tomb in which He was buried was emptied forever.
And the tomb that was empty became a symbol of the power of
God to provide salvation in a unique way through the figure, the
Person of Jesus Christ.

Doug Groothuis: And so that’s why Christians talk about the

uniqueness of Jesus, the supremacy of Jesus, the exclusivity of
Jesus. But in another dimension, it’s completely inclusive and all-
encompassing, because Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are
burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and Christians
have gone out throughout history to all the world to bring this
good news to people.

So it’s focused in Jesus. Salvation is in His life, death, and

resurrection. We receive it by faith, by trusting Him. But that
message is to be taken to everyone, and anyone who comes to
Christ receives the forgiveness and the new life and the hope and
ultimately eternal fellowship with God.

So it’s exclusive, but logically, legitimately exclusive. It makes

sense, there’s evidence for it, but it’s also inclusive in terms of
those who are invited. And we have wonderful scenes in the
book of Revelation of people from every tongue and tribe and
nation worshiping the Lamb. So there’s the specificity. They’re
worshiping the Lamb, that is Christ the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world. But we have all manner of different
people from different times worshiping together the Lamb.

Dr. Vernon Grounds: I’m not a Christian because I happened

to be born in a so-called Christian country. I’m not a Christian
because my parents when I was a child may have carried me into
a church where I was baptized. I’m not a Christian because now
on occasion I will attend a religious service in some church that is
supposedly, nominally, and maybe truly Christian.

No, I’m a Christian because I have accepted Jesus Christ as my

personal Savior.

Dr. Michael Wilkins: What’s at stake has to do with our eternal

destiny. This is not a game that we’re playing here. And sometimes
I think we tend to look at maybe going to church or even looking

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Lesson 10 of 10 Reason 10: Its Offer of Salvation

at some options as, well, you know, maybe I’ll join the Kiwanis,
maybe I’ll join the Rotary. It doesn’t really matter; they’re all
good things. No, it really isn’t that. I mean, God has talked about
what eternity is; and for His reasons eternity hangs in the balance
with the decisions we make every day of our lives.

Dr. Bob Pyne: There are a lot of intellectual obstacles for some
people in coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I believe we can answer
most of those. I don’t think we can answer them perfectly. I think
there comes a time when people have to look at the evidence and
say, “Boy, it’s close, it looks really close to me.”

I think of the conversion testimony of one fellow who is an

American writer. He said that as he looked at the gospel, at the
promise of salvation in Christ, it looked like a gap he would have
to step over. He said there’s this gap between me and it—this gap
of doubt I’m going to have to bridge. He wasn’t sure he could
jump across it. He wasn’t sure he could step across that line. And
then he said he looked behind him, and he realized there was a
bigger gap behind him. And he knew it would be hard to embrace
Christ. But he knew he couldn’t walk away. He said, I’m not sure
that I can trust Him, but I know I can’t reject Him. And he said he
closed his eyes and flung himself across the gap to Jesus. I think
that’s what we have to do sometimes. Sometimes we get to the
point where it becomes an issue of the will, where we have to say,
“It’s close enough. I think I can trust Him now.”

Christ-Centered Learning — Anytime, Anywhere

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