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Chapter 6- Salvation

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Greshman Machen 
Chapter 6: Salvation

In the previous chapter we learned about who Jesus is and that we need to not simply imitate him because he was a good example but we need to place our trust in him because he was and is the Son of God. We are saved not because what Jesus said or was but because of what he did. God so loved the world that he sent his Son to suffer the punishment for our sins so that we could be saved. That is the gospel. It is based in historical fact and truth and only this truth offers us the salvation that we need to have our relationship with God restored. 

The issue in the modern or liberal view of salvation is that it depends on people instead of entirely on God. It disregards God's grace which is the only reason we have a chance at salvation. God did not owe us anything and there is no way for man to earn salvation. That is why man must put his faith in Jesus rather than in his own ability to "be good". Man can never be good enough to earn God's forgiveness and because of that we must trust in the person, deity, and acts of Christ to bring us into the presence of God without the guilt of sin. 

The liberal view also objects to the historicity of the gospel message but that does not make sense even in those terms. As Machen points out "gospel" means "good news" and good news is information. You cannot have good information to offer unless it is true. The gospel then is reliant on the past, though maybe a distant past, a true history for sure and that effects the present. The effects of the verifiable history of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has an eternal impact.  

This faith though is not something we create in our own but, our measure of faith is part of the God-given gift that brings us to the cross of Christ. Our faith is in Christ and what he did which is the gospel and through our faith in this we can be forgiven of our sins. The liberal view takes sin too lightly. Their opinion becomes that God is just waiting for us to decide to quit sinning and then we will ask to receive forgiveness. But, God is not just waiting around, uninvolved in our lives hoping we will wander in His direction some day. Sin is too heavy a burden and too strong of a prison to ever be freed from it of our own power. It is the sacrifice of Christ that atones for our sin and it is the work of God that draws us towards salvation. This is shown in that Jesus came to earth to live and die. He is not absent from our lives or uninvolved but came right down to our level to offer us salvation. 

We are not saved by our own works. We are not saved by mimicking the life of Jesus. We are saved by the work of Jesus. We are saved by God's grace through faith. This gift is the most priceless family heirloom that could ever be passed down to the next generation. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ which is able to transform individuals and societies.  


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