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| introduction
to the City's Gate |
Section
2 - the
vows
II - A,B,C |
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II.
Commitment to Jesus Christ
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| Vow 2: "Do you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and do
you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the
Gospel?”
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A. “...Son of God and Savior of sinners....”
We are all familiar with the title, “Son of
God” being applied to Jesus,
but what exactly is its significance? It means that the Son of God is God the Son.
In this title, “Son” has nothing to do with birth, but
everything to do with relationship. As
C. S. Lewis points out in Mere
Christianity, the offspring of any being has the same nature as
that being.
We celebrate Christmas because of the
Incarnation. The Son of God took
upon Himself a human nature. God
became flesh and blood - incarnate. The
man Jesus was born in space and time, His humanity forever united with the
eternal, divine nature of the Son.
As the God-Man, He took our place. This is the mercy of God, spoken of at the end of the last page.
The wonder of the Gospel is that God sent His Son to bear the
sentence, which He as the just Judge, would hand down upon guilty sinners.
Jesus came to take our place. He
did so willing, because He loved the Father and knew of the Father’s
love for us. He did so because He
loved us.
He not only paid our penalty by experiencing
the alienation from God that we deserved, but also gave to us a new
righteousness, His own perfect righteousness. For the whole of His life on earth as a human, Jesus did exactly
what was expected of one who bears the image of God; He never did
anything wrong, and never failed to do what was right.
It is His perfect record that God grants to our account.
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B. “...receive and rest on Him....”
This is what the Bible calls faith or,
even better, trust. What
the Bible calls faith has three necessary parts:
 | Knowledge:
This is the intellectual aspect of faith. "I understand that
the Bible teaches Jesus is the Savior."
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Assent:
This personalizes the intellectual knowledge.
One owns and agrees with what the Bible says.
"I believe that
Jesus is the Savior."
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Trust:
This is the volitional component of faith. It is “throwing in
your lot” with Jesus. "I believe that Jesus is MY Savior."
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C. “...alone for
salvation....”
The word “alone” in this vow takes us
back to the word “Him,” i.e., Jesus. Our
trust must be in Him alone. It
cannot be mixed with anything else, least of all one’s own efforts or
goodness.
To rest in Christ alone
for salvation means
that He is the only Savior. “Salvation” is depicted in the Bible as
“deliverance”, or as a “rescue.” It
has three significant tenses to it: When a person commits him/herself to
Jesus, as Son of God and Savior of sinners, God instantly and permanently
rescues him/her from the penalty of sin. As
the person grows in grace, God progressively rescues him/her from the
power of sin to control her/his actions.
And, some day in the future, He will take us to be with Him
forever; and in this way, will rescue us from the presence of sin. |
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To be part of the Body of Christ, the Universal Church of
God, it is required that one make a commitment of faith in Jesus as
Savior. Without that commitment, one is not a Christian in the Bible's
sense of the word. |
At The City's Gate, it is our goal
that the entrance to this local body of believers is no wider, nor any more
narrow, than the entrance gate to the Universal Body of Christ.
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