The lesson in summary-HOW TO BE SAVED Memory Text: “ ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’ ” (John 3:14, 15, NKJV). 1. Recognize Your Need Of all human beings “there is none who does good, no, not one” (Ps. 14:3, NKJV); nobody is righteous by themselves (Rom. 3:10). The first step,to receive the cure from sin is to recognize our state of sinfulness and our utter inability to heal ourselves. 2. Repent The biblical meaning of repentance includes three aspects: acknowledgment of one’s sin, sorrow for having sinned, and the desire not to sin any more. Without repentance, redemption is impossible, because the absence of repentance demonstrates that people refuse to surrender to the Lord. “We do not repent in order that God may love us, but He reveals to us His love in order that we may repent.”—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 189. 3. Believe in Jesus ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes’ ” (Mark 9:23, NKJV). Faith is essential if we are to be saved. Satan knows that, which is why he makes every effort to keep us from believing (Luke 8:12).God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus, so that all who truly believe in Him will have eternal life. The power of faith does not come from the person who believes but from the God in whom that person believes. 4. The Wedding Garment ‘Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven’ ” (Matt. 5:20, NKJV).Few were more scrupulous in the observance of the letter of the law than were the Pharisees. Nevertheless, they failed because their behavior was intended to impress men more than to please God. Jesus warns us not to do likewise (Matt. 6:1). Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, every human being is spiritually naked. God provides the garment we need. He made garments for Adam and Eve and clothed them (Gen. 3:21), a symbol of His righteousness covering the sinner. The Lord also provides the garment of Christ’s righteousness for His church, so that she may “be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright” (Rev. 19:8, NKJV), “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27, NKJV). This robe “is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.”—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 310. 5. Follow Jesus When in faith we recognize our need, repent, confess our sins, and claim Christ’s righteousness for ourselves, we become His disciples. Some people try to separate faith in Jesus from adherence to Jesus’ teachings, as if the first would be more important than the latter. But Jesus did not make such a distinction. For Him, both aspects are closely interrelated and fundamental for true discipleship. Jesus must have the first place in our lives if we want to be His disciples.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 11:22:02 +0000
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