With Free Salvation Being Such a Great Offer, Why Would Anyone Reject the Offer?

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened. *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, “I guess I’m making the whole thing up.” It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn’t want God to rule over him.

With free salvation being such a great offer, the only reason anyone would reject this salvation is because they love darkness rather than light. It's not just freedom from the punishment--it's freedom from the sin. A lot of people try to trick God. They say give me the salvation from punishment, but I still want to keep my sin.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

God gives each person an opportunity to accept the redemption that Jesus Christ has so graciously provided. The alternative to accepting God’s free gift is unspeakably terrible beyond our comprehension as finite creatures. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. The offer is wonderful. Why would anyone reject it?

Because they know that salvation is salvation from the very works of darkness that they love. They love darkness more than they love light, so they reject salvation.

Every person has a sense, through the conscience, that they have failed to please God. We know that time does not absolve us or dissolve our debt of sin. We know that God is just and the He must judge sin. We also know that God is also merciful as evidenced by the fact that He provided one last opportunity for every person to be saved—the wonderful free salvation that is only available through Christ Jesus, God’s only unique Son. Why would anyone reject this free salvation.

We all know, intuitively, that salvation includes a transformation. That’s the reason that some people reject God’s salvation. No one would reject salvation if there were no transformation. Some false teachers provide a non-transforming false salvation and almost everyone can accept their false salvation. Unfortunately for them, God is not mocked, and this "escape the punishment without being freed from sin" lie has no power to help anyone. God knows the intents of the heart. Nothing is hidden from Him. No one can fool God.

Those who reject God and God’s salvation do so because their deeds are evil and they want to continue to do evil. They enjoy sin too much to ever turn from sin. John 3:19 They love darkness rather than light. They love pleasure rather than loving God.

Those who reject deliverance from sin don’t want to honor God as God. The fornicators and perverts want to keep committing fornication and perversions. Those who envy and covet want to continue to envy and covet. Those who don’t want to put God first in their lives want to continue to put other things before God. Those who dishonor God, want to keep dishonoring God. Those who dishonor parents and all authority want to continue to dishonor. Those who are stealing want to continue to steal. Those who are lazy want to continue to be lazy and live off of the work of others. Those who love to lie and love to accept the lies of the anti-God crowd—they want to continue in those lies. God is absolutely holy and requires holiness and perfection. God cannot fellowship with sinners of any kind. He needs transformed people.

If there were an easier way to give us forgiveness and transfiguration, God would have used it. The salvation that was provided was at very high price with unspeakable sorrow for the Father and for the Son. There is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

The word, repent, means "turn around and go in the opposite direction." The Greek word from which "repent" comes actually means, "Have a new mind." When we repent, we have a new mind, a mind that focuses on the spirit rather than the flesh. Even after salvation, we have free will to focus our mind on the flesh rather than the spirit, but the call is to .

The required true repentance is the turn off for those who love darkness. Most people would really like to escape the judgment. The law of God tells each person that they are in danger of judgment. They are all without excuse. Yet, they find rationalized speculations to reject God’s free offer because they do not want the transformation of repentance. Repentance is, in fact, a miracle. It is a progressive transformation or transfiguration.

Romans 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it to them. 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: You see? You know because God has showed it to you and to all of us.

It is the miracle of repentance that causes a Christian to hate evil and love good. This repentance is both instantaneous and progressive. Each saved person is changed instantaneously as soon as he or she believes--providing they do not reject the free gift. (God doesn’t force Himself on anyone.) The Holy Spirit is given, acting on the believer, to give power for holiness. Many things fall away in the moment of salvation. The flesh (the body) remains in rebellion against God, but the human spirit is set free. The mind/soul/will is free to focus on the spirit or on the flesh. Now, after being born again, the saying is fulfilled that says, "To be fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life." Up until that point, the unbeliever was totally dead, spirit, mind, and body. Up until new birth, there was total death and corruption. Now, the spirit is made alive by the blood of Christ.

It is holiness that the scoffer does not want. Those who reject Jesus Christ do so because they want to continue in sin.

Holiness and perfection are difficult concepts, even for a believer. They seem so foreign and impossible. It’s a good thing that God specializes in things thought impossible. One of the erroneous rationalizations that unbelievers use to justify rejection of being born again believers use to justify rejection of walking into a deeper relationship with Christ is this: "Nobody is perfect." Well, we know that Christ is perfect. We also know that He has come to dwell within us, but only for those who accept His salvation). We know, from Scripture, that the only way we can do any good work is if He does the good work through us. When He does the work, He does it perfectly. Our flesh may muddy the water, but we are not even to identify with the work of the flesh. The flesh of this body is the enemy. With the mind and will, we will serve Christ. We fully admit that the flesh is an enemy of God. We owe our flesh nothing and we refuse to identify with it, listen to it, or obey it. We are spiritual beings having an earthly experience since Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death.

This is what the unbeliever rejects, repentance. The unbeliever rejects the idea of being ridiculed by the worldly and yet loving the worldly in return for their ridicule. The unbeliever rejects the prospect of being rejected and ridiculed for the sake of Christ and yet loving his or her enemies, not returning hate for hate but love for hate. The unbeliever rejects leaving the pleasures of sin behind. That is the only reason they reject Christ.

The most popular speculations about when this total holiness will take place are that holiness takes place at death or at rapture or both. Is holiness for us right now, and to what extent is it available?

Though there is variation in doctrines regarding when holiness will take place, I don’t know of any denomination that does not teach holiness. Let me clarify that statement. I know of no Christ-following, Bible-believing denomination that does not teach holiness. Perhaps in the pews, in that Babylon of one-person denominations that sit in the pews, there are those who do not believe that, one day, total holiness will be restored. Perhaps in all those one-person denominations who don’t attend any church, there are some who don’t believe God’s Word that says that we must be perfect. Of course, many of the cults do teach sin in heaven, teaching a heaven that is basically an orgy, because that is what the flesh wants.

With Free Salvation Being Such a Great Offer, Why Would Anyone Reject the Offer?

How can we know anything about anything

How to be Born Again

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