“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
I have personally witnessed hundreds of salvation experiences, but I’ve never witnessed one as dramatic as I saw last week. A twenty-six year old man came to know the Lord Jesus from an altar call that followed a drama at my church. The drama made you think about the poor choices we make and the consequences that they often bring. One of the scenes pointed out that hell is a real place that is full of lost souls that made poor choices.
As Christians, our role is to present the Gospel and let Jesus do the saving. Sometimes we fail to remember that God always makes the first move. That’s why John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Only when God convicts, can salvation truly happen.
My church did an outstanding job of presenting the Gospel and God certainly did His part in convicting some of those attending to make a decision to accept Christ. It’s amazing what the Lord can do when we work with Him. In this case, a twenty-six year-old catholic repeated the sinner’s prayer with my pastor. I stood there and watched him as he trembled and sobbed uncontrollably. Forty-five minutes later, he was still crying.
“You just don’t know,” he kept telling us. “You just don’t know.” Later, he explained that his catholic upbringing had actually distanced him from salvation. He explained that he could never make sense of the conviction he was feeling because he was trapped in the legalism that is so often associated with doctrinal beliefs. In this case, it was Catholicism, but frankly every denomination has doctrinal beliefs that don’t just divide us as a community; sometimes they actually separate us from the God we seek.
Jesus pointed this out in an exchange He once had with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the ruling sect of Jews in Jesus’ day. They were so influential that they often decided how Jews should live out their faith. In short, they interpreted how the “Law” was to be applied to everyday living. Unfortunately, their own obedience to the Law ultimately blinded them from recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. In fact, He told them, “You are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27-28)
I later thought about this verse and realized that this young man wasn’t trembling because he had an emotional experience. He was trembling because he personally realized how close he was to death. He grew up in church, but he realized that his church could not save him. The only way to salvation was through Jesus. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:5)
Religion and faith are not the same thing. One hinders salvation. The other forms the basis for it. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)
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