Skip to main content

the Christian life begins with Christ

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."  (John 3:3)

The Christian life begins with Christ.  It begins with faith in a Person.  You must be in Christ before you can live upon Christ.  Here are two quotes to ponder...

"...it is impossible even to begin living the Christian life, or to know anything of true spirituality, before one is a Christian.  And the only way to become a Christian is neither by tying to live some sort of a Christian life not by hoping for some sort of religious experience, but rather by accepting Christ as Savior.  No matter how complicated, educated, or sophisticated we may be, or how simple we may be, we must all come the same way, insofar as becoming a Christian is concerned.  As the kings of the earth and the mighty of the earth are born in exactly the same way, physically, as the simplest man, so the most intellectual person must become a Christian in exactly the same way as the simplest person.  This is true for all men everywhere, through all space and all time There are no exceptions.  Jesus said a totally exclusive word: 'no man cometh unto the Father, but by me' (John 14:6)."

~ Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (1971)

"He must be in Christ, before he can live upon Christ. Now, faith signifies believing the truth of the word of God: so says Christ—'Thy word is truth:' it relates to some word spoken, or to some promise made by him; and it expresses the belief which a person who hears it has of its being true: he assents to it, relies upon it, and acts accordingly. This is faith. And the whole word of God, which is the ground of faith, may be reduced to two points; namely, to what the law reveals concerning the justification of a righteous man, and to what the gospel reveals concerning the salvation of a sinner."

~ William Romaine (1714--1795), The Life of Faith.


Jesus and Nicodemus, by Henry Ossawa Tanner



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

clement quotes hebrews

Clement of Rome wrote to the church in Corinth around AD 90.  This is perhaps the same Clement, companion of Paul, mentioned in Philippians 4:3.  Many hold him to be the first bishop / pope in Rome, aka St. Clement I.   Clement quotes from the letter to the Hebrews.  Origin suggested that Clement was in fact the writer (as transcriber or amanuensis) of Hebrews.  Perhaps this letter began as a "word of exhortation" given by Paul at the synagogue (Heb 13:22; cf Acts 13:15) which then became a circular letter for the churches.  Other possible authors of Hebrews include Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos.  The theology is Pauline, but the transcriber is obviously second-generation (Heb. 2:3-4). At any rate, this early church leader in Rome, is already quoting Hebrews in his letter in AD 90:    CHAPTER 36  ALL BLESSINGS ARE GIVEN TO US THROUGH CHRIST This is the way, beloved, in which we find our Savior, even Jesus Christ,  the High Prie...
Post a Comment
Read more

a brief history of bcf

Blacksburg Christian Fellowship, or BCF as it is popularly known, was founded in November 1969. Prior to this time several families had been meeting for Bible study and prayer, with a particular concern that the Lord raise up an effective biblical ministry to the students of the Virginia Tech campus. Growing from these meetings, the Lord led them to begin a public ministry on Sunday mornings. The Wesley Foundation agreed to the rental of their facilities, and the first meeting was held in November 1969, with about 30 people in attendance. Since the first meeting BCF has been greatly blessed by the Lord and has seen a steady growth in ministry and in numbers. Two other local churches were formed in part from BCF. In 1974 the Lord led Houston Couch, who at that time was an Elder in BCF, to leave and start Dayspring Christian Fellowship. In 1980 Max Harris, who was a regular attender at BCF, was encouraged by the Elders and members to start a ministry which has now become Grace Cov...
2 comments
Read more

evangelicalism over the next decade

I've been contemplating Michael Spencer's blogs on the future of evangelical churches in America ( iMonk blog ). His three articles on his predicted collapse of evangelicalism are found here . It is important, I believe, to read all three articles. I find myself in agreement with much he has to say. Here are a few quotes... The determination to follow in the methodological steps of numerically successful churches will be greater than ever. The result will be, in the main, a departure from doctrine to more and more emphasis on relevance, motivation and personal success….with the result being churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith. ... For some time, we’ve been at a point that the decision to visit a particular evangelical church contained a fairly high risk of not hearing the Biblical Gospel. That experience will be multiplied and expanded in the years to come. Core beliefs will become less and less normative and necessary in evangelic...
6 comments
Read more