Our Escape

In other words, the person asking it still believes that people can get to heaven by being good enough. Scripture says this is decidedly not the case:

“As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’” ().

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Romans 3:10 “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of sin” (). “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (). Since no one is good enough to get into heaven—if they were, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been meaningless, and the entire Christian religion is empty and void—then we must rely on our faith in the One True God, and allow ourselves to be saved by His grace. This grace is conditioned only on acceptance. And indeed, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (; ; ). And God clearly states that He will judge our hearts. “For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (). And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of sin” ().

Roimana “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of sin” (). “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (). Since no one is good enough to get into heaven—if they were, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been meaningless, and the entire Christian religion is empty and void—then we must rely on our faith in the One True God, and allow ourselves to be saved by His grace. This grace is conditioned only on acceptance. And indeed, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (; ; ). And God clearly states that He will judge our hearts. “For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (). And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

o “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of sin” (). “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (). Since no one is good enough to get into heaven—if they were, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been meaningless, and the entire Christian religion is empty and void—then we must rely on our faith in the One True God, and allow ourselves to be saved by His grace. This grace is conditioned only on acceptance. And indeed, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (; ; ). And God clearly states that He will judge our hearts. “For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (). And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

Romans 3:20 ESV

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

R “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (). Since no one is good enough to get into heaven—if they were, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been meaningless, and the entire Christian religion is empty and void—then we must rely on our faith in the One True God, and allow ourselves to be saved by His grace. This grace is conditioned only on acceptance. And indeed, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (; ; ). And God clearly states that He will judge our hearts. “For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (). And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

“All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” ().

Galatians 3:10–11 ESV

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Since no one is good enough to get into heaven—if they were, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been meaningless, and the entire Christian religion is empty and void—then we must rely on our faith in the One True God, and allow ourselves to be saved by His grace. This grace is conditioned only on acceptance. And indeed, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (; ; ). And God clearly states that He will judge our hearts. “For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (). And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

This grace is conditioned only on acceptance.

And indeed, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (; ; ).

Joel 2:32 ESV

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Romans 10:13 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

And God clearly states that He will judge our hearts. “For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (). And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

1 Chronicles 28:9 ESV

“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

Matthew 10:29–31 ESV

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission.

Mathew 10:29-31

And He promises us that we are all valuable to Him and will not and cannot die without His permission. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” ().

Jesus is the Only Way – What Does Jesus Say?

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

When Christians say that Jesus is the only way to God, they base this on the words of Christ in Scripture.

From Scripture, we also know that God will judge our hearts. God also knows our opportunities. The person who grows up having never read Scripture or having never been introduced to Christ, but is devoted to the god under whom he was raised, may have an excuse—I say "may" because something inside them (the Holy Spirit that tugs on everyone's heart—see ) should guide them into a belief that their religion is false, or at least that something is wrong with it. It is something they may struggle with their entire lives. If you grew up in one of the myriad cultures that performed ritual human sacrifice as a form of worship, then something inside you should say that is wrong. The same with someone who only knows Islam, Buddhism, or any of the tribal religions still practiced around the world, but less obviously. Something inside—the Holy Spirit that you seek—should make you uneasy with any sort of strict adherence to the false religion.

James 4:8 ESV

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

“Come near to God and He will come near to you” (). As those immersed in culture come to realize that there is something different—something more—out there for them, then God—who knows their hearts and minds—will “come near to” those that He knows will accept Him. And He will make His just judgment based upon His infinite wisdom and knowledge of each person. The problem I have with this question is that it always seems to be a cop-out. It’s generally posed by someone not yet ready to accept Christ as their Savior, and they want to pose one of those “unanswerable” questions as a delay tactic. To which, “Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (). If they truly have a heart for the lost, then they would not only rush to accept Christ, but they would sign up for any one of the thousands of missionary programs throughout the world. They would run off as soon as they could to tell those people about the God that sacrificed His only Son for them, or at the very least devote time, energy, and money to support those missionaries that do seek out these types of cultures.

Jesus is the Only Way – The Heart of the Matter

Can you think of instances today or yesterday that you should have trusted God and did not?

Learn More!

Compliments of Matthew Swihart.

Jesus never, did not, trust God.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?�� - We have all sinned and deserve God's judgment. God, the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus, the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried, and rose from the dead according to the Bible. If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving Jesus alone as your Savior, declaring, "Jesus is Lord," you will be saved from judgment and spend eternity with God in heaven.

What is your response?

Jesus re-deems us, He resets our value.

As a method of study, systematic theology goes works well with biblical theology, historical theology and philosophical theology. It relates to each in distinct but coherent ways to further the understanding of who God is and how God works.

We are now valued of His accomplishment and not our own.

Philosophical theology and Systematic Theology both seek to provide a critical analysis of terms and their meanings. Both methods achieve this by following a process of “observation and reasoning to reach conclusions”, seeking to come up with a “consistent worldview”, and because of those reasons, systematic and philosophical theology are related.[4]

Redeem bottles

The relationship to biblical theology is attributed to the way they both look at theology from a cultural perspective and its focus on revelation in history.[5] Further, they both seek to provide a unified look at scripture. However, there are problems that create differences between the two in the area of binging extra biblical accounts to bear or being defined by just the contents of the Bible. These differences do not stop all relation though as it does relate to systematic theology by examining the Bible from different sides, within the Bible.

He gave Himself entirely for us so He could, as the Bible says, be our Redeemer, the One who rescues us.

Historical theology “seeks to identify the historically influenced and influential character of the Christian faith as well as the theological character of the faith’s historical identity.”[6] The relationship between the two is that systematic theology uses the historical aspect of the Bible to explain the relationship that God had and His plans. Historical theology may not make things as applicable today as does systematic theology, but both have a desire to bring history to bear on our interpretation of scripture.

redemption in the OT vs. NT

The systematic approach is more encompassing than each of the others, but it still relies on at least some of parts of the other methods to help explain historical contexts, cultural issues, and the mindset of the people in whatever section of the Bible is being focused on. The differences are significant but, the need for cohesiveness is clear. After all, as Erickson put it, “ Theology in a Christian context is a discipline of study that seeks to understand the God revealed in the Bible and to provide a Christian understanding of reality.”[7] History, culture and the mindset of people will always factor into our ability to properly do “theology”.

[1] B. Demarest, “Systematic Theology,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 1162.

[2] Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) (p. 1162). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition

[3] B. Demarest, “Systematic Theology,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 1162.

[4] Ibid., 1163.

[5] G.F. Hasel, “Systematic Theology,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 164.

[6] J.P. Callahan, “Systematic Theology,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 557.

[7] Erickson, Millard J.. Christian Theology (p. 3). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

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