Acknowledging our need of Christ is requisite to a true coming to Christ. And what is it that an unbeliever needs? Isn’t it a rescue from God’s wrath against sin? This truth is vividly brought out in Geoffrey Thomas’ little book Everyone’s Invited.
Thomas notes that God (who is omniscient) knows everything about us, everything we’ve done, and all that we’ve failed to do. The record of very deviation from His law is before Him. One day, everyone will be held accountable for their deeds. We cannot run from God. There is nowhere to hide.
By the way, thinking that one is basically good isn’t good enough for a holy God who is pure and perfect and can’t abide sin. But no one is good. See The Washer Experiment HERE.
Geoff Thomas presses on by asking his readers whether the Holy Spirit has convicted them of their sins, of God’s righteousness, and coming judgment. He writes,
…when God draws near, this is what happens in an unbeliever’s life. If you have never known your guilt and your need of pardon, your bondage and your need of freedom, your defilement and your need of cleansing, then how can you say that you have come to Christ?
About that repentance thing
There are Bible teachers (I respect) who assert that repentance is a false addition to salvation (a work), hence not biblical. They say repentance of sin is a misuse of how the word is used in the New Testament etc. This often comes up in Lordship Salvation discussions. I’ve previously written on this issue HERE
But repentance isn’t a work, as some claim. It is simply an essential knowledge of our condition and what drives us to seek refuge in Christ. The man hanging by his fingers on the edge of a cliff cannot save himself. He can only cry out for help. The act of asking for help isn’t a work; it’s a necessary acknowledgment of his condition.
We are saved by faith through grace only. A Christian will continue to sin – salvation does not require a sinless state. It is impossible to not sin in our pre-glory state. And that isn’t what LS proponents believe. However, a genuine coming to Christ ought to include our looking on Him as Lord. And that should result in some fruit being produced in our lives, not a blasé attitude to sin.
Wilhelmus à Brakel
…if you were dead as you imagine yourself to be, from whence then does this displeasure with your condition, this sorrowful brooding, and your languishing proceed? A dead person does not have any feelings. However, the fact that you are sensible of your insensitivity shows that there is life, though it be feeble. ~ The Christian’s Reasonable Service
Maranatha!
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