Christian Message Boards: Only Jesus can save us

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :

In another Topic, Jazzee said: Only Jesus can save us.

I actually thought that, after God and Jesus did their work on the cross, it became man's responsibility to answer God's move of the cross.

Whosoever responds to God's move with the cross, will be saved and the rest will be condemned because they did not believe (since we are all equal sinners, this is fair to everybody).

So at this point, the "ball is in our court" rather than in Jesus's court, Jazzee or anyone?

Be blessed.

Eden

Posted by David (Member # 1) on :

I must agree. Jesus has opened the door to all. It is each and every bodies decision and all must make the choice to follow Jesus Christ if they are to be saved. If you don't make a choice, then you have chosen not to follow Jesus Christ.

"The wicked shall be turned into hell,
and all the nations that forget God." ~ Psalms 9:17

How to get to hell - click here

Posted by ahar (Member # 5810) on :

It's semantics really. We are not actually saving ourselves, we are choosing to ask Jesus to save us.

I suppose you could think of it like a person in a fast flowing river, bobbing along towards a large waterfall where if they go over, they'll be killed. Jesus is like a man on the side of the river, holding out a rope. We can choose to take the rope, struggle through the current and continue our journey along an overgrown and rocky path out of the river, or bob along easily enjoying the rapids, but getting closer and closer to the waterfall and our doom which we can hear but not see, never quite sure if we're going to go over the edge in the next moment or not. On the river bank, there is no waterfall at the end but it's a hard path and the temptation is always to jump back into the river to make things easier.

In this allegory, Jesus has saved us by offering the rope, but we have made the choice to grab it and struggle over to the riverbank. It may not be a great allegory, but I hope it illustrates the issue.

Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :

Yes, Ahar, I liked what you said, that we are already in a river rushing headlong to a large waterfall.

It's not like Central Park in New York on a lazy Labor Day afternoon.

And yet, the analogy seems to fail a little when it is asked why so many are failing to grab the rope.

Is it because they don't know that there is a waterfall farther down?

In a real rushing river incident, practically everyone would want to grab the rope once they have seen how dangerous the river is (in your analogy, the rushing river is life?).

Life is not as dangerous as having fallen in a rushing river; life may become more dangerous, but even then the Bible says it will just make them curse even more.

To speak to the Topic for a moment, I do think that the Holy Spirit is also always busy trying to attract people, almost like the Holy Spirit "comes around once a year" to each person to attract them. So if that is true, then God is also busy in His court and the ball is "not only in our court."

Be blessed.

Eden