From: sliew@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Selbyn Liew)
Subject: Re: Salvation by Works.
Organization: Electrical and Electronic - University of Melbourne 
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 16:13:06 GMT

In article <house.702181942@helios> house@helios.usq.EDU.AU (ron house) writes:
[other stuff deleted]
>
>OK, let's accept this for the sake of discussion.  If Jesus' death carries
>our penalty for sin, why bother asking people?  Just heap everyone's
>punishment on Jesus, and send everyone to heaven.  I know what the answer

Hi again (after a considerable absence) Ron,

As I understand and experience it, Jesus' death is applicable only when
God draws the sinner to Himself and he repents and believes upon the
Saviour.  Salvation is not just forgiveness of sins.  When a person comes
to Christ, he is "born again" (a real and experiential change in his heart,
justified (i.e. forgiven and considered righteous) and sanctified (God 
sets him apart to do a work of holiness in him).  If His death and
resurrection applied for everyone automatically, then the whole world
would suddenly be "born again" etc. and it will be a much better place
to live in.  This, however, is not the case, whether we like it or not.

>is,before you leap in-this would take away free will, and then unrepentant
>people would be in heaven.  But the standard christian scenario condemns
>repentant people to hell-those who misunderstood or did not believe Jesus'
>supposed claims.

A truly repentant person will readily embrace Christ if He is made known
to him.  True repentance can only come about thru' God's own influence on
the person, out of His own goodness.  Thus, no truly repentant person will
be condemned.  And true repentance will always lead to true faith.

>So it seems to me that the default condition is wrong:
>instead of "No one saved unless repent and accept", why not have "Everyone
>saved unless don't repent or refuse to accept."  Of course there is then no
>point in proseletysing christianity, but what does that matter?

As is obvious, no-one, in and of themselves, has the natural tendency to
desire or know God and repent unless God Himself first touches his heart.
The default condition, rather, is, no one wants to repent and seek after
God.  God out of His own choice can exert a special influence on people
to draw them to Himself and His Son Jesus.  In my own life, this has been
the case.  I never set out to find out about God and His Son Jesus, I did
not have any natural tendency to bother for the most part of my life.
There came a time when something unusual began to really draw me to Him,
an influence that made me begin to seek.  Having obtained that salvation,
I looked back in my life, and realised that there was a lot of instances
when He was already giving signals, that He was calling me.  Not because
of anything that I deserve, but just because He somehow chose to - I may
never know why. There is no glory in ourselves when we repent and believe
in Him, for even that ability was first given by Him, that we may have
the ability to choose.  Otherwise, we are just trapped in our own
corruptness and depravity.

If we can really see it all, no one can complain, and none can boast
if God chose and saved someone.  Maybe He is already tugging at you, if
He is, don't resist - for there may be others that He doesn't "tug" as
hard.  God is a Person, not a set of theories and formulas.  He is to
be feared and revered.  No one can really question Him.  If you receive
His goodness, bow down and worship, just as Moses did, when He revealed
that He is merciful, but yet punishing guilt (Ex 34:5-9).  We don't know
everything, but He does.

"Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor
forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful." (Ne 9:31)

Regards,
S. Liew
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Dept. of EE Engineering, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3052, Australia
EMAIL: sliew@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au    PH: +61-3-3447976   FAX: +61-3-3446678
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Newsgroups: aus.religion