Is Jesus Enough

I want to put an end to this question that keeps being raised time and again when each new teacher of the Word climbs upon his soap box pulpit thinking he has some new instructions from God … do this or add that … to make your salvation sure. It's already as sure as it's ever going be because God Himself became the Lamb that was slain.

Can we do anything that will make us more saved than what Jesus did on the cross when He bled and died as the only perfect blood sacrifice that God required for man's sin?

Jesus states in John 17:4 … "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

What is finished? What He came to do; and that is … to be the full payment for sin; payment that would satisfy God the Father.

John records that just before Jesus died on the cross he said … "It is finished."

The reason Jesus could say as He died on the cross … "It is finished" was because the work was complete. God in the form of a man died, what was required had been met; nothing else could or needed to be added to it … it was finished.

He had just executed the great will, purpose and design of God … without help from anyone, Jesus by Himself satisfied the demands of God's justice. Man was now reconciled back to God by His death on the cross.

1st Corinthians 6:20 … "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

I like the way this verse in the Vulgate version says to "bear" or "carry God in your body" instead of the King James word glorify.

That's an interesting thought … because we are bought with a price … we should carry God around within us. If we "bear" Him, maybe we would be more aware of His presence.

1st Peter 1:18-20 … "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot … Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world …"

A Saviour was provided … before sin was committed … and the method of man's redemption was settled even before his creation, without any regard to any works or merits of men. Man's redemption is wholly owing to the sovereign will and grace of God.

God alone has saved us. God all by Himself took on the responsibility of man's salvation. It has already been said, "Man had a debt he could not pay … Jesus paid the debt He did not owe."

Galatians 5:4 … "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."

If you try to add to your salvation by works or good deeds of any kind, you are "fallen from grace." We can't do anything to add to what Jesus has done; if we think we can, we are only deceiving ourselves.

Justification is given by God's mercy and grace alone. It is not that we are innocent, or are declared to be innocent. We are not innocent; we never have been and we never shall be. It will always be true that the justified sinner has no claim to the mercy and grace of God. It is a free gift.

Justification is not a declaration on the part of God that we deserve salvation, or that we have any claim for what the Lord Jesus has done. Again … it is a free gift.

It is not that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus is transferred to His people. Moral character cannot be transferred. It adheres to the moral agent as much as color does to the rays of light which cause it.

It is not true that we died for sin, and it cannot be so reckoned or imputed. It is not true that we have any merit or any claim to His righteousness, and it cannot be so reckoned or imputed. All the imputations of God are according to truth; and He will always reckon us to be personally undeserving and sinful.

But if justification is none of these things, it may be asked … "What is it?" It is the declared purpose of God to regard and treat sinners who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as if they had not sinned, on the ground of the merits of the Saviour.

It is not mere pardon. Pardon is a free forgiveness of past offences. The offences are still on your record … just pardoned.

Justification needs pardon first but also respects the sinner in regard to his past conduct and to God’s future dealings with him … as though he had never sinned. God now looks at the believer through the filter of Jesus.

Galatians 2:21 … "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."

For if righteousness come by the law; if a justifying righteousness is to be attained by the works of the law, or men can be justified by their obedience to it, or their own works and good deeds …

"Then Christ is dead in vain" … there was no necessity for His dying; He died without any reason or just cause; He died to bring righteousness which might have been brought in without His death, and if so … His blood and life should have been spared, His sufferings and death being entirely unnecessary.

But it was not so … therefore it may be concluded, that there is no righteousness by the law of works or good deeds, nor can it be attained that way, otherwise Christ should have never died. Justification is solely attained by … His righteousness alone.

Peter left no misunderstanding concerning the completed work of Jesus when he spoke in Acts 4:12 … "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Jesus is enough.



Comments welcome.