Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
This verse appears to say that you have to believe in the Father to be saved. But a principle must be understood. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”
Here is a verse which deals with the principle, you cannot get to God the Father and live with Him forever unless you come through the Son.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
Ps 110:1
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.”
ISA 9:6
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Nowhere in the scripture does it ever say you believe in God the Father for salvation. This is for obvious reasons: Christ is the saviour. Acts 4:12.
Acts 4:12
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”
The Father designed salvation and the Son actually executed it, and the Spirit reveals it.
In eternity past He knew everyone who would be standing in the temple that day – omniscience.
Whenever a person at the point of God-consciousness goes on +V God is responsible to provide information for that person by which they can be saved. Jeremiah 29; Acts 17; John 7:17.
Verse 25 is a dissertation on salvation, the principle being that eternal life comes through the Son.
1 John 5:11-12
And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
This means very simply that Jesus Christ was judged on the cross and the Father has given Him the privilege of judging all who reject His judgment.
“for the hour is coming” – this is a different hour. This isn’t the hour of salvation, this is the hour of resurrection.
In time on earth we hear His voice, which is the gospel, and we respond by faith.
From heaven at the rapture of the Church it is again hearing His voice for resurrection.
1 Thess 4:16
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
John 10:3-4
“To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
The Pharisees are hearing the voice of the Son of God with regard to matters that pertain to this life, and as the Son of God speaks, everything He says is doctrine, everything He says presents the plan of God.
Therefore the tremendous effect in the power of His voice is given in the fact that Jesus Christ only has to speak and the Rapture begins.
They should listen to the voice of the Son of God as He stands on the steps of the temple and declares to them the issues of eternal life.
But they refuse to do so.
They will continue to reject His word and yet there is one time when they will obey the voice of the Son of –
the second resurrection.
So those who produce divine good are believers and they are involved in the first resurrection.
With regard to the second resurrection we have the verb prasso which means to practice, to establish or form a pattern.
In other words, they all face the cross. But when the person who becomes a believer faces the cross, for the first time he sees divine good and he believes in Jesus Christ.
How can you honour the Father? The only way is to believe in the Son, and when you believe in the Son you believe in the Father.