I
THOUGHTS FOR
UNSAVED PEOPLE
1
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? The gospel Is “ good news.” “ glad tidings.” But it is good news to those who have no goodness. It is glad tidings to those who have no gladness. It is good news to the guilty and the condemned. It is glad tidings to the hapless and the hopeless. But the gospel is more than good news and glad tidings. It is POWER. It meets man’s great need as powerless. For he is “ without strength,” as well as without righteousness, for God. He is in the flesh under sin, and he is im potent. Therefore, “ he CANNQT please God.” (Rom. 5:6; 8 :8). But this power of the gospel is GOD’S power. It is God’s power TO SAVE. It is power outside man altogether. Man has power to form and re-form. He has power to make and to destroy. But he cannot create nor te-create. He can take life but he cannot give life. God alone gives life to all. (Acts 17:25). He alone created all things by Jesus Christ. (Eph. 3 :9). There is a natural life, and there is a spiritual life. There is a natural creation, and there is a spiritual creation. This new, spiritual life is in God’s Son. And in order to have the life, we must have the Son. (1 John 5:11). It is
This new, spiritual creation is in Christ. And to be in this new creation, we must be in .Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17). By this saving power of God we have Christ, the Son. By this saying power of God we are in Christ, the Lord. It is realized by “ every one that be- lieveth,” by every one that “ obeys FROM THE HEART.” (Rom. 6:17). Man has power to cultivate and im prove himself and his fellows. He can better his moral and physical condition, and also his surroundings. He can do this through his knowledge and his will-power. But he cannot SAVE either himself or his fellow. He cannot deliver himself, nor others, from sin and Satan, from death and judgment. Through his gospel of physical cuK ture, health culture, ethical culture, in tellectual culture, moral culture, and re ligious culture— He can cultivate his fleshly nature and subdue it: He can put down bad habits and prac tice virtue: He can reform the drunkard and raise up the fallen: He can change a depraved and de generated community into a respectable and religious one: He can do all this through the re forming power of his humanitarian gos pel. But alas! it is only MAN-POWER. And neither this gospel nor this power can save a single soul from death and hell, nor fit it for the glory of God in heaven.
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