Q: What is the chief end of each individual Christian?
A: Each individual Christian’s chief end is to get saved. This is the first and great commandment.- Q: And what is the second great commandment?
A: The second, which is like unto it, is to get as many others saved as he can. - Q: What one work is required of thee for thy salvation?
A: It is required of me for my salvation that I make a Decision for Christ, which meaneth to accept Him into my heart to be my personal lord and saviour - Q: At what time must thou perform this work?
A: I must perform this work at such time as I have reached the Age of Accountability. - Q: At what time wilt thou have reached this Age?
A: That is a trick question. In order to determine this time, my mind must needs be sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce even to the division of bone and marrow; for, alas, the Age of Accountability is different for each individual, and is thus unknowable. - Q: By what means is a Decision for Christ made?
A: A Decision for Christ is made, not according to His own purpose and grace which was given to me in Christ Jesus before the world began, but according to the exercise of my own Free Will in saying the Sinner’s Prayer in my own words. - Q: If it be true then that man is responsible for this Decision, how then can God be sovereign?
A: He cannot be. God sovereignly chose not to be sovereign, and is therefore dependent upon me to come to Him for salvation. He standeth outside the door of my heart, forlornly knocking, until such time as I Decide to let Him in.
For those of you who do not know what this word means regarding Christ, I wanted to post this to help you understand what exactly the gracious Lord has done.
For those of you who do understand the definition of this word, Paul Washer’s comments will strengthen your faith.
propitiation (n):
pro·pi·ti·a·tion
\prō-ˌpi-shē-ˈā-shən\
This means the turning away of wrath by an offering. It is similar to expiation but expiation does not carry the nuances involving wrath.
Greek word: ἱλαστήριον hilastērion
defn:
1) relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation
1a) used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory
1b) an expiatory sacrifice
1c) a expiatory victim
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;… Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God has set forth to be a PROPITIATION through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Romans 3:21; 24-25
And he is the PROPITIATION for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1John 2:2
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the PROPITIATION for our sins.
1John 4:10
The testimony of Dr Daniel Wong, a professor at The Master’s College, who faced persecutions as a Christian first hand from Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution in China.
“John the Baptist spoke plainly about sin. He taught the absolute necessity of ‘repentance’, before any one can be saved. He preached that repentance must be proved by its ‘fruits’. He warned men not to rest on outward privileges, or outward union with the church.
“This is just the teaching that we all need. We are naturally dead, and blind, and asleep in spiritual things. We are ready to content ourselves with a mere formal religion, and to flatter ourselves, that if we go to church we shall be saved. We need to be told, that except we ‘repent and are converted’ we shall all perish.”
~ J.C. Ryle