“Becoming a Christian means being sick of your sin, longing for forgiveness and rescue from present evil and future hell, and affirming your commitment to the Lordship of Christ to the point where you are willing to forsake everything. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it isn’t just holding up your hand or walking down an aisle and saying, ‘I love Jesus.’”
–John MacArthur
Best-selling author and Pastor John MacArthur reminds us that God is sovereign, that nothing happens without the will of God, including one’s Salvation. He talks in more detail about Salvation as the sole will of God (sole sovereignty) versus how good we are as Christians and persons (evaluation).
“Whom He justified, these He also glorified (Romans 8:30)”
He also reminds us that God chooses to love us (Deuteronomy 7:6-7), but He is not obliged to do so. Pastor MacArthur tries to bring light to our love/hate relationship with God making several references to contradictions found in the Bible.
MacArthur advises to submit ourselves to God’s will (chapters 2 & 3), live Christian-ly correctly (ch. 4) and confess our flaws to receive the God’s Grace (ch. 5 & 6).
“Many people claim to follow Jesus. Many people claim to be His disciples, and many always have. But in these verses in Matthew, our Lord pointed to the proof of genuineness. This is the mark of a real follower of Christ.”
– in reference to Matthew 10:38-39.
This is a great little book, highly recommended for new believers and fresh reminders for those who have walked for a while. Would recommend the other two companion books in this series: “The Truth About Grace”, and “The Truth About Forgiveness”.
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