Exclusive and Inclusive<\/p>\n
Greg Elmquist<\/p>\n
The gospel of God\u2019s grace in Christ Jesus is both exclusive and inclusive. It is a double-edged sword. It cuts people out and it cuts people in. The exclusivity of God\u2019s gospel will not allow a person to be saved while believing another gospel. One\u2019s complete hope and trust must be in THE Christ revealed according to the Scriptures. He is The Way and He Is God\u2019s Way. To deny Him is to be excluded by the sword of the gospel. Just as the door of your home is used to keep out unwelcome guest, so Christ stands at the entrance of the sheepfold to keep out those that would rob Him of His glory.<\/p>\n
But, never let us forget that God\u2019s gospel is also inclusive. Put the positive side of two magnets together and they will repel one another with an irreconcilable force. When we come to the positive righteousness of Christ with any amount of our own righteousness we are repelled. But, turn the negative side of that magnet to the positive side of the other and they will be attracted with a force irresistible. So it is with Christ. The only condition for salvation is to repent of your righteousness (which is altogether filthy rags) and trust in the Christ of true righteousness as your only Lord and Savior. It matters not who you are or what you have done. \u2018Whosoever will\u2019 may come. If we are kept out it is because we refuse to come on God\u2019s terms. Jesus said, \u2018you are not willing to come to me\u2019. Again He said, \u2018Light has come into the world but men loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were evil\u2019. The gospel includes everyone who is willing. No man can say, \u201cI was willing to come but He was unwilling to save me\u201d. Unregenerate men are by nature unwilling. You can not be more willing to be saved than God is to save you. \u201cThy people will be made willing in the day of Thy power\u201d (Psalm 110:3). \u201cOh Lord, make us willing.\u201d Can you say with the hymn writer, \u2018He included me?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exclusive and Inclusive Greg Elmquist The gospel of God\u2019s grace in Christ Jesus is both exclusive and inclusive. It is a double-edged sword. It cuts people out and it cuts people in. The exclusivity of God\u2019s gospel will not allow a person to be saved while believing another gospel. One\u2019s complete hope and trust must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,112,62,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-greg-elmquist","category-gospel-separation","category-pictures-and-types","category-salvation-deliverance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4739,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions\/4739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}