From: roines@mindspring.com   
      
   Much of the world rightly believes that Christ   
   is God, the Son of God.   
      
   And some of those rightly believe that Christ   
   himself is our Salvation.   
      
   But the world,   
   including its denominations today,   
   stops short of what it   
   must believe to have eternal life,   
   namely, what Christ reveals in his Gospel,   
   the real Gospel, that he is our Righteous Substitute,   
   or as Christ showed Luther:   
   Christ is the righteousness of God for us:   
      
   For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:   
   for it is the power of God unto salvation   
   to every one that believeth;   
   to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.   
   For therein is the righteousness of God revealed   
   from faith to faith:  as it is written,   
   The just shall live by faith.   
   (Romans 1:16-17 KJV)   
      
   Christ ever regards himself as our Righteous Substitute   
   the moment that he gives us faith to trust him   
   to take our place to give us eternal life.   
      
   Only when a person really believes that Christ   
   is their Righteous Substitute, will that person   
   be able to no longer trust in   
   their own "righteousness" for salvation,   
   and rather trust Christ to be their entire   
   righteousness for salvation.   
      
   Otherwise, people will just continue   
   to trust in their own efforts for salvation,   
   especially in their repentance.   
      
   Anyone who trusts in their repentance   
   for salvation, cannot trust Christ for salvation   
   because they are trusting in themselves.   
      
   Unless Christ gives people the faith   
   to trust him to be their Righteous Substitute,   
   people just cannot believe that Christ would ever   
   save anyone who has not repented;   
   but Christ is sovereign and if he wants   
   to save a Paul who is on his way   
   to destroy Christians,   
   that is the business of Christ and not ours.   
      
   Are we then to preach against repentance?   
   Of course not.   
   We are to preach against trusting in   
   repentance for salvation.   
   Why should we do that?   
   Because generation after generation   
   is going to the abyss,   
   and will keep doing so   
   unless Christ by his Gospel gives people   
   faith to stop trusting in self for salvation,   
   and rather start trusting Christ   
   to be their Righteous Substitute   
   so he gives them eternal life.   
      
   --   
   http://roines.home.mindspring.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)