that poor bull: Chambers keeps drilling him right in his eye‏

Chambers struck gold again in My Utmost for His Highest  when he noted:

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. —Roman 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done –“It is finished.”

Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? Could for sin these atone? No! Thou must save and Thou alone!

Even if your effort and energy never lagged. Even if you were broken-hearted constantly before God to the full extent of your betrayal. Even if you tried your hardest always. Even if you claimed nothing but depravity before God. Even then, none of that could save. The sine qua non is Christ crucified and risen again. If Jesus did not die, your zeal and your tears both account for nothing before God. If they could, Christ died for no reason.

But Jesus did die. Jesus did rise again. He lives now. 

This is the Good News.

How repentant is repentant enough to be accepted before God?
How much belief in God is belief enough?
Neither a measure of repentance or belief will count for anything before God if not for Christ first and foremost on our behalf.

Repentance and belief are necessary conditions of salvation.
If you are unrepentant and disbelieving, you cannot be saved.
But even if you are repentant and believe in God, your repentance and belief fall short if He does not complete for you the work of salvation on Calvary.

When we say we “fall short,” we typically mean we sin by behaving badly.

When the Bible says we “fall short,” it means we sin by being bad.

We don’t do bad things, we are bad people who sometimes do good things and most of the time do what bad people do.

We need a Savior to do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. Until by the grace of God we anchor ourselves in this, we are lost to lives of passionate rebellion, prideful religion, or some combination thereof ending in death.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Romans 8:6

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:8

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.