Dr Paul Allen

Who needs to be saved? Everyone! Not one person has escaped sin’s devastating effects, and no one can do anything about this on their own. We come to the solution to this universal problem: the doctrine of salvation. The basis of salvation for any and every individual is Christ’s death—and only Christ’s death. This truth is known as the sufficiency of the death of Christ . Anything we sinful humans might contribute to our own salvation is excluded. When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” ( John 19:30 ), he meant it. The gospel—the good news of salvation—is succinctly stated in 1 Corinthians 15:1–8: 2-5 By this gospel you are saved … that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared [to the disciples and hundreds of others]. The good news is that anyone can be saved by believing that Jesus died for their sins, was buried, and was resurrected. The significance

English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Sometimes, our " Jesus " is actually a reflection of ourselves. This is the constant danger when we don't simply open the Scriptures and listen to their testimony about Jesus: we make a Jesus in our own image, usually domesticated. Sadly, much that dominates the Christian worldview and media seems to fall foul here. Any Jesus who isn't both Savior and Lord , Sacrificial Lamb of God and Reigning King, cannot be the Jesus of the Gospels . And any Jesus who does not call us to radical, sacrificial, and yes, painful, discipleship, cannot be the real Jesus. I sometimes think that our danger as believers is that we use the "Where's Wally Method?" of reading the Gospels. Remember Wally — the little fellow in the red and white sweater in the midst of the vast crowds? The whole point of the Wally books was to try to find him. Many people read the Gospels that way, always asking "What does this