An Agreement with God Concerning Our Condition for Salvation

Posted on our LTW web site "Evangelism Training" page:

Jay Wegter says:

Only when the sinner has lost all faith in what he can do does the Holy Spirit reveal the freeness of the offer of Christ in the Gospel.

The Gospel is only good news to those who have come face to face with the bad news. Like an appointment with a trusted physician—so is a man’s dealing with Christ. The Lord Jesus is the ‘Physician of souls’—He has a diagnosis that must be accepted before the ‘cure’ can be administered.

The Gospel (the ‘Good News’) brings the cure to man’s sin disease. The Gospel is the power of God to those who believe (Romans 1:16-17). But no man falls at the feet of Jesus in trust and repentance until he has come to terms with God’s diagnosis of his heart.

Have you come to terms with the God’s diagnosis? Can you say and mean it that: your sin separates you from God; your sin is so serious that it places you under God’s wrath; can you say that your efforts will not remove the condemnation of God; my only hope is salvation through Jesus Christ.

Only the man convicted by the Holy Spirit can say, Yes, the Bible is true—it has found me out. I have a bad heart and a bad record in heaven-Yes, nothing can avail in my case but a new heart and a new record in heaven—and that is only found in Christ- (me: repentance and faith in a nutshell). Apart from receiving God’s diagnosis; the message of the cross (the Gospel) remains a ‘stumbling stone’ (Rom 9:33; Gal 5:11).