Jesus Has Done Everything That's Necessary

                                                  A Message to God's People


                                  "From beginning to end what Jesus Christ has done
                                   for you He has done not only as God but as man.
                                   He acted in your place in the whole range of your
                                   human life and activity, including your personal
                                   decisions, and your responses to God's love, and
                                   even your acts of faith.

                                   He has believed for you, fulfilled your human response
                                   to God, even made your personal decision for you,
                                   so that He acknowledges you before God as one who
                                   has already responded to God in Him, who has already
                                   believed in God through Him, and whose personal
                                   decision is already implicated in Christ's self-offering
                                   to the Father, in all of which He has been fully and
                                   completely accepted by the Father, so that in Jesus
                                   Christ you are already accepted by Him.

                                   Therefore, renounce yourself, take up your cross and
                                   follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior."

                                                                             T. F. Torrance


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          Our salvation is a gracious and merciful gift from God.

          We can't earn it or work for it in any way. Even our faith and repentance
     are gifts from the Lord.

           Every good deed we've done has been planned by God, and accomplished
     through His power.   

           Jesus fulfilled the Father's plan perfectly, redeeming His people, forgiving
     us, and saving us from the wrath of God because of our sins. 

           God the Father is satisfied with Jesus and everything He has done for us,
     and therefore He has accepted us in His Son. 
           Jesus has done everything needed to be done for those who have been called
     to belong to Him.


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                                          "For it is by grace you have been saved,
                                            through faith - and this not from yourselves,
                                            it is the gift of God - not by works, so that
                                            no one can boast.

                                            For we are God's workmanship, created in
                                            Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
                                            prepared in advance for us to do."
                                                                           Ephesians 2:8-10


          Now that we know and love Him as Lord and Savior, we must be willing
     to make Jesus our top priority, follow Him, and suffer and even die for His sake.

                                            "Then He called the crowd to Him
                                              along with His disciples and said:

                                                           If anyone would come after me,
                                                           he must deny himself and take
                                                           up his cross and follow me.

                                                           For everyone who wants to save his life
                                                           will lose it, but everyone who loses his
                                                           life for me and for the gospel will save it."
                                                                                            Mark 8:34-35