Romans 9:30-33 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness… A preacher of the gospel had gone down into a coal mine during the noon hour to tell the miners of that grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. After telling them the simple story of God's love to lost sinners — man's state and God's remedy, a full and free salvation offered, the time came for the men to resume work, and the preacher came back to the shaft to ascend to the world again. Meeting the foreman, he asked him what he thought of God's way of salvation. The man replied, "Oh, it is too cheap: I cannot believe in such a religion as that!" Without an immediate answer to his remark, the preacher asked: "How do you get out of this place?" "Simply by getting into the cage," was the reply. "And does it take long to get to the top? "Oh, no; only a few seconds!" "Well, that certainly is very easy and simple. But do you not need to help raise yourself?" said the preacher. "Of course not!" replied the miner. "As I have said, you have nothing to do but get into the cage." "But what about the people who sunk the shaft, and perfected all this arrangement? Was there much labour or expense about it?" "Indeed, yes; that was a laborious and expensive work. The shaft is eighteen hundred feet deep, and it was sunk at great cost to the proprietor; but it is our only way out, and without it we should never be able to get to the surface." "Just so. And when God's Word tells you that whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life, you at once say, 'Too cheap!' — 'Too cheap!' forgetting that God's work to bring you and others out of the pit of destruction and death was accomplished at a vast cost, the price being the death of His own Son." Men talk about the "help of Christ" in their salvation — that if they do their part, Christ will do His, forgetting, or not seeing, that the Lord Jesus Christ by Himself purged our sins, and that our part is but to accept what has been done. Parallel Verses KJV: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. |
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