Lesson 4, April 21-27
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: John 14:9; Zephaniah 3:17; John 1:1-3; Romans 8:38, 39; Psalm 91:15, 16; Revelation 14:6, 7; Ephesians 1:4, 5.
Memory Text: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10, NIV).
One fascinating but crucial difference between Christianity and non-Christian religions is that while the others emphasize what their founders have taught them, they do not emphasize what their founders have done for them . And that’s because whatever their founders may have done for them, it cannot save them. All these leaders could do was try to teach the people how to “save” themselves.
In contrast, Christians emphasize not only what Jesus taught but what He did, because what Christ did provides the only means by which we are saved. Christ’s incarnation in human flesh (Romans 8:3), His death on the cross (Romans 5:8), His resurrection (1 Peter 1:3) and His ministry in heaven (Hebrews 7:25) — these acts alone are what saves us. It’s certainly not anything in ourselves. “If you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man and then present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as treason”. — Ellen G. White, Faith and Works,p. 24.
This wonderful truth is especially important for us amid the perils and deceptions of the last days.
