Robert Lightner On The Gospel:
Robert Lightner
To be sure, there are essentials the sinner must know before he can be saved—he is a guilty sinner (Rom. 3:23), sin’s wages is death (Rom. 6:23), Christ died in the sinner’s place (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:3), the sinner must trust Christ alone as his sin bearer (John 3:16; Acts 16:31). These are the essentials of the Gospel. [Robert Lightner, Sin, the Savior, and Salvation (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 160.]
Christ’s work alone saves, but unless His Person and work are received by faith, no benefit comes to the individual sinner. Man’s faith must have the proper object before salvation results. God does not simply demand belief in the ultimate triumph of good, or faith in the evangelical church, or even faith in His own existence and power, as that which brings salvation. It is always faith in God’s Son as the divine substitute for sin which brings life to the spiritually dead sinner. [Ibid., 160-61.]
To be sure, there are essentials the sinner must know before he can be saved—he is a guilty sinner (Rom. 3:23), sin’s wages is death (Rom. 6:23), Christ died in the sinner’s place (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:3), the sinner must trust Christ alone as his sin bearer (John 3:16; Acts 16:31). These are the essentials of the Gospel. [Robert Lightner, Sin, the Savior, and Salvation (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 160.]
Christ’s work alone saves, but unless His Person and work are received by faith, no benefit comes to the individual sinner. Man’s faith must have the proper object before salvation results. God does not simply demand belief in the ultimate triumph of good, or faith in the evangelical church, or even faith in His own existence and power, as that which brings salvation. It is always faith in God’s Son as the divine substitute for sin which brings life to the spiritually dead sinner. [Ibid., 160-61.]