From: "Frank"    
      
   Christ showed Luther the Gospel   
   because the world cast it away   
   after the Apostles were gone.   
   For over one thousand years,   
   the world had not understood   
   the real Biblical Gospel;   
   and generation after generation   
   was lost except for the remnant   
   reached by Christ himself.   
      
   Out of all the verses in the Bible, Christ used Romans 1 verses 16-17   
   to bring back the real Biblical Gospel for the Protestant Reformation:   
      
   For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto   
   salvation to every one that believeth;   
   to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of   
   God revealed from faith to faith:  as it is written, The just shall live by   
   faith.   
   (Romans 1:16-17 KJV)   
      
   Paul was "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ", because "it is the power of   
   God unto salvation" "to everyone that believeth"   
   because "therein is the righteousness of God revealed" "from faith to faith".   
      
   The righteousness of God   
   is ours only by faith Christ gives: "revealed from faith to faith",   
   "as it is written, The just shall live by faith." Thus the righteousness for   
   salvation is not our own actual righteousness, but rather is the righteousness   
   of God, the righteousness of Christ himself, that is imputed (reckoned,   
   counted) to us by Christ as though it were ours,   
   so that he gives us eternal life.   
      
   The Gospel of Christ brings salvation to those who believe the Gospel   
   because Christ by the Gospel reveals the righteousness of God to us   
   by giving us light to understand the Gospel and faith to trust him to be   
   righteous for us.   
      
   Because we are thus saved   
   by Christ being righteous for us   
   as our Righteous Substitute,   
   our salvation is totally Christ,   
   is totally in his hands,   
   and stands forever.   
   Our salvation is not at all us,   
   is not at all our own   
   so-called "righteousness".   
      
   All trust for salvation is to be on Christ alone, and absolutely none on our   
   repenting, baptism, endurance, or our anything, no matter how important   
   or how definitely to be done.   
      
   Christ came into the world   
   as our Righteous Substitute   
   who lived a perfect life for us,   
   died for us on the cross, and rose again. Because Christ paid for our sins on   
   the cross as though our sins were his,   
   he gives us eternal life   
   as though his righteousness were ours.   
      
   Christ showed me the Gospel,   
   same he showed to Paul and Luther,   
   Christ saves us by being righteous for us, because the world had again   
   cast it away and gone back   
   to its imitation "gospels"   
   that save no one at all.   
      
   For those not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, despite the contempt of the   
   world for it, Christ has caused the Gospel to be posted on my personal website   
   along with   
   over four hundred Gospel articles   
   to reintroduce people to   
   the only Gospel that saves anyone.   
      
   --   
   http://roines.home.mindspring.com   
      
   --- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5   
    * Origin: http://www.familynet-international.net (972)-496-0650 (8:8/2003)