There is one way of salvation, and only one way, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. For there is one Lord and He applies the same principles to all (Rom 2:11). “And richly blesses all who call on Him”. We can make the means of salvation a battlefield. The Jews were doing this in Paul’s day. Secularists and the like do this today. We need to remember that the gospel brings blessing. The gospel is God’s chosen method of bringing blessing to people. Anyone who believes will be richly blessed. To the one who hears the gospel will deeply challenge their way of life, their world view. In today’s climate this perhaps best illustrated by the Bible and homosexuality because it is such a contentious issue. The first reaction can be that God is “against gays”, this is an understandable reaction because the Bible does clearly state that homosexual acts are sinful, and that God’s wrath comes upon all sinners (of which homosexuality is just one example in a very long list). So it declares that your lifestyle is wrong and is abhorrent to God, but of course the gospel declares this about every single human being. But then it says that if we repent and believe we will be richly blessed by God. The reason that the Bible declares that certain things are wrong is so that we can come into the true blessings of God.
Paul emphasises the universality of the gospel call by quoting Joel 2:32. It does not matter what your background is, what your circumstances are, what or who you are. If we choose to turn to Christ we will be saved.
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