The battle persists and will until the coming of the Lord to the truth of God’s grace and salvation. The following is my attempt to bring it all together and explain biblical salvation.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:9-10
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:36-37
John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
God created all things to glorify himself, if salvation were by works it would glorify man. One of the first and major precepts of Scripture is that if it does not glorify God it will be the wrong interpretation, the wrong way of doing something, etc. There are only two religions in the world: works and saved by grace, they are mutually exclusive.
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
There are only two possible modes of salvation. Salvation is either by man’s efforts, his works, to establish his self-righteousness or man abandons his efforts and any righteousness he may think he has to boast of and turns to God in the hope of His grace and mercy. Salvation by works is pitting man’s righteousness against God’s.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Romans 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Men have limited free will. We have free will of desire, inclination, passion, aspirations, motivations, intentions, likes, dislikes, loves, hatreds. what we would like to do or would do if we could get away with it. Faith in God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is required of us. It is within our power to direct our hearts to believe, to acknowledge or reject God.
Satan’s plan is to deceive men into believing that he must establish self-righteousness to earn God’s grace and salvation. Many have fallen into this trap of teaching works for obtaining salvation or works to maintain salvation.
Concerning the Gentiles:
Works to obtain: convert to Judaism.
Acts 15:1 KJV And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Works to maintain: convert to Judaism
Acts 15:5 KJV But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
The Apostles judged that this was false teaching.
Acts 15:8-9 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
Acts 15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
No one teaching works for salvation is following the commandments of the Apostles or Christ Jesus.
God created all things to glorify himself, if salvation were by works it would glorify man. One of the first and major precepts of Scripture is that if it does not glorify God it will be the wrong interpretation, the wrong way of doing something.
Psalms 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
It glorifies God when we call upon Him to save us.
Many have not been able to reason out what they perceive as a contradiction in the Scriptures. If Christ Jesus died for all, how then are all not saved? Their solution attests to their lack of diligent study of God’s word. They fail to understand the dual nature of the plan of salvation. They reject salvation being open to all and limit it to an elect few or on the other hand they reject eternal damnation and falsely teach the salvation of all eventually.
Salvation is in two parts. The retribution the law of God required had to be paid before sins could be forgiven to maintain God’s holiness and righteousness otherwise, he would be complicit in men’s sins.
- If a judge upon a finding of guilty released the individual clearing his name without any punishment, we would say the judge was crooked and complicit in the crimes of the guilty party. So also would God be judged if He just forgave all without paying the penalty for their sins.
All men were condemned to death for the debt they owed the law; that debt had to be paid before the efficacy of forgiveness.
When Christ died on the cross, He purchased the world’s sin debt. Thus, the law being satisfied was taken out of the way, as far as it was concerned the debt was paid, all men were as dead, and the law had no more power over men to condemn them. All men moved from death unto life being justified by the atonement.
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
All men had their names written in the Book of Life, which is why the Bible only speaks of blotting men out not entering them in, they were put in by Christ’s atonement.
Exodus 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
The law demanded payment for all sin, Christ made that payment. Ownership of our debt was exchanged. The transaction did not include instant or automatic forgiveness of that debt, only a transference of ownership. The debt was no longer owed to the law but by God’s grace. This opened the door to salvation for all. Each individual still owed the debt to God’s grace. No one is sent to hell by the law, that debt was paid, but for rejecting God’s grace.
God has elected, chosen, to forgive the debt completely to whomsoever, any-and-all who will believe on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sin debt to the law was paid en masse, forgiveness is obtained individually. You will either have your name blotted out of the Book of Life, or your sins blotted out.
Psalms 51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Added to the above is the question of repentance: what is it? Repentance is acknowledging God and that you have sinned against him and his laws, accepting whatever consequences for it, and doing all that is possible to make it right.
Godly sorrow is over having sinned against God, hopefully leading to repentance. Worldly sorrow is over having been caught.
2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
Remorse is the deep regret that you have sinned against your Maker and Lord. Repentance is acknowledging your sin against God and your need for his mercy and salvation.
Psalms 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 14:20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
Hosea 5:15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
The repentant heart will acknowledge their sins and seek the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness upon hearing the preaching of the gospel. To seek God is to believe that Jesus was the virgin-born Son of God, that he died for your sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day.
Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
“godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.”
God acknowledged his responsibility in creating man with free will knowing sin would enter the world by creating a plan of salvation whereby any-and-all individuals could believe him and receive the forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life. Repentance is the individual taking responsibility and acknowledging his part in using that free will to sin. Salvation is when the two meet.
How do you know you are saved? Have you come to Jesus? Have you believed with all your heart that he was the Son of God, died for your sins, and rose the third day? No doubts, no alternative plan? Are all your eggs in that one basket?
Find a mirror, look yourself in the eyes and say, “I believe Jesus was the Son of God and that he died for my sins was buried, and rose the third day.” Then go out and look someone else in the eye and say the same. Do it often.
1 Corinthians 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
At least you will know you are saved. Being a Christian learn God’s word and live by it.
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