It appears that the Devil is working overtime in these last days to destroy the Truth of the Gospel of God's Grace.
First, he is viciously attacking the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. To this we have responded with an article: THE BIBLE IS THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD. This first appeared in Canyon view Bible Expositors, volume 11, number 1-2. This will be published in booklet form.
Second, the Devil is subtly attacking the Biblical fact that we believers have two natures. He is using individuals in so-called evangelical and fundamental circles to promote this erroneous teaching. Our response to this has been an article entitled: TWO NATURES and TRUE BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY. This is now available in booklet form.
Third, the Devil is attacking the key issue of the Reformation, salvation by Grace apart from works. We recognize that many evangelicals and fundamentalists have been hazy on this issue, and have never fully grasped Martin Luther's position, but we are shocked by the way it is being promoted today. Our response is to write this article in defense of the Biblical fact that salvation is by Grace, and as such, works contribute nothing to it (Romans 11:6).
According to our information, the majority of those who hold this faith/works position, and who consider themselves evangelicals or fundamentalists, would say that they believe that salvation is by grace through faith. At the same time, however, they affirm that faith is inseparable from overt works.
In our judgment the following statements accurately portray their position. First, works must coexist with faith as essential for salvation. Second, faith is dead unless works are an integral part of it. They fail to recognize the legal setting of James (Acts 21:17-24; Galatians. 2:12; 4:21-25). Third, they emphasize that faith in Jesus Christ as Savior cannot be disjoined from obedience to Him as Lord; i.e., if He is Savior, He is also Lord. This means that both faith and obedience are necessary ingredients for salvation.
It appears to us that the general position these people hold speaks so loud that it refutes their claim that salvation is by grace. If our salvation relationship with God is by grace, why do we have to add anything to it, unless it is because we feel that it is inadequate? At best, these people certainly present a confusing message to sinners. It seems to me that the average sinner, after listening to them, would conclude that salvation is by grace plus works. This adds up to a very serious distortion of the Gospel of Grace - a life and death issue!
Those who hold this position are commonly referred to as believing in Lordship Salvation. Identifying them according to their teaching, a fitting designation would be grace/works people.
WHY DO THEY CONFUSE GRACE AND WORKS?
First, because they do not distinguish between what is said in the Mosaic Law, the Synoptic Gospels, and the Book of James from what is said in the other New Testament epistles, the core of which are the Pauline Epistles (Romans 10:5; Matthew 19:16-17; Acts 16:31).
Second, they do not acknowledge the totally depraved condition of men, spiritually dead. That which is dead is insensible, unresponsive and lifeless, incapable of even. the slightest movement toward God. Failure to recognize this deadness, and consequently harbor the thought that a sinner can do something to save himself, naturally leads to a grace/works position (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2: 1; Colossians 2:13).
Third, they confuse grace and works because they do not believe what God has said in His Word, namely, that HE initiates and perfects our salvation. God chose us in Christ unto salvation before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). God has taken the initiative in foreknowing, predestining, calling and justifying us apart from works (Romans 8:29-30). God's purpose in saving us is according to His elective good will, and as His elect, we are the objects of His mercy (Romans 9:11,16,23). What God does is perfect. We should not offend Him by adding our menial works!
Fourth, they confuse grace and works because they do not understand that God is the one who makes us alive in Christ, apart from human interaction. John says, "And this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one having the Son has life" (1 John 5:11-12). Paul says that "While we were dead in trespasses God made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5). According to Colossians 3:3, our "life has been hidden with Christ in God." We who have been sovereignly identified with Christ have life in Him apart from works.
Fifth, they confuse grace and works because they do not recognize that human responsibility is a consequence and not a part of salvation. When God sovereignly puts us in Christ, we are participants of His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. As a consequence and result of what we are in Christ, we are to be the same in our daily living. Paul says that we who have been freed from sin are to have our fruit unto sanctification and moral purity (Romans 6:22). Believers, who are light, are to have fruit "in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:9). Salvation precedes and results in a God-pleasing lifestyle.
HOW ARE MEN SAVED ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE?
God's salvation-purpose operates according to election. In Romans 8:28-30, Paul explains to those who are called some details regarding God's purpose in salvation. First, He foreknows the persons He is going to save. Second, He predestines them. Third, He calls them. Fourth, He justifies them. Fifth, He glorifies them. If sinners were left to themselves not a single one would be saved, but according to His love and mercy, God is calling out a people for His Name (Romans 9:11-16, 23; Acts' 13:48; Ephesians 1:4-5, 11; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9; 2:10).
God's purpose in saving men is based on love and mercy. Love prompted God to give up His Son to death, that we might have eternal life (John 3:16; 15: 13; Galatians 2:20; 1 John 4: 10). God's great love for us is expressed in His mercy toward us (Ephesians 2:4; Romans 9: 15-16, 23; 1 Timothy 1:13, 16; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:3). The love and mercy of God, which have provided a Savior, are the basis for our salvation.
The Cross makes it possible for God to save men. God the Father set forth Jesus Christ the Son as a propitiation to point out His righteousness "unto the end that He might be just and the one justifying a person out of the faithfulness of Christ Jesus." The God of the moral universe, which He Himself created, is bound by the integrity of His own person. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23; 5:12, 21; 1 Corinthians 15:56; 1 John 5: 16). The only way God could forgive sin, and maintain His just status, was for the sinless Person of Jesus Christ to die as a substitute for sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Salvation is received through the exercise of Divinely-given faith. Ephesians 4:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not out of you, it is the gift of God; not out of works, that no one might boast." The statement, "this is not out of you," refers to both the grace and the faith by which we are saved. The two ingredients essential for salvation, grace and faith, are a joint gift of God. God sovereignly gives faith to those whom He has chosen in Christ; as a gift it belongs to them, and the Holy Spirit enables them to exercise it in the Savior, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4, 15; Titus 3:5-6). If we ourselves generate the faith by which we think that we are saved, we are actually involved in a kind of grace/works salvation.
GOOD WORKS NATURALLY FOLLOW SALVATION
Having declared that salvation is a gift of God, and not out of works, Paul adds: "For we are His doing, having been created in Christ Jesus on the basis of good works, which God previously prepared, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2: 10). The reason God has saved us by grace through faith, and has made us new creatures in Christ, is on the basis of good works, i.e., that our lifestyle might be based on good works.
It is important to observe that God prepared and appointed beforehand these good works. The best way to learn what the good works are, for us who are members of the Body of Christ, is by systematically studying the New Testament epistles in a verse by verse manner. The more we bathe our minds and hearts in the Truth in these epistles, two things will take place, we will come to better know and love the Person of Jesus Christ, and as a result, we will more fervently fulfill His good works. To know Him through the Word of God is to love Him and obey Him in accordance with what the Word,an, says (John 17:17).
Tese are days when reious humanism is fiercely attacking the Gospel of God's Grace. It is a time when we need to be awake, alert and obedient to the Word of God, and "fight the good fight of the faith" (1 Timothy 6:12)
How God Saves
Men
Believing
Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read
Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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