During
the Second World War, radio personality Paul Harvey began ending his
daily newscast with a feature he called, “The Rest of the Story.” These
factual narratives always concluded with an interesting twist that made
for a surprise ending. Listeners were often fascinated to learn that
even when it came to stories with which they were familiar, there was
always more to the story than what they had previously heard.
This
is sometimes true of the greatest story ever told, the gospel of Jesus
Christ. There may be more to the story than what you have heard in the
past, and the part you may not have heard just might be the very thing
that is keeping you from believing what the Bible says about how to be
saved from your sins. Let’s begin by reviewing the part you may have
already heard, the part that maybe left you feeling skeptical about the
Bible’s plan of salvation.
The Bible clearly teaches that you cannot work your way to heaven by doing good works:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” (Titus 3:5).
Perhaps
you’ve heard these verses before, and wondered, “Does that mean God
does not want us to do good works?” Since this didn’t seem to make any
sense to you, maybe you chose not to believe what you considered to be
such an unbelievable gospel.
If
that’s the case, it might comfort you to know that God knew in advance
that people would wonder about this. That’s why right after that verse
we quoted that says salvation is “not of works,” the next verse goes on
to say that believers are “created in Christ Jesus unto
good works” (Ephesians 2:9,10). If you are wondering what it means to
be “created in Christ,” remember that God created a creature named Adam
in the beginning. Today, when someone believes the gospel, God makes him
“a new
creature” (II Corinthians 5:17). And just as God’s first creature was
created to do the good work of dressing and keeping the Garden of Eden
(Genesis 2:15), believers in Christ are likewise “created in Christ
Jesus unto good works.” That is, while you cannot be saved from your
sins by doing good works, once you are saved by grace, you’ll want to do good works because you are saved (not in order to get saved) to express your gratitude to God for saving you.
We
see the same thing in that other gospel verse we quoted, where right
after saying that salvation is “not by works of righteousness which we
have done” (Titus 3:5), Paul adds “that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works” (v. 8). Here again we see that
after we are saved by grace through faith, God then reminds us to do the
good works that we were created to do.
So you see, just because God does not ask you to do good works in order to be saved doesn’t mean He doesn’t want you to do good works! He just wants you to understand that good works come after salvation, not before. Most people get the cart before the horse, and you just can’t get to heaven in a cart like that!
Does
the gospel story seem a little more believable to you now? If so, you
should know that while you can only be saved by believing, it is
important to believe in the right thing! It is not enough just to
believe in God, for “the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).
It is not even enough to have faith in Christ; you must have “faith in His blood”
(Romans 3:25). That is, you must believe that the blood He shed on the
cross paid for all of your sins, and that you don’t have to add a single
good work to what He has already done on your behalf. Romans 4:5 says:
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
If
you are still not sure how to be saved from the judgment of God on your
sins, ask yourself this question. If you died today, and God asked,
“Why should I let a sinner like you into My Heaven?” what would your
answer be? If your answer is anything other than, “Christ died for my
sins,” or if you try to add your own good works to what Christ did for
you on Calvary, then you are not fully trusting in His blood. Why not
rather follow the advice of the Apostle Paul? When a man asked him,
“What must I do to be saved?,” Paul replied quite simply,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30,31).
And now you know the rest of the story!
(A 10 Minute Video)
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