Today I want to talk to you about a spiritual pandemic that has infected millions of souls in our modern Christian Religious World. It’s simply this: While the Christian world seems quite familiar with all that God and Christ have done for them—they appear to have little or NO understanding of what they themselves, per the Bible, must do to ensure their own salvation.
While it’s certainly beneficial to remind ourselves frequently of the grace of God—in fact, we are commanded to do so (1 Peter 1.13: “…set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed”)—to do so exclusively is to make a tragic mistake.
I will examine that in a moment, but first, “grace” means “unearned favors.” Salvation—due to the forgiveness of our sins due to the shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—certainly hasn’t been earned, nor can it be earned by anything we can do or believe. (Have you ever heard someone tell you that faith saves you, but works of obedience do not? They say that works don’t save a person because works don’t earn one’s salvation [true], but the last time I checked, merely “believing in Jesus” doesn’t earn one’s salvation either!)
Nevertheless, I wonder how many people out there would think they could be saved without faith? Yet the same people often believe that they can be saved without baptism, along with the several other requirements that the same Holy Scriptures they trust in says are essential for our salvation—which I’ll be noticing next.)
Without a doubt, we are fully and eternally indebted to God and Christ, through Whom the saving grace of forgiveness of our sins has been given. The Bible teaches (Acts 15.11) that “we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.” And Paul plainly wrote that “by grace you have been saved, through faith” (Ephesians 2.8).
So, we are clearly saved by the grace of our God and of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—and that through FAITH—so why then would we say that to focus exclusively on God’s part in salvation (salvation by grace through faith) is to make a CATASTROPHIC MISTAKE?”
The answer is simple: Because the Bible says so.
In fact, it turns out that in the New Testament there are at least 12 places that speak about MAN’S ROLE in his own salvation...12 teachings that each of us must follow. To say it more plainly…
…THEY ARE REQUIRED FOR US TO DO, PER THE BIBLE, IF WE SERIOUSLY EXPECT TO BE ETERNALLY SAVED.
P.S. I fully realize some of you are of the opinion that “works don’t matter” to your salvation. But is that God’s Opinion too? Let’s find out…
