When I left the institutional church system, I thought “This is it. I’m on my way to hell. Well, I might as well make the most of this life and enjoy it and actually earn my way there. Wouldn’t want to sacrifice anymore just so I could ‘barely’ not make it!” I remember angrily and arrogantly telling God that I had already read the Bible cover-to-cover and I was tired of reading the same old verses, and that there was nothing new that He could have possibly taught me. Oh, how wrong I was. As I continued my journey with Him, He showed me those “same old verses” had different angles to them that I hadn’t even considered before. One of those was that I had to quit trying to “earn my salvation.” It is a salvation by faith in Christ alone, after all. So, why was I trying to earn it?
Let’s start by asking the obvious question. What is faith? How is it defined? Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines it as “allegiance to duty or a person, fidelity to one's promises, sincerity of intentions acted in good faith, belief and trust in and loyalty to God, belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion, firm belief in something for which there is no proof, complete trust, something that is believed especially with strong conviction. The writer of Hebrews defines it as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence (or confidence) of things not (yet) seen” (Heb 11:1, NKJV).
Faith is not merely an intellectual assent to certain events that happened. That kind of faith doesn’t save. Nor, is it enough to have an “emotional” experience, which is prevalent in today’s charasmatic, materialistic churches. The faith that is needed for salvation is given to you by God! It is a gift directly from God to you. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:44). Also, his apostle also said, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil 1:29, NASB, italics mine).
Not everyone will be saved at this time. In fact, you will be surprised, as was I, how very few are saved up to this point in time, even among those calling themselves “Christians” – including ministers and elders! None of your fleshly works count, no matter how “good” they might be. Isa 64:6 says that our deeds are like filthy rags1 to the Lord. To be saved, you must have faith and trust completely in Jesus and in the finished work of the Cross. But, millions today, who think they are “trusting completely in Jesus,” are, in reality, trusting in themselves. Why? Because, even though they say that they are saved by Jesus alone, they still have to put works into it, i.e., baptism, the sinner’s prayer, or something else. That’s not how this works.
Something that is often missed is that salvation is all of Him, nothing of you. It is the need to please God that keeps people from being free. To be a believer, you must fully trust in Him, that His finished work on the Cross and unending Grace were sufficient to save you. No prayer, no baptism, not one thing on the part of the human needs to be done. Jesus said, “It is finished!” for a reason, that being that He did the work – all of it! - necessary for salvation. Your works are not needed, nor are they wanted when it comes to salvation. It doesn’t fit and it won’t work! It’s like throwing a wrench into things, it just makes a mess! It’s 100% of God! If it’s even 0.0000001% of you, it does not work. I can’t emphasize that enough!
God made a covenant with Abraham and God alone carried it out. In Gen 5, Abraham gave the Lord, “a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon” (NASB) and split them in two, except for the birds. Then, after nightfall, there came a “smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite 20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim 21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite”” (NASB).
God alone walked through the rows of animal carcasses to make a covenant with Abraham! As I mentioned before, very few people, even among the “Christian” religion, are going to be saved. For most of humanity, they will go to the Great White Throne judgment. But, that’s in God’s plan! It’s just not their time yet to believe. He will save them when He will save them, but save them He will! Count on that!! God said, “Be perfect as I am perfect.” Will a Perfect God not complete his goal of 100%? It doesn’t matter the person, He will leave the 99% of humanity that is already saved and will go after that 1% that runs from Him, and, like the Good Shepherd He is, will go through hell to find them and bring them back. In those times, if a sheep wandered off, the shepherd would break it’s legs and carry it home on his back. That sheep, after recovering, would realize its own helplessness, and would never again leave that shepherd’s side.
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