SAVED BY GRACE—— THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER #1

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLES I'VE EVER WRITTEN, COULD BE THE MOST IMPORTANT!

SAVED BY GRACE #1

AS SHOCKING AS IT MAY SOUND, NOT ONE IN ONE HUNDRED CHRISTIANS UNDERSTAND WHAT BEING SAVED BY GRACE REALLY MEANS. IN THIS ARTICLE THE TRUTH WILL BE MADE PLAIN by Keith Hunt "For by GRACE are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the GIFT of God.." many will quote this verse of Eph.2:8 and tell you the law of God has been abolished. But Jesus answered the young man who asked Him how he might have eternal life, by saying, "IF YOU WILL ENTER INTO LIFE, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS" (Mat.19:17). Many say LAW and GRACE do not mix! Is that true? How can we reconcile what Christ said to the rich young man, and what Paul wrote to the Ephesians? Was Jesus and Paul of different opinions as to HOW a person is SAVED? The way of Salvation can be understood - your Bible makes it PLAIN - here then is the truth of HOW YOU can have eternal life. ALL OF GOD'S WORD The verse in Eph.2:8 is an inspired part of God's revelation to man - but so also is Mat.19:17 ! Do you believe what Paul wrote to the Ephesian church? Do you believe what Jesus said to the young man? If you believe that the Bible is INSPIRED, your answer must be a resounding YES! Jesus said elsewhere that the scripture can not be BROKEN - in other words, there cannot be any CONTRADICTIONS in the word of God. The verse, "For by grace are you saved" is true - very true. No one can save themselves by their WORKS. You can work, perform, DO THINGS for a thousand life times, and still you will never WORK your way into eternal life. Your WORKS, of themselves, will NOT save you. God's salvation is a gift - it comes by the way of GRACE through faith. But can God's grace be turned into something He never intended? Yes indeed! Jude wrote towards the end of the first century A.D. that, "....when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was ONCE DELIVERED unto the saints(even BEFORE the end of the first century the way of salvation was being corrupted) for there are CERTAIN MEN crept in UNAWARES( they looked like Christians but were deceivers)....UNGODLY men(not speaking the truth of God's word ) TURNING (changing, doing something other than what God intended) the GRACE of God into LASCIVIOUSNESS(a license to sin)...." verse 3,4. God's grace was being ABUSED, twisted, turned into something other than what God said it was. SOMETHING YOU CAN EARN! Salvation comes as a GIFT - by grace - given to us by the Father. Our works, our deeds cannot EARN us the right to eternal life. But there is something we can most definitely EARN - by what we have performed. Turn to Rom.6:23 and read there what it is we can EARN, "For the wages(the payment we are rightly due because we've worked for it) of SIN is DEATH....." What we have earned by sinning is DEATH - that is the eternal death, the SECOND death (Rev.20:4-~6,14-15), from which there is no resurrection. Again the last part of verse 23 says that eternal life is God's FREE gift - His to give to us - not something we can demand because we've earned it. WHAT IS SIN ? We can earn by sin - DEATH! The next question we should ask and answer is "what IS sin?" What does God say sin is? Does He define it for us, or is it left to us to decide what sin is? The word of God does define sin for us. The Bible definition is - never forget this verse - 1 Jn.3:4, "Whosoever commits SIN transgresses also the LAW: for sin IS the transgression of the LAW." Now what law is John speaking about? Paul answers, "....I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known LUST, except the law had said, YOU SHALL NOT COVET " (Rom.7:7). What law contains the command "you shall not covet"? Why, the TEN commandment law of EX.20. The marginal reference of many Bibles will, for verse 7, take you to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. James further testifies that if we break only ONE of these commands of God, we are guilty - we become a transgressor - we SIN! "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law" (James 2:10,11). WHO HAS SINNED ? Sin then is breaking any one of God's TEN commandments, as amplified by Jesus Christ and the entire word of God (see Jesus' amplification of the law in Mat.5 - 7).Has anyone kept the law of God completely perfectly - so no sin was incurred? Yes! Speaking about Jesus Christ, Paul wrote, that He was tempted like we all are, but He never sinned - not once (Heb.4:15). What about the rest of mankind? Are only some sinners while the rest are not? The Psalmist wrote, "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are ALL together filthy: there is NONE that doeth good, no, NOT 0NE" (Ps.14:2,3). Paul translates this passage as, "There is NONE righteous, no not one(righteousness is defined as all God's commandments - Ps.1l9:172). - there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God ..... there is none that does good, no not one" (Rom.3:10-l2). God inspired Paul in verse 23 of this third chapter of Romans to write, "For AII HAVE SINNED, and come short of the glory of God." Earlier in this chapter Paul had stated, "...for we have before proved both Jew and Gentile, that they are ALL under sin" (verse 9). All mankind has sinned - the only exception was Jesus Christ. He only of all humans was without sin. He alone has kept the law of God completely perfectly - all the rest have broken that law - have SINNED - have earned the wages of sin - DEATH. CUT OFF FROM GOD God is HOLY (1 Pet.1:15,16). He is PERFECT (Mt.5:48). His very nature and character is that of perfection. GOD the Father and Christ Jesus are RIGHTEOUS (1 Jn.3:7) - there is NO sin in them at all (v.5). God's law is PERFECT (Ps. 19:7). His commandments are RIGHTEOUSNESS (Ps.119:172). God's righteousness is FOREVER (Ps.111:3). To sin, as we have seen is to BREAK, go against the very character of God - His perfect HOLY, SPIRITUAL law (Rom.7:12,l4). The Father and Son have never sinned, but the rest of mankind, all mankind - YOU and I, have sinned - have broken that perfect and holy law. What has this sinning of ours done to our relationship with the Father ? God answers us through the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it can not save, neither His ear heavy, that it can not hear, BUT your INIQUITIES (our sins) have SEPARATED between you and your God, and your SINS have hid his face from you, that He will not hear" (Isa.59:1-2). Our sins have cut us off from God - we stand condemned to DEATH, our wicked deeds, our WORK of sin has earned for us the wages of death. But God the Father is a God OF LOVE (1 Jn.4:8). Although we deserve to die, He loves us - He wants to SAVE us from death. The Father, even before the foundation of the World, knew mankind would sin, and so He planned HOW man could be rescued from the penalty of sin - death. God had determined to save us, not according to OUR WORKS, but according to His own purpose(plan) and GRACE, which was given us in Christ Jesus BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN (2 Tim.l:9). God had determined to buy us back from death through His very own Son - and this plan of redemption was formulated before the world was founded (1 Pet.1:19,20). God is so wonderful and merciful that He gave His only begotten SON, that whosoever believes in Him should NOT PERISH, but have EVERLASTING LIFE (JN.3: 16). Sin - our sins, have separated us from God - have cut us off, but there is a way we can be reconciled - the Father has made a way possible by which our sins can be forgiven, and the death sentence taken away from us. GOD'S CALL TO MANKIND The first step to salvation that we must do is to respond to the CALL of God, "For the promise(of forgiveness of sins) is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall CALL" (Acts 2:39). What does God CALL OUT? Paul tells us, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at, BUT NOW commands all men everywhere to REPENT" (Acts 17:30). Jesus said, "I tell you....except you REPENT, you shall all likewise PERISH" ( Luke 1 3:5). God inspired Isaiah to write, "Seek you the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near: Let the wicked FORSAKE HIS way, and the un- righteous man his thoughts: and let him RETURN unto the Lord, and He will have MERCY(grace) upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly PARDON" (Isa.55:2,7). On the day of PENTECOST, Peter cried out to the people, "REPENT (be broken up over being sinners, change your way of life) and be BAPTIZED every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, FOR the REMISSION (the forgiveness) of SINS..." (Acts 2:38). A little later Peter again shouted, "REPENT you therefore, and be CONVERTED (be charged, be turned into something different) that (in order that) your SINS may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19). We are sinners - sin has cut us off from God - we are under the sentence of death. But God says if we REPENT of being sinners - if we are willing to CHANGE, to be converted to His thoughts and ways, our sins can be FORGIVEN - blotted out of the book of death, so to speak. Listen again to what God calls out to us through the apostle John, "If we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just to FORGIVE us our sins, and to cleans us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn.l:9). Another time, "He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whosoever CONFESSES and FORSAKES them shall have MERCY" (Prov.28:13) . Just as a MURDERER on death row must show by a humble, contrite, repentant attitude, he is broken up over what he has done, and never wants to commit that crime again, if he is to stand any chance of obtaining MERCY or GRACE, so it is with us before God. We must show God that we have repented of our transgression of His holy law - that we want to CHANGE our way of life to conform to His way. Upon manifesting that attitude, God says He will show us MERCY - our sins will be blotted out - FORGIVEN. And just as the murderer on death row cannot possibly EARN his forgiveness by his repentant attitude, or anything he can do after he has murdered, so with us. Our repentance does not, cannot EARN our forgiveness with God. It is merely a CONDITION that the Father lays down in order for us to receive His free pardon of our sins. When rightly understood, even the ability to come to repentance is a gift from God. As no one can come to Christ, accept Him as Savior, UNLESS the Father DRAWS him with His Spirit. You will see this truth by reading these scriptures: John 6:44,65; 16:13; 2 Tim..2: 24-26. We do have our part to do - we must HUMBLE ourselves - have the proper kind of respectful fear of God (Isa. 66:2) and then God will look to us - give to us as one of His gifts the ability to REPENT which in turn leads to the forgiveness of our sins through faith in Christ Jesus. WHAT IS GOD'S GRACE ? It is written, "....the Lord is GRACIOUS...." (Ps. 111:4). The word "grace'' can have manifold meanings. The WORLD BOOK DICTIONARY gives a long passage as to the various meanings of the word "grace." But in connection with THEOLOGY they say, "God's free and UNDESERVED favor to and love for mankind....." They also state grace is, "MERCY, CLEMENCY, PARDON, FORGIVENESS." If someone has done you WRONG and justice would demand they pay the prescribed penalty for his their wrong actions, but you have compassion on them and put aside the right to exercise the justice of the law, you have shown CLEMENCY, you have had MERCY, you have granted PARDON, you have been GRACIOUS, shown GRACE to the wrong doer. Grace or mercy is a quality of character that comes from a person, where he could just as easily demand the penalty of the law be enforced. Being shown grace - being under grace, does not mean you are in a condition of being free to henceforth live as you please, and break with impunity the laws of the land. The murderer, Being shown grace or forgiveness is not free to just go out and murder again - of course not! Why, the law enforcement agencies have no problem understanding what GRACE is - but some theologians and professing Christians have a terrible time in understanding the grace of God. The grace of God is an ATTRIBUTE, quality of CHARACTER - one of the many qualities of God. It is the ability of God to forgive sin - to blot out the sins of any person - to show mercy - undeserved favor in not claiming the justice of the law, to be carried out on that person - which for us would mean eternal death. But as God's law is ETERNAL and stands fast FOREVER (Ps.111:7,8) and as the penalty or wages for breaking that law is death, the law must be satisfied. If God could have taken His magic wand and said, "law be gone, be no more" then there would be NO TRANSGRESSION, "for where no law is, there is no transgression" (Rom.4:15). You cannot get a speeding ticket if there is no law to tell you that you must not go over a certain speed. If God's law has at any point in time been "done away" or "nailed to the cross" then nobody from that time on has sinned - for sin is the transgression of the law. And so a savior would not have been needed. The TRUTH is - God's law, has never been abolished, so the penalty of breaking it must be satisfied - it must be paid. We have all sinned - we are under the laws penalty, which is death. God says there is a way to get out from under that death sentence. The first step is to REPENT of sinning - to repent of breaking the law of God. But the death penalty must he satisfied. The next step of God's plan now comes into play. HOW WE ARE JUSTIFIED A word that is used many times in the Bible, especially in the New Testament with reference to, and in connection with salvation, is the word JUSTIFICATION or JUSTIFY. Again to many this word is nebulous - they don't really understand what it means. A few inutes spent with a DICTIONARY will clarify its meaning. The word means and denotes the act of pronouncing RIGHTEOUS, acquitting persons of guilt, to clear of blame or guilt. A person who has been JUSTIFIED has been acquitted or released from the penalty of his error. It is as if he had never been guilty of any wrong doing - he stands innocent - FORGIVEN - no penalty hangs over him. We have seen that we stand as SINNERS - the law claims our lives - death is the sentence. That penalty must be paid - the law is UNMOVEABLE. But God has provided a way by which we can escape that death penalty. He planned that His very own Son would come and die for us, in our place. It is as if the son of the judge of the land, who is about to enforce the death sentence on all murderers, came forward and said he would die in their stead - he would bear the penalty of death, so the law that was broken could be satisfied and the murderers could be declared innocent - righteous, forgiven of any crime - JUSTIFIED. That is the way it is with God, the judge of the universe, His Son Jesus Christ, His perfect law, the penalty for breaking that law, and us the sinners who have transgressed that law and have incurred the sentence of death. We may have repented, but the law must be satisfied. So Paul wrote, "Being JUSTIFIED(declared righteous - forgiven) FREELY(not something we can earn, or claim we have a right to because of some good work we've done) by His GRACE(undeserved pardon) through the REDEMPTION(the buying back or redeeming power) that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth(it was planned as we've seen before the world began) to be a PROPITIATION(an atoning sacrifice) through FAITH(believing and trusting the way God said it would be) in His blood(His death on the cross) to declare His righteousness for the REMISSION(passing over or blotting out) of SINS that are PAST(the grace of God does not give us a blanket forgiveness of sins we may commit in the future) through the forbearance of God" (Rom.3:24-25). Again Paul wrote, "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, DISOBEDIENT, deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures..... But after the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared. Not by WORKS of righteousness which we have done(there's no deed we could possibly do to release us from the death penalty) but according to His MERCY He saved us(from sure death) which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being JUSTIFIED by His GRACE, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7). The man about to die for the crime of murder can live perfectly - he can obey the laws of the land completely - he can do all manner of GOOD DEEDS - but none of them can erase the sentence of death hanging over him. He can only escape death by being shown MERCY or GRACE by the powers that be. God has made our justification - our acquittal from guilt possible through the death of His Son. We must believe - have faith - trust in God that truly Jesus' death in our stead, satisfies the law's demand and we are declared sinless - RIGHTEOUS. And as Paul says, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded(we can not boast we did some deed to have to make God forgive us). By what law? of WORKS? No! but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is JUSTIFIED by faith without the deeds of the law" (Rom.3:27,28). Paul in writing to the Christians at Rome about Salvation and Justification, had to combat the Gentle and Jewish doctrine of justification by WORKS or DEEDS. The Jewish sects believed that being physically circumcised in the flesh, observing certain ritualistic ordinances, performing animal sacrifices, and the like, would get you in right standing with God - that certain WORKS would justify you. The Gentile religions had similar beliefs. They held that by punishing the physical body, going through certain ceremonies, sacrificing animals, they could please their gods and acquire forgiveness of sins. Paul explains this was not the way God planned to JUSTIFY mankind from sin. It was not the way of EARNING your forgiveness but a matter of God Himself through His Son, coming in the form of man, being made flesh and dying for the sins of the whole world - taking the death penalty upon Himself, so all mankind could be made free from the penalty of the law. It was a simple matter of how God had planned it and faith in that promise of His. Faith in the fact Jesus died for us. Upon our REPENTANCE and acceptance of the death of Christ in our stead - the acceptance of Him as our PERSONAL Savior, God would forgive us our sins - would declare us righteous, sinless in His eyes. We would be JUSTIFIED - and that by GRACE through FAITH. To be continued (written in 1984)