SALVATION
MEMORY VERSE
"But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Romans 4:5
"But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Romans 4:5
Salvation? How does one receive forgivness of sins and be made right
with God? There is much confusion regarding this very important issue
today. We have eastern and traditional religions, false cults, modern
new-age cults, differences among even those that profess to believe and
teach biblical salvation, so where lies the answer? In the Word of
God! Yes, many of these groups claim to believe the Bible, some
consider it to be a "good" source for truth, while others hold the Bible
as THE truth. Yet even among these we have an amazing amount of
positions regarding salvation. The solution is an honest and scriptural
view of what the Bible teaches.
1. Man MUST Be Aware of his sin and see his personal need of the Saviour. Man is NOT basically "good" as many would like us to believe. The Authority, the Word of God, clearly teaches that sin was passed down from Adam and Eve (Romans 5), whcih is called imputed sin. As well, all persons, (excepting the Lord Jesus Christ of course) have sinned according to Eccl 7:20, Romans 3:10,23 etc. In fact one is BORN a sinner (Ps. 51:5, Romans 3:23). Man is in trouble with God BECAUSE of his sin. NO ONE IS WORTHY OF HEAVEN, NO ONE IS GOOD ENOUGH TO GO TO HEAVEN! Because of man's sin and due to God's HOLINESS, God CANNOT forgive man unless something is done about the sin that satisfies Him! Man and "religion" attempt to get this forgiveness through other means and their own merit. Because of sin, the Bible teaches that we deserve God's Holy Judgment. ONE SIN is enough for any person to deserve eternal torment! UNTIL A PERSON SEES THEIR WICKEDNESS AND THEIR PERSONAL SIN AND OFFENSE TOWARDS THE HOLY GOD OF THE BIBLE, THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THEM TO BE SAVED! NO ONE will be in heaven boasting of "their"deeds and "their" righteousness! God's standard for heaven is perfection, that is why every human being ever born (outside of the Lord Jesus Christ of course) falls SHORT!
2. Good deeds and religious works do NOT take care of the sin problem! Look at the memory verse and also consider NUMEROUS other passages such as Romans 5:1, Eph. 2:8-10, Romans 11:6 and Titus 3:5. Man's sinful nature tends to think there is something he can do to be justified, to earn his or her way into heaven (Prov. 20:6) but the scriptures are CLEAR! The truth is that if an individual trusts AT ALL in their works, goodness etc. they are LOST! Read Is. 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;..." Yes, this condemns many religions and religious people, but the Authority, the Standard, is the Word of God!
1. Man MUST Be Aware of his sin and see his personal need of the Saviour. Man is NOT basically "good" as many would like us to believe. The Authority, the Word of God, clearly teaches that sin was passed down from Adam and Eve (Romans 5), whcih is called imputed sin. As well, all persons, (excepting the Lord Jesus Christ of course) have sinned according to Eccl 7:20, Romans 3:10,23 etc. In fact one is BORN a sinner (Ps. 51:5, Romans 3:23). Man is in trouble with God BECAUSE of his sin. NO ONE IS WORTHY OF HEAVEN, NO ONE IS GOOD ENOUGH TO GO TO HEAVEN! Because of man's sin and due to God's HOLINESS, God CANNOT forgive man unless something is done about the sin that satisfies Him! Man and "religion" attempt to get this forgiveness through other means and their own merit. Because of sin, the Bible teaches that we deserve God's Holy Judgment. ONE SIN is enough for any person to deserve eternal torment! UNTIL A PERSON SEES THEIR WICKEDNESS AND THEIR PERSONAL SIN AND OFFENSE TOWARDS THE HOLY GOD OF THE BIBLE, THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THEM TO BE SAVED! NO ONE will be in heaven boasting of "their"deeds and "their" righteousness! God's standard for heaven is perfection, that is why every human being ever born (outside of the Lord Jesus Christ of course) falls SHORT!
2. Good deeds and religious works do NOT take care of the sin problem! Look at the memory verse and also consider NUMEROUS other passages such as Romans 5:1, Eph. 2:8-10, Romans 11:6 and Titus 3:5. Man's sinful nature tends to think there is something he can do to be justified, to earn his or her way into heaven (Prov. 20:6) but the scriptures are CLEAR! The truth is that if an individual trusts AT ALL in their works, goodness etc. they are LOST! Read Is. 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;..." Yes, this condemns many religions and religious people, but the Authority, the Standard, is the Word of God!
It is important to recognize that many of the cults and false religions
are very deceptive about this matter of works and religious deeds.
More on this will be in future lessons, but I will give a few examples.
First, the Roman Catholic Church, (especially with their changes the
last few years that include more proselytizing) has more commonly stated
that they believe in salvation apart from any works, but they are liars
and deceivers! The way they cloak their "works" salvation is to say
that salvation is by "grace" but according to their doctrine, grace is
only merited by obedience and practice of the sacraments such as water
baptism and the mass etc. This is nothing more than a devilish twist on
words and heresy! The LDS (Mormon) Church does similar with this issue
and they are taught to agree that salvation is by grace alone. In
reality, the Mormon Church defines salvation as "resurrection" NOT
BIBLICAL SALVATION and scriptural forgiveness that declares one right
with God. It is important that one understands that ANY trust in works
of any kind VOIDS FAITH and is a rejection of Christ and His finished
work on Calvary (Romans 11:6). And by one adding works or religious
deeds to earn salvation, they are in essence, stating that Christ did
not do enough to pay for sin! BLASPHEMY!
3. Man MUST have a repentant heart concerning sin, self and the
Saviour and THEN, believe ON CHRIST, apart from any works or religious
deeds. So the sinner now realizes his sinful and doomed condition if
he continues and dies in his sin! He now must repent! See Mark 1:15,
Acts 20:21, 1 Thes. 1:9, and Prov 28:13. Repent in the evangelical
sense of the term means to have a change of mind about sin, self and the
Saviour and WILL result in a change of conduct or an "amendment of
life." A change of mind concerning sin would entail seeing how sin
(again, personal sin) has offended the Lord and is the cause for His
Righteous Judgment, resulting in the person's desire to TURN from sin.
This is a wall regarding the gospel to many, as most people would like
to be forgiven and go to heaven, but few are willing to leave their
sinful lifestyles! Lesson 5 details the important doctrine of
scriptural repentance, so I will not elaborate, but it is a prerequisite
to the gospel as it has to do with the HEART of the sinner (see Mark
1:15). To repent of self is to humbly recognize that there is no good
in us that would commend us to God and to see that in us "dwelleth no
good thing" and that in a our present state of being a sinner, we
deserve not heaven and forgiveness but judgment and hell! Regarding the
Saviour, repentance is that we now UNDERSTAND that HE ALONE can save
our wretched soul and we are trusting Him ALONE, placing our faith for
forgiveness and salvation, in and ON HIM! It is a SURRENDERED spirit,
yielding to Christ, that will result in making Him our Lord, giving the
sinner a desire to serve Him (1 Thes 1:9) and follow Him! No works, all
because of placing our faith in Him, and the result is the imputed
righteousness of Christ, JUSTIFYING the sinner and declaring him
righteous! (Rom 5, 2 Cor. 5:17-21)!
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