SAVED BY BELIEVING
The truth of salvation is summed up in the words of Christ in the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is a great verse, the most well-known in the Bible. And the reason is because of the way that it encapsulates the message of the gospel. We know that not only from the statement itself, but also from the rest of the Bible’s teaching on the theme of salvation by faith that goes along with it. The apostle Paul’s great statement on the matter, for example, in the letter of Ephesians, serves to affirm the declaration of Christ that salvation comes by belief in Him: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Notice it carefully: salvation is a gift given to those who believe.
That salvation is a free gift of divine grace, given to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ, cannot be denied. But some religious people have tried to deny it. Even if they do not come out and say it, they are always thinking and talking about what we must do and they give hardly any notice to what God has done.
These individuals have recognized, and rightly so, that the Old and New Testaments both teach that we must do what God says. We must obey him. But rather than interpreting obedience within the framework of salvation as a free gift given to those who trust in Christ, these people feel the need to downplay the good news so that there is little distinguishable difference between salvation by faith, which leads to obedience, and salvation by works, which depends upon human performance rather than trust in Christ.
Rather than seeing human obedience as the fruit of God’s work for us and in us, they see it as the grounds of salvation. But if the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that we cannot save ourselves by our own performance. We must depend completely upon what Christ has done for us if we are going to be saved.
Therefore, the message of Jesus must continue to emphasize the nature of salvation by faith. While not denying that the grace of God teaches us and empowers us to live godly lives (Titus 2:11-14), we must deny that the basis of our salvation before God is our own achievements. Believing in Jesus is what it’s all about.
Dewayne Dunaway
