This is one of the most confusing concept of the Bible. The understanding of this principle determines how we view the salvation of the Bible: Unless we understand the fundamental aspect of salvation, we could never understand this doctrine. It has been said that the Bible is written in a manner that fosters unbelief. In a way, God who is the author of the Bible (2Peter 1:21), has written the Bible so that those who are not believers would remain so. This however, is not our task to figure out who does and who doesn't. We just simply declare what we are given the rest is God's. This we will examine to see if we can see any relevance to that statement.
The basic fundamental teaching throughout the Bible is that "salvation is not of works". In other words there is no work at all that we have done to result in our salvation. We do not accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ on our own, We do not have to be baptized in water,etc. There is no requirement for us from the Bible that results in our salvation. We are saved by grace alone; meaning that God saved us by His own good will and good pleasure. We read in 2Timothy 1:9
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
God in His foreknowledge has elected some to salvation before the foundation of the world.Ephesians 1:4 - 5 and Romans 8:29
4. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.The chosen ones are the elect of God whom God by His mighty hand has elected them to salvation. Romans 8:33
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
It is fair to ask: How did this all start? Is this just a New Testament phenomenon or did God intend for it from the beginning?
We saw that in the Garden of Eden with the original man. (We can cover that at another time) Salvation was provided for mankind in a form depicted by physical blessing. However mankind disobeyed God so God separated man from Him. Isaiah 59:2
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
as we see Adam and Eve being aware of their nakedness and consequently, thereby trying to cover it up.Genesis 3:7-10
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 ¶ And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
By this we see right away how man tries to be right with God by trying to provide a covering for his sins. This is the result of what happened when they disobeyed God. The rest of mankind, of whom are the seed of Adam and Eve would strive to be perfect with God. They could no longer regain their state with God as we see in Genesis 2:23-25
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
We notice that they were both naked but they were not ashamed. Why do we ask? Man being created perfect has been shielded by God from being able to see sin because He provided a covering for their sins. The key verse is that they were not ashamed because they could not conceive sin.Genesis 3:22
22 ¶ And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Remember it is their disobedience to God that has resulted in their current situation. Man is thereafter banished from Eden and he is punished for His disobedience
17 ¶ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20 ¶ And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21 ¶ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22 ¶ And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Because of his disobedience man was punishment was that he had to fend for himself. No longer would God provide for his physical needs. He was given salvation represented by the tree of life that points to the Lord Jesus Christ and yet man wanted to be credited for his salvation. He wanted to be accounted worthy in spite of God's command. He disobeyed God. For this reason man has lost his close and intimate relationship with God. It is this punishment and banishment that has blinded mankind from the presence of God. Man intuitively understands that unless he works he will die. It is this physical understanding that man has mistaken also to relate to God spiritually and therefore has lost contact with God and are blinded toward the knowledge of God's salvation not of works but of grace.
THE FIRST REVELATION OF GOD'S SALVATION
From the beginning, God's salvation was never intended for mankind to contribute. We see an example of Mt. Sinai where they were commanded not to touch. The mountain or a form of it refers to the dwelling place of God.. We read the account of God commanding Moses to get the people ready for He will come to speak to them. Exodus 19:11-13
11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. 12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: 13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
The picture of what we see here is that God is about to give his law (that we read in chapter 20) that He commanded Moses about and that the priests or the people come up nor touch the mountain. The giving of the law is a picture of the law that Christ kept in order to achieve their salvation. The Israelites having given and received justification for their sins is reminded that there is nothing required of them to achieve salvation demonstrated by the command not to touch the mount. This is the first time that we see God set forth His salvation plan.
THE SECOND ACCOUNT OF NOT OF WORKS
The second time that we see God reveals to us His salvation plan of not of works is regarding the fourth commandment: Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.Verse 8 tells us to keep the sabbath holy. There is nothing that we do that makes anything holy. We can't achieve holiness on our own. The sabbath is holy because we didn't do anything in it. If we do anything on the sabbath we would pollute it. We are holy because God has made us holy. We read an interesting verse in Exodus 20:25
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
What is this verse saying? If they shape the stone in anyway at all to build an altar (a place of offering to God) that stone is polluted. The spiritual application of this is that the stone is the Lord Jesus Christ; if we change that stone in any way it means that we have touched it the same way we would touch the mount or work on the sabbath or hewn the stone for the altar. No work at all must accompany salvation. The rest of the fourth commandment talks about how we are to observe the fourth commandment. The point of the fourth commandment is that we are to rest on the sabbath day as that day represents Christ. He is our rest for our salvation. We do not do anything to achieve salvation.
NOTE:
Throughout the Bible we can understand this message if we just remember the basis of salvation of the Bible we would not go wrong. We cannot do anything at all to get saved. If we do anything small thing at all it means our salvation is not the salvation of the Bible. It means that we are not saved. Yes we are emphatic about this because God is emphatic about it,
In The New Testament we read in Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
It is very clear in these verse that we are save, if we truly are, by grace of which grace belongs to God and God alone.God works through His election plan. Those that He foreordained and predestinated for salvation would all be saved. We learned when we studied the parable of a certain man and his two sons in Luke 15:11-32 commonly known as the prodigal son. We could never have understood that parable unless we keep in mind that salvation is by the grace of God alone. No matter how it looks like we are lost, if we just remember that we can't effect our salvation we would be on the right tract. It was very hard to see this because the younger son is a little rascal and does not look like the type that God would save. However, regardless of what he did that was bad and especially how obedient the older son was, we are confident that the younger son is saved because God had mercy on him. The older and more deserving brother as we saw the parallel scenario to Esau, was not saved.
We are also convinced because of what we read in in Romans 11:6
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
This verse basically defines the relationship between the two issues. If we were saved by grace then there is none of our work that was involved. However, if we did any work to contribute to our salvation, then we are not saved by grace. This would contradict the statement of Ephesians 2:8. that we are saved by grace. A similar verse we read in Titus 2:11
¶ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
We see a different way of stating the same thing as we read in Exodus 20:8 about the fourth commandment the salvation by not having kept the law but resting on Jesus our sabbath. We read in Galatians 5:4
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
This is saying that if we did anything as in keeping any of the commandment to obtain our salvation it means the sufferings of Christ is not for us; His death is of no effect to whoever that is. We also read from 2Timothy 1:9
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Salvation was preordained in Christ before the world began. We can think about this question. If God predestinated those whom He was going to save by election, How does anything we do today affect that? If we can think through this question and read Isaiah 43, Romans 8 & 9, Ephesians 1 & 2. These chapters may help you in understanding these concepts. May God give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
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