Jesus’ work — or does He need your help for salvation?
How do you receive eternal life?
People are awfully confused about what salvation is.
This blog came from having a Facebook conversation with a poor woman who talked about all the things she had done to earn, prove or keep her salvation. She believed one could lose, walk away or sin away eternal life. She didn’t realize her own predicament. This confused (and confusing) woman didn’t realize she could never know if she was saved for sure. In truth, sadly, it was not very likely as she did not understand His Word. When asked she could not elucidate the clear gospel, nor would she receive the true gospel when it was shared with her. (It was not ‘done’ in her case but a work in progress). When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished”— it was.
The Gospel of our salvation (from eternal separation from God).
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Cor 2:1-5
For God so loved the world…
Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh (literally in History). God among us — He was fully man, fully God. We are the one who rebelled against God in the beginning. We only had to do one thing right. Obey just His one command, everything else was ours to enjoy. But we rebelled against Him, and a curse came upon us because of it.
Our sin (just one lie) causes separation from a good and Holy God. But God promised from that first sin that He would send a Savior who would save all who would believe upon Him. (Not those who will work for Him, stop sinning, behave, promise to do better, attend church, belong to a certain religion, feed the poor, etc.). All who BELIEVE upon Jesus Christ (who He is, and what He has done) will be saved.
Look dear friend —
All good things that you have ever known come from God.
People love their good food, their friends and family who love them. Blessings, children, loved ones, their animals — even the light, the warmth, the seas, beauty all around the earth and the skies. THESE ARE GIFTS FROM GOD.
But there will come a time when this will end. For some, even TODAY you may die. We are not promised tomorrow. We may go to sleep tonight and not wake up or get in a terrible accident like my son and not make it out alive.
— IN ALL SERIOUSNESS —
WHERE WILL YOU GO WHEN YOU DIE?
And how on earth do you know by your human standards?
The Bible says it is appointed unto man ONCE to die, THEN the judgment.
Life is short. In my own life, the loved ones that I’ve lost have shown me that — even if I didn’t already believe the truth of God’s Word. Somebody created our miraculous bodies. The intricacy of creation shouts and declares the glory of God who made us in His own image. Whether or not people choose to acknowledge Him in what He has shown them, they will have no excuse on the day they face Him for not glorifying Him as God, or being thankful to Him.
Jesus died for you — for ALL of your sins
The payment/penalty for sin — even one, is eternal death/separation from EVERYTHING that is good, and that is God.
God created YOU and does not want to be apart from YOU. He loves YOU and the entire world, He sent His Son to die for YOU and YOUR SINS. All of them, even the ones you have not committed.
He was crucified for YOUR sins, for MY sins, ALL OF THEM (Col 2:13-15). Jesus Christ was literally buried and physically came to life again as the Scriptures said and as history records (see Josephus and much more). He took His life back up again, but then again? Prophecies in the Bible and Jesus said ahead of time He would do this. Not only that? He said He GAVE His life WILLINGLY.
NO MAN took His life from Him, but HE gave His life in great love for us, and He said He had the POWER to take His life back up again. NO MAN has that power, only God.
When Jesus rose again from the dead, He not only proved He was God, but that HE alone had the victory for us over the grave, sin, and our penalty of eternal death.
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
What must you do to be saved from hell?
What is it that YOU need to do to be saved from eternal death/separation from God?
BELIEVE on HIM as your SAVIOR and you WILL be saved, that is the promise in His Word. (Again — salvation comes by believing who Jesus says He is in His Word, and WHAT He has done for you).
The gift of God is eternal life (Rom 6:23) through Jesus Christ our Lord. Don’t believe by adding ANYTHING to that belief in order to receive salvation, or the word tells us, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 4:4-5; 11:6). You are either under grace, or the law, and the law cannot save.
♦ One cannot add any works to believing upon Him.
♦ No person can repent from enough sins.
♦ You cannot stop enough sins to gain salvation.
♦ No promise of good deeds in the future will be sufficient.
♦ Not one person can commit fully enough.
♦ And no one can surrender to Him enough.
♦ None of these things (or any work at all – before or after) can add to His free offer of eternal life. Please believe that HE has done it all for YOU and by believing you will be saved FOREVER. Yes, He will not lose you (John 10:28-30), no man can snatch us from His hand including you. He is God, and will keep you by His power.
Jesus is God, He is creator, He is Lord of ALL
Yes — Jesus is Lord of even the demons and Satan. The demons believe in God, because they know He is real. So there is no comparison. The devils are not offered salvation, but YOU are. Will you believe upon Him now as your Savior?
I can’t rightly give credit here, but I ‘believe’ this comes from the book on the three tenses of Salvation by Duluth Bible. John 3:16 gives us some good insight on salvation.
HIS PART: For God so loved the WORLD
HIS PART: That He gave His only begotten Son
OUR PART: That WHOSOEVER believeth UPON Him
HIS PART: Shall NOT perish
HIS PART: But have EVERLASTING LIFE. John 3:16
Do not wait until it’s too late.
Forever is a LONG TIME to be wrong. There will be no turning back, no second choices for you. There is no Purgatory shown in the Word of God. In fact as Heb 9:27 says clearly, we die then the judgment. There will be no getting ‘prayed out’.
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Thank you Holly! Well said.
Yes!!! Preach it, Sista!!! 🙂
Thank you.
On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Redeemingmoments wrote:
> hollysgarcia posted: “This blog came out of a conversation on Facebook > with a poor woman who talked about all the things she had done to earn and > prove and keep her salvation. She didn’t realize the irony that she could > never know if she was saved, and in truth, it was not l” >
Thank you for this excellent article. At the end of this article, you present a Free Grace breakdown of John 3:16, meaning “His Part” includes “For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son,” and “Shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Our part is “That Whosoever believeth upon Him.” Reformed Theology says that all 4 parts of the verse are “His parts” and we have nothing to do with it at all, no choice whatsoever. A significant portion of my life has been spent in the torment of Reformed Theology, not being able to be sure if I was one of the so called “elect,” or, was my life a proper expression of “Lordship,” etc. When I finally came to understand John 3:16 as so wonderfully expressed here, my fear was gone. I know that Jesus Christ is mine! Again, thank you for this article.
Thank you Dennis, God bless you for sharing this truth. Reformed theology is hopeless, for they can never know, until they have persevered until the end, and even then, they can’t know until they die and it’s too late. I don’t think they realize their doctrine comes from the same place that Roman Catholicism took teaching from. Both from Augustine, but I believe also both from the father of all lies which either puts believer into fear and bondage, and renders their gospel ineffective, or worse, it keeps a lost person, lost…
May the Lord continue to comfort and grow you in His wonderful grace.
Thank you dear sister for this article. It was def something that was needed. I got hung up in the book of Matthew 19:16-24 for the longest time. It seemed to teach works were needed.
Today I decided to face that long held fear of mine and confront these verses on my own. After approaching it differently than before, with sound mind, I noticed something I never paid much attention to. The beginning of it starts with a man asking what GOOD WORKS he must do for eternal life. He was already speaking a lordship salvation message to which our Lord taught him by that stance.
It’s amazing how quickly our eyes are opened when we go to the scriptures without preconceived notions and read them for what they are.
It would seem the reason it’s so hard for some is they’re reading scriptures through ‘human reasoning’ and not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us and teach us.
Much love, Holly. Praying for you and yours <3
Your sister in Christ,
Bobbie Jo
Bobbie Jo, so glad it helped. It also helps to look at parallel passages and see the whole picture. We know that one would have to keep the law perfectly in order to enter heaven, and we know that no one but Jesus has, and we know the law has never justified any one. So the point was with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
In the parallel passage in Mark 10, that the rich young ruler TRUSTED in his riches. We also see that he trusted that he was good, and that he had kept all of the law (not true so he had already borne false witness). This young man’s trust needed to be placed in Christ alone to save Him, he wasn’t even believing he had broken the law, he said he had kept it perfectly.
Sometimes we come across difficult passages, and a few things come to mind for me. Look at the parallels. See if it lines up with what we’ve been taught from the beginning, that the just have always lived by faith. If we know where we stand on doctrine, seeing the hard passages we can give it to the Lord and ask Him to show us as we dig for treasure in His Word.
Many people would rather other’s tell them what it means, and I do think that in the multitude of counsel there is safety. Trouble is they are taking counsel from religious men, vs. people who have shown themselves over time to be sound and humble expositors of His Word. People who do not ever handle the Word of God deceitfully. And I have some I trust (expreacherman is one example), Tom Cucuzza, and/or I’ll look through Ralph Yankee Arnold’s videos, I’ll take notes, look up the Scriptures and I trust Him to show me eventually (1 John 2:27; Prov 22:17-21). Anyways, God bless you, much love to you too, and thank you for praying for me and my family. Praying for you too Bobbie Jo <3
What Lordship advocates do not seem to understand is that their teachings look very similar to the Mormon teachings. The most moral people that I know are Mormons. The Mormon athletes that I coached never cheated and never lied, yet LS advocates such as Ray Comfort and John Piper would not deny that they have not been saved. So if it really is about the fruit then why do those who are not saved have more “fruit” than the even the LS advocates. I guarantee you that Kirk Cameron has nothing on the strict Mormons that I know. when it comes to keeping the law. But Christ said that he freed us from bondage to the law so that in our new nature we are empowered to live fruitful lives if we choose to walk in the spirit moment by moment. It’s not automatic!
Amen Brady, so well said. Wonderful works… but they won’t save you, they won’t keep you, they don’t prove your salvation… In Christ, Holly