This document is available in PDF format by clicking here.
The age old questions continues: Are we saved by works or by grace? Many in word say that we are saved by grace, but in practice they teach that it is by works that we are saved.
Eph. 2:4-9
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
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.
I should stop right here, but I fear that if I did, many would still not understand the simplicity that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is found in this Scripture.
I have read in the Gospels, how Jesus was accused of eating with sinners. The funny thing was, He ALWAYS ATE WITH SINNERS! He was the ONLY one without sin! It seems one of the biggest problems in the church world today, is that we forget that all sin is sin. We look at someone else’s sin and say, he is a sinner. We don’t see our own sin! The religious leaders who accused Jesus of eating with sinners, were themselves sinners! They just didn’t know it! They bought into one of the oldest lies that has ever been given to man.
When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, one of the lies was that the Tree of Knowledge between Good and Evil would make one wise. There were two trees in the mist of the garden. The Tree of Life (The Gospel) and the Tree of Knowledge (The Law). Both Adam and Eve were free to eat of the Tree of Life, but were forbidden to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Is it not the same today? When we put our faith in the work that God did through His Son, Jesus Christ, we are eating of the Tree of Life!
The Law was given to Moses, to show Christ and His coming. It was to show why they needed to believe on Him which was to come! How many of those that came out of Egypt entered into the Promise Land? Wasn’t it only two? What? Did they not have the Law? Did they not do sacrifice? Yes! They did! But none of that saved them! They still all fell in the desert except for Joshua and Caleb! Why did they make it in? What was so different with them? It is simple! They believed God! They did not trust in the Law to get them into the Promised Land, they trusted in The God who brought them out of Egypt to get them in.
I was standing with a preacher one day and talking, when a man standing by listening, lit up a cigarette. The minister turned to me and said (point to the man), that man is going to Hell. I turned back to him and said, and your not? He looked at me and began to turn red. Not from embarrassment for what he had said, but from anger at what I had said. I said to him, why are you mad at me? Did I not do what you did? How is it that you can judge that man when you are not God, and I can’t judge you? I said, I don’t know if you are going to Hell or not! And you don’t know if that man is or not! I said, Smoking a cigarette is not a sin! But thinking you are Righteous because you don’t, IS!
I used this as an example, because this type of judgment is so prevalent in the Church today. If you want to believe that works will get you into heaven and follow the Law, then join the Roman Catholic Church! But if you want to believe The Word of God and know in your heart that Jesus Christ Died for ALL OF YOUR SINS, past, present and future, then JOIN THE CHURCH THAT IS BUILD WITHOUT HANDS! THAT GLORIOUS CHURCH THAT IS THE BODY OF CHRIST HERE ON EARTH!
Amen