Introduction
What exactly did we do to get saved? Some would say that they confessed all their sins. Just how much of all is ALL? You can't possibly remember all the wrongs you did this past week, let alone your whole lifetime. Even if you did, you'd have completely missed the point. We were all made sinners long before we were conceived in the wombs of our mothers. The psalmist says he sinned before he was in him mother's womb. How possible is that?
By default, all were imputed with the sin of Adam, so that all have sinned in Adam, the earthly father of all humans. Since no one came before Adam, it follows that we all come from him and that we inherit the only thing that he did not inherit from God, from him; sin. we are the descendants of a fallen man, therefore naturally we follow after his fallen estate, being alienated from God. We all needed a saviour because we had faile dto re-establish our relationship with God.
So How Does it Work?
First God gives the law, to show us our true self. Since man is carnal and would not relate to the things of the Spirit, he needed something that would represent God's righteous standard in a way that is more understandable to him. As paul explains, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Rom 7:14-18 [ESV2011]
This is very typical of a natural man. He wants to do good, but he has no ability to do it. The law, though spiritual, is the closest thing to man. But the same law brings death and condemnation to the the natural man, because he is not regenerated. We can't keep the law if we viewed it as a list of do's and don'ts. It will keep pointing fingers at us and proving us guilty before God. What a hopeless scenario! All who are subject to the law of God are subject to His wrath with no escaping "because the law brings wrath and where there is no law there is no transgression. [Romans 4:15]
But thanks to God, who delivers us in Christ Jesus our lord. He has revealed his own righteousness to be received by all those who believe. He has given us a salvation not based on works, but by grace through faith. He prefigured this long before the law was given, in the person of Abraham. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He did not work for the promises, or did he have to fulfil a certain commandment, yet the promise was made to him apart from the law.
Instead, That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, Rom 4:16 [ESV 2011] He is only father to those who have a faith like his. The promises made to him have become manifest in us who believe. This is how Paul draws the relationship between us and him; But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Rom 4:23-25 [ESV2011]
Our Salvation
Our salvation is solely based on the finished work of the cross. The only part we can play is to believe. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone. To add anything else to salvation is corruption. Had there been another way of justifying men, God would not have given his only begotten son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. There was no other way to redeem those under the law of sin other than the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had to die so that in him we may have life.
God knew that by the works of the law no one may be justified, long before he gave His only Son. This fact He has revealed to us, through the apostle Paul who says, "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified". Gal 2:15-16 [ESV 2011]
Is There Another Way To Salvation
God has left no other avenue to be exploited into righteousness and salvation. It will be only by believing that Christ was raised from the dead and confessing with your mouth that Christ is lord that you will be saved and made righteous.
We can not therefore continue relying on a set of Dos and don'ts to be made right with God. If we continue in this faith, we are forever united with God. On the contrary, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.
”Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Gal 3:10-14 [ESV 2011]
Christ has set us free from the vain lifestyle of trying to please God by abiding to a set of rules, and made us free in Him. The sin that used to wage war against the Spirit has been dealt with once and for all. We have been made a new, for if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2Cor 5:17 [ESV 2011]
We no longer have the nature of sin but that of righteousness. All this is from God who made Jesus, who knew no sin in order that we may become the righteousness of God. Now if God is righteous, we know we are righteous too, and that His righteousness can't sin. As scripture says, The one born of God can not sin, because the seed of God is in them.
If the word of God is so clear about the born
again, how would the same God who made them righteous bring them to judgement? He wouldn't expect sin in a believer, and anyone trying to convince Him otherwise won't succeed. He is the author of salvation by grace, which is not based on human efforts, and He is the one who sustains it.
