Saved by Grace or Works, which is it?
Shortly after I was saved, I began to hear about old friends and people I knew back home getting killed, imprisoned, etc.
God did save me just in time! When God saved me and I became a born-again Chrisitan, I really knew something powerful had happened to me. I had never been a religious person, and I seldom attended church. when I met God in this way, it had nothing to do with religion or my church attendance up to that point because I had neither.I was saved by God's grace.
Ephesians 2:8,9 says it best, "For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast."
Unfortunately, there are many people who have this truth confused in their hearts. Some believe that it is by their good religious duties they achieve salvation and what they do for God apart from His way of righteousness gives them the feeling that they have earned their way to heaven. If that were true, most of us could do that by being good to our neighbor and do a few good things in the church and then think we have our ticket to heaven. Absolutely not ! God paid a big price to purchase your soul. It did not come cheap. God gave us the very best He had and that was His Son.
Isaiah 64:6 reminds us that all of our righteousness is as a filthy rag. that means that the very best righteous deed you have done in your life is like a dirty rag and meaningless when done with a self-righteous motive, apart from the grace of God.
Although being a good person and a good neighbor is honorable, your motive becomes misdirected if yoy think your goodness becomes a way of access to God or gives you right standing before Him. You must see that what we do for God, no matter how good it may be, does not earn us right standing with Him. It is what Jesus did on the cross that saves us and makes us righteous before Him. His righteousness is made manifest in us when we believe in His work on the cross, and apply it to our lives, abd become born-again.Then we have the righteousness of God and and we can truly say that we have been saved, God's way.
> Portion of my book, "Are You Saved or Deceived?" <
God did save me just in time! When God saved me and I became a born-again Chrisitan, I really knew something powerful had happened to me. I had never been a religious person, and I seldom attended church. when I met God in this way, it had nothing to do with religion or my church attendance up to that point because I had neither.I was saved by God's grace.
Ephesians 2:8,9 says it best, "For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast."
Unfortunately, there are many people who have this truth confused in their hearts. Some believe that it is by their good religious duties they achieve salvation and what they do for God apart from His way of righteousness gives them the feeling that they have earned their way to heaven. If that were true, most of us could do that by being good to our neighbor and do a few good things in the church and then think we have our ticket to heaven. Absolutely not ! God paid a big price to purchase your soul. It did not come cheap. God gave us the very best He had and that was His Son.
Isaiah 64:6 reminds us that all of our righteousness is as a filthy rag. that means that the very best righteous deed you have done in your life is like a dirty rag and meaningless when done with a self-righteous motive, apart from the grace of God.
Although being a good person and a good neighbor is honorable, your motive becomes misdirected if yoy think your goodness becomes a way of access to God or gives you right standing before Him. You must see that what we do for God, no matter how good it may be, does not earn us right standing with Him. It is what Jesus did on the cross that saves us and makes us righteous before Him. His righteousness is made manifest in us when we believe in His work on the cross, and apply it to our lives, abd become born-again.Then we have the righteousness of God and and we can truly say that we have been saved, God's way.
> Portion of my book, "Are You Saved or Deceived?" <
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