Saved Through Obedience

Hiscox' Standard Manual for Baptist Churches, says: This admits baptism is essential to obedience, but denies baptism is essential to salvation. The necessary conclusion is that obedience is not essential to salvation. You see, son, Jesus already did it all two thousand years ago. The way a Christian lives, what he says, his character, his conduct, or his attitude toward other people has nothing whatever to do with the salvation of his soul.

All the prayers a man can pray, all the Bibles he may read, all the churches he may belong to, all the services he may attend, all the sermons he may practice, and all the debts he may pay, all the ordinances he may observe, all the laws he may keep, all the benevolent acts he may perform, will not make his soul one bit safer. And all the sins he may commit from idolatry to murder, will not make his soul in any more danger. We agree that no man will be saved by living a perfectly sinless life Rom. And we agree that no man's obedience earns, merits, or deserves eternal life.

So, no man will be saved without grace and faith. But having committed sin, are there things man must do, in addition to grace and faith, to receive forgiveness of sins? We agree that the blood of Jesus is the only power that can forgive sins. Once a man has sinned, nothing he could do could make up for sin without the blood of Jesus. However, we are asking whether or not the Bible teaches that certain acts of obedience are necessary as conditions in order to benefit from the cleansing power of Jesus' blood. In particular, we seek to study basic Bible requirements that religious people generally agree are necessary to salvation.

Then we will attempt to see how these doctrines relate to obedience. Do they prove obedience is not essential to salvation, or do they confirm that it is essential? Some people tell sinners, "You don't need to do anything to be saved.

Just accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What does it really mean to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior? So to "accept Him as Lord" means to obey His rules and submit to his authority.

What right do you have to claim Jesus is your Lord, if you don't obey Him? If you don't obey, you have not accepted Him as your master. But Jesus said one must do the will of the Father v Hearing and doing what Jesus says is like building on the rock.

If you hear and don't do , you are building on the sand. Note that Jesus is discussing how to enter the kingdom of heaven v To enter, you must do. Your claim to accept Him as Lord is empty till you obey His teachings. When a person claims that one must accept Jesus as Lord to be saved but does not have to obey Jesus to be saved, he contradicts himself and He contradicts Jesus.

It is like claiming you are lying in bed and running an Olympic marathon at the same time. One cannot run a marathon lying in bed, and one cannot accept Jesus as Lord without obeying Him. To accept Jesus as Savior, you must come to Him to receive the forgiveness of sins. But if He is the Savior, then you must come on His terms.

He is the one who determines whom He will save and what has to happen in your life for Him to save you. What does He say about this? To accept His salvation, you must obey. If you believe obedience is not necessary, then you have not accepted the Savior according to the terms He requires in Scripture. When were people made free from sin? When they obeyed the teaching.

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That's what the Savior says. Do you accept Him as Savior? Then you must accept what He says about the conditions of salvation. When people claim that obedience is unnecessary, they often emphasize being "born again. By obeying the truth, the Word of God. The Bible doctrine of the new birth requires obedience. The Lord then sent Ananias, who told Saul to "be baptized and wash away thy sins" - The Savior does not agree with those who say there is nothing to do to be saved. He says sinners must do something to be saved.

Jesus is the Lord and Savior. To be saved, you must accept Him as Lord and Savior. But you must accept Him on His terms as revealed in His word. His word says you cannot accept Him without obedience. If you believe obedience is not essential to salvation, then according to Jesus' word you fail to understand what it means to accept Him. As in Matthew 7: All people recognize the importance of love.

When discussing obedience, some say, "I don't think it matters how you serve the Lord or what you do in His service. All that matters is if you love Him. So, if you believe that love is essential to salvation, then you must believe that obedience to commands is essential to salvation, because love is a command that must be obeyed! Love is essential to salvation. But love is a command. Therefore, obeying commands is essential to salvation, for here is one command all agree is essential.

The man who says obedience to commands is not necessary, is saying love is not necessary, for love is a command. It is the greatest of all commands. One who doesn't love, doesn't keep His commands v The person who says obedience is not essential, is saying unintentionally that you can please God and be saved without loving Him! Love must show itself in our actions. We must obey God's commands. If we don't obey, we don't really love.

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So obedience is essential to love. But love is essential to salvation. Therefore, obedience is essential to salvation. In this verse, no explicit connection between salvation and belief is made but only between salvation and obedience. According to this verse, they claim that by calling upon the Lord with sincere trust in His resurrection we will be saved. Fortunately, there is much truth to this viewpoint; however, it must be properly tempered with our Lord's own words:. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

These two verses present two different aspects of salvation which neither should be ignored. To better grasp Christ's teaching on salvation, we must read more than John 5: Paul in his Epistles teaches that we are justified i. Paul's concept of faith not only includes belief and trust but also obedience to God.

This is the reason that he can write, without contradiction, to the Philippians: James in the Bible actually writes that faith without good works is dead James 2: In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul elegantly summarizes his teaching on salvation:.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The fact that some are saved is the gift of Him who saves; the fact that some are lost, is the merit of those who are lost. It must be rightfully understood that salvation -eternal life in Christ Jesus - is a free gift of God.

However, the wages of sin is still damnation - spiritual death - since sin is opposed to God, the Source of life. Even though heaven is a gift, we can still earn hell. Expressed in slightly different terms, salvation is a free gift that can be rejected or lost through our sins. Since salvation is a free gift, we cannot earn it through obedience, prayer, good works, love or even faith. However, like any gift, we have the free will to reject it.

We can reject this gift through serious sin - willful disobedience to God. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgement, These are sobering words!

As a closing thought, my civil liberty is a gift earned by my forefathers.