The following is brought to you by truthtimeradio.com
Being saved by grace through faith is not a dispensational matter.
Being saved by grace through faith is the only way anyone has ever been saved.
Salvation has always been by grace through faith.
Take Noah for example.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
God said, Noah, I need you to build an ark.
Noah said, will do.
And that's how Noah exhibited his faith.
Faith in God.
Faith that God was telling him the truth about the flood.
Now, if Noah would have dropped dead before having the chance to do any work, before building the ark, it would be his faith counted for his righteousness.
Not works.
He would have never had the chance to do any works.
So, for Noah it would have been by grace through faith.
However, he did not die.
And so, he acted upon his faith.
He built the ark.
He did the work.
What about Abraham?
He was saved by grace through faith.
He believed God.
He believed all his instructions were true, including the sacrifice of his son, Isaac.
His faith was counted for righteousness.
But let's say he would have refused to sacrifice his son, what would have happened?
No, God, I don't think so.
I don't think I'll do that.
He would have lost his right standing.
Was he saved by sacrificing his son?
No.
He was saved by grace through faith.
But if he did not continue to exhibit his faith by his works, he would have suffered loss of his right standing, loss of righteousness.
He would be hell bound.
What about the thief on the cross?
The thief on the cross was saved by grace through faith, without even one work.
He believed that that man hanging beside him was the Messiah, the King of Israel.
And it was that faith that was counted for his righteousness.
However, if that thief would have come down off the cross after having faith that that was his Lord, his Messiah, that thief would be expected to do works, works to show his faith.
He would have been instructed to be water baptized.
If he refused, he would lose his righteous standing.
If that thief would have come down off the cross, he would be told to keep the commandments.
Keeping the commandments would be to maintain his salvation.
If he didn't keep the commandments, he would suffer loss of salvation.
So they too were saved by grace through faith, but their faith had to be followed by works or else.
We today are saved the same way, by grace through faith.
However, our works play no part in our salvation whatsoever, but we can suffer loss of reward.
We know this from Paul's writings concerning the judgment seat of Christ.
So, in every dispensation, salvation has always been by grace through faith.
The difference is, prior to Paul, salvation was by grace through faith plus works to maintain their righteous standing, while our salvation is by grace through faith alone.
And by the way, their salvation was always future.
It was never a present possession, as in Matthew 10:22 and chapter 24 verse 13, where Christ said,
He that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Peter understood it to be the same way, and is why he said in Acts 3:19 that their sins won't be blotted out until the Lord returns.
They had to endure unto the end for their salvation, not so for us.
We have the blessed assurance, the blessed promise that our salvation happens immediately following
the moment we hear the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation and believe it, Ephesians 1:13.
At that very moment, we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.
God makes a promise he will not break.
And in 2 Timothy 1:9, Paul tells us that God hath saved, hath saved, saved us already.
No enduring to be saved, we already are.
And he says this is not according to your works, but according to God's own purpose and grace.
Trust Christ and place your faith in the gospel of your salvation.
Do that today and never again give the devil the satisfaction of you being unstable and unsure,
wavering and wondering about your salvation.
Put your total faith and confidence in the finished cross work of Christ and be done with it.
Rest in your eternal salvation.
For more answers to Bible questions, stop by TruthTimeRadio.com.
Add comment
Comments