“But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (Acts 15:11 KJV).
Grace is such a beautiful word. Grace actually means “unmerited favor,” a person does not deserve Heaven. It is grace that brings salvation. “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21 KJV).
I do not set grace aside because salvation comes by grace. Grace can only be received because GOD’s love is given to you. If a person deserved it, it would not be grace. Grace cannot be received because a person deserves it. If a person deserved it, it would not be grace. It would be merit.
If GOD can save a man like Paul (chief of sinners), He can save you. GOD has to be able to save the worst to be able to save all. GOD is no respecter of persons. Nobody is better than anyone else. If a person does deserve salvation, grace could not be given. If a person does deserve salvation, God cannot save him, he has to save himself. If a person can earn salvation, that means he is not condemned. However, the Bible says “all have sinned,” there is none good, all are condemned. Salvation is by grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV).
Grace cannot incur a debt. If I am saved by grace, I cannot be in debt to be saved. If it is by grace, and I deserved it, God would be indebted to me and that cannot happen. A person cannot be indebted to God, it is by grace. God cannot be indebted to man, it is by grace.
A person cannot add to the perfect substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God, and He alone paid a perfect sacrifice for sin, and His resurrection is proof He paid a perfect sacrifice for sin.
Taking away or adding to the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ is not trusting in Christ alone for salvation. Taking away or adding is trusting in your church, pastor, priest, ritual, sacrament, tradition, or work of men to take you to Heaven. These individuals will tell a person to “turn from sin”, “picking up your cross”, or, ask “Jesus into your heart” to be saved. That is NOT trusting in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
To go to Heaven, a person must completely forget about self, rituals, sacraments, traditions of men and put their trust only in the Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Son of GOD! A person is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, documented in the scriptures alone and God receives the glory alone: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV).
Trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior is a one-time decision in your life. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior (belief in His death payment for your debt of sins), God gives you eternal life. Once you believe, God accepts you as His child. The very second a person trusts in Christ alone as their only hope of going to Heaven and not to Hell, they step from death unto life. “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” (John 5:24 KJV).
GOD does not want His children to “hope” they are going to Heaven. GOD does not want His children to “think” they “might” go to Heaven. GOD wants His children to KNOW they are going to Heaven because Christ paid for all their sins. Christ’s death on the Cross does not do anything for you unless it gives you everlasting life. If you have Christ as your Savior, you have this life: EVERLASTING LIFE!
The reason I know I am going to Heaven when I die is I know I cannot go to Hell. Why? Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God paid for all my sins. His resurrection is proof that He paid for all my sins. If you are reading this and questioning the boldness. I have a question for you. Would you follow someone that does not know where they are going? Why would you listen to a pastor or a priest, who “thinks they might” get to Heaven because of their “good deeds,” or they “picked up their cross” (which, they are really saying they are being more good to be saved), or they “turned from sin” (which, they are really saying they stopped being bad to be saved)? I know I am going to Heaven because Christ paid for all my sin. I know I am NOT going to Hell because Christ paid for all my sin. I know where I am going. I know where I am not going. I know all this because this is what the BIBLE tells me so. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (I John 5:13 KJV).
After I am saved (which is a one-time event in my life), I now grow in grace. I am forever a child of God. The question now becomes do I stay a “babe” in Christ, like the Corinthians, until I am called to glory. Or, do I grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ and nourish on His Word (the bread, the water, the milk, the meat of the Words of Life). How can a person ever grow in grace if they could “lose their salvation?” They could never grow. A person cannot “lose” their salvation. A person can fall out of fellowship with their Father; however, they never fall out of the relationship with their Father: they are forever a child of God. Once a person is born again, born from above, born of a new nature -they are FOREVER a child of GOD! Just like the prodigal son, the son never was unborn, the son NEVER became NOT his son. The son was still his son in the pigpen. I am forever a child of God. All this is by HIS GRACE! I deserve none of this.
A person is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. A person then grows by grace alone, through knowledge alone, in Christ alone. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (II Peter 3:18 KJV)
If you have never received Jesus Christ as Savior, what is stopping you right now from accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior? In your mind, you can say something, "I don't know everything; however, I know I am a sinner. I know I do not want to go to Hell when I die. I want to go to Heaven when I die. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for ALL my sins (past, present, and future), buried for me, and resurrected for me."
There is no confirmation, confession, communion, water baptism, church, pastor, priest, religion, or any good deeds that will pay for sin. The Christ, the Lamb of God was revealed in the flesh to take away the sins of the world. “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 KJV).
The payment for sin is death. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV). Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22 KJV).
Trust in Jesus Christ as your only hope to save you from a Hell you deserve to a Heaven you do not deserve because only the Gospel of Christ can change your eternal destiny from eternal darkness to eternal light. "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14 KJV).
Receive Jesus Christ as your Savior today and be born again and forever a child of God. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13 KJV).
The very second you place your faith in Christ alone, you receive eternal life, and you forever have eternal life because Christ paid for all your sins. When a person trusts in Christ alone for salvation, that person can "know" they are going to Heaven when they die because the Bible says they can "know." "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God" (I John 5:13 KJV).
THE PLAN OF SALVATION - THE GOSPEL
The Gospel is Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins (past, present, and future), He was buried, and He resurrected the third day to show us the payment for sin is paid in full.
I Corinthians 15:1-4: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
God loves you. Lord Savior Jesus Christ revealed Himself in the flesh for one reason: to save us from our sins. Jesus Christ does not come to condemn individuals. Jesus Christ comes to save us because we are all Hell doomed sinners without the Blood of Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-18: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
All individuals are sinners. The payment for sin is death.
Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ died for your sin and resurrected for you.
II Corinthians 5:21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
I Corinthians 15:3-4: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
If you believe in Christ alone, you receive eternal life.
John 6:47: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
I John 5:13: These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
If you could be "saved" by being water baptized, doing good works, being a good person, or following the Ten Commandments? Why did (the God from Eternity Past, the God from Eternity Future) the Ever Presence Jesus Christ reveal Himself in the flesh and die on the Cross and resurrect the third day? No church can reconcile. No sacrament can save. No work or tradition of men can redeem. Only Jesus Christ can save a person from a Hell they deserve to a Heaven they do not deserve -all by grace!
Galatians 2:21: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
If you could earn salvation by doing those things, then Jesus Christ died in vain. However, Jesus Christ did not die in vain. Jesus Christ made a perfect sacrifice for sin. He is the Lamb of God, and only the Lamb of God can make a perfect sacrifice for sin. There is only one way to Heaven, and it is the belief in the Finished Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Philippians 3:9: And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
Galatians 2:16: Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Titus 3:5: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
The resurrection is proof God the Father accepted Jesus Christ's death payment for sin -death payment of past, present, and future sin: ALL SIN!
People DO NOT go to Hell because they are "bad." People go to Hell because they believe NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People trust NOT in Jesus Christ as their Savior. People believe NOT Jesus Christ died on the Cross for their sins, burial, and resurrection. People do NOT trust alone in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
II Thessalonians 1:8-9: In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
Know that God is gracious to you. He has already died for all your sins (past, present, and future), He was buried for you showing all the world He died for your sins, and He was resurrected for you, showing all the world that Jesus Christ fulfilled what the Father asked Him to do: IT IS FINISHED! Your sins are paid in full. I pray you to believe in Jesus Christ right now for salvation -believe Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sin, burial, and resurrection. Trust alone in Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you know someone who is "not saved," share the Gospel message with them or forward this message to them.
The Good News Voice is affiliated with The Grace Gospel Church. If you are looking for a Bible preaching, Gospel sharing, Body loving congregation, look no further. Join us in Taconite on Sundays at 9:30 AM. The Grace Gospel Church is the first building on the right when you turn into Taconite. We are live on Facebook at 10:00 AM if you are unable to join us in person. God bless, love Lance & Karla.
Pastor Lance Edminster
The Grace Gospel Church
The Good News Voice
Email: thegoodnewsvoice@gmail.com
Facebook: The Good News Voice / Lance Edminster
YouTube: The Good News Voice / Lance Edminster
Once Saved, Always Saved: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one" (John 10:28-30 KJV).
Comments