BY GRACE ALONE (PART 17)

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The Gospel of God is about God, not you. The Gospel of God is the Gospel of salvation by His grace, not your works. The Gospel of the apostle Paul did not include within it any preaching of works as part of God's salvation plan. Any gospel which is not the Gospel of God is not the Gospel of grace. Any gospel which is not the Gospel of grace will always have salvation conditioned in some way to some degree on what you must do. All such gospels, and all people, whether they be rich, poor, healthy, sick, religious or not, are under the curse. The gospels of men are the gospels of works; the Gospel of God is the only Gospel which teaches the doctrines of salvation by grace alone (see Gal. 1:8-12). Paul never spoke of salvation in terms of it being by works, or by grace and works, but always by grace OR works. One can never Scripturally change grace or works into grace and works. To include works as part of what saves, or what keeps a man saved, is to put an end to grace. It is to reject the competency, the power of grace alone to save anyone. To reject grace alone is to reject the competency of the true God to save only by what He has done. To reject grace alone is to completely reject the true God. To join a man's works to the Grace of God is also a rejection of grace which is nothing less than a rejection of the true God and His only Way to salvation. Only the lost reject God’s plan of salvation by grace alone. The only people who will not reject salvation by grace alone, are the people who have been saved by grace alone. The moment you add your own personal works to what God has done, reveals the fact you do not know the true God, you do not trust the true God, nor understand what God has done. Adding your own personal works to what God has done is to refute the Biblical doctrine that God saves only by what He alone has done. To reject grace alone is to believe that God saves and calls His people according to their works, not His purpose and grace. It is to say that salvation is not by that which is given you, but by what you have done.

 

Salvation is by God alone. Add the needle of works to the balloon of grace, and you no longer have grace (see Rom. 11:5,6; cf. Rom. 9:11). Man’s sinfully corrupt nature is what lies behind the religions of the world, everything that is not Christian, which all place a man’s works at the forefront of salvation doing away with the essentiality, and exclusivity, of salvation being by grace alone through the gift of faith in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To attempt to join works with grace is to go against the grain of Scripture. Every works-based salvation plan, which is at the centre of every counterfeit gospel, is ANTI-CHRIST! It is against Jesus Christ as Saviour, and presents a false way to Heaven. Anything that includes works as the means to salvation, or the means to maintaining salvation, is anti-grace. Believing false gospels, which encourage you to perform, and trust, in your own works of obedience, is like a man with greasy hands wiping his dirty face expecting it to be clean. False gospels which combine grace and works are equally as deadly. Grace is not the rag which a man with greasy hands uses to clean his face. Grace is what God uses to save His people from their sins. To attempt to join works with grace is to be an enemy of God’s grace. It is to say that grace is not enough, and needs the addendum of a man’s works before it can save. In other words attempting to join a man’s works with God’s grace is saying that what God has done is not enough, that the fullest measure of grace alone is not enough to save anyone, and that God needs a man to successfully fulfil His will for that man to be saved. The reality of the situation is, God saves His people after what He has done, not after anything they have done. Obviously, those who say Righteousness comes by what they do, which takes in all those who say man must do before he can be saved, frustrate the grace of God, and have put their faith in a saviour who has died in vain (see Gal. 5:2,4). Works abolish grace. The two cannot co-exist. The apostle Paul phrased it thusly: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Rom. 11:6 cf. Gal. 2:21). Contrary to what man is naturally (sinfully) drawn to in his thinking, a man is, and can only be, saved purely by what God alone does, for prior to salvation a man is without any hope. Salvation is not by a man’s will or works, but only by God’s grace and mercy (see Jn. 1:13 & Jas. 1:18). Being without hope, all men by nature have no will to choose the true God, and can do nothing to earn His favour. A man’s efforts to get saved or stay ‘saved’, are as beneficial to him as if he had never performed them, for they are vain and profitless. Man is by nature dead in trespasses and sins, and so, can never be justified by what he does. A man saved by God is “…justified by His grace…” (Titus 3:7). Anyone attempting to be justified by their works knows nothing of grace, and is yet to come to the true knowledge of Who God is and how He saves His people from their sins. Such people are among those who are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). Works mean nothing, for grace is everything. Anything in addition to grace is a denial that what God alone does to save a man is enough. A salvation which requires a man to do anything in order to get saved, or stay saved, is a salvation which requires man to assist God before, and so that, God can realise the fulfilment of His own will. Any so-called god that requires the assistance of man to successfully complete his own will, is an impotent god, and not the Almighty God of the Scriptures Who alone does whatsoever He wills.

 

The Scriptures know nothing of a God Who requires anyone, but Himself, to fulfil His own will. “…what His soul desireth, even that He doeth. For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me…” (Job 23:13,14); “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased” (Psa. 115:3; “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places” (135:6); “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand…For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isa. 14:24,27 cf. Isa. 55:11). Salvation is according to the purpose and grace of God. God’s purpose is to save His people from their sins, and He does it by His grace. God is a God of order and planning, and there is nothing and no one who can thwart any plan of God’s. “‘Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass’; as He had shaped and schemed it, and drew the form and image in His own mind, or fixed and settled it there, so should it be done in due time, as every thing is determined by the Lord; and this shows that nothing is casual, or comes by chance, but everything as it is purposed of God; and that as everything comes to pass which He has resolved, so every such resolution proceeds from thought, and is the produce of the highest wisdom and prudence: ‘and as I have purposed, so it shall stand’; or ‘counselled’; within Himself, for He does all things ‘after the counsel of His own will’ (Eph. 1:11); and which always stands firm, sure, and unalterable, let what devices soever be in the heart of man; there is nothing comes to pass but He has purposed, and everything He has purposed does come to pass: ‘and who shall disannul [it]?not the most powerful monarch, or most powerful armies, or the most refined councils of men, or the greatest politicians on earth: ‘and His hand [is] stretched out, and who shall turn it back’? or aside, from giving the blow it is designed to give; no power on earth (or the entire universe) is equal to it.”

 

Man must be made alive by God, born again of God, he must be born of the Gospel of God: “Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth…” (Jas. 1:18). No true Christian has ever been born again without the gift of saving faith in the Gospel of the grace of God; “Being born again… by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever…the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you” (1Pet. 1:23,25). Spiritually dead man must be made a new creature in Christ. Only by grace alone can this be accomplished. Once this is done all is done. No man has the power to make himself a new creature in Christ, therefore, salvation is, and can only be, by grace alone and because of grace alone. NO man can do what only grace can do, and no man can undo what only grace has done. God saves His people by His grace because they could do nothing to save themselves, or recommend themselves to God. They could not desire Him, or seek Him. They could not believe Him or choose Him, for they could not recognize Him as the only true God. They were completely without profit. Only God through grace makes His people alive. They were people who profited nothing by what they could do, and required the Holy Spirit of God to make them alive (see Jn. 6:63). Salvation is not accessible by works. Just as no man can do anything to save himself from death, so too, no man can do anything to make himself spiritually alive unto the only true God. If man had any power to do anything why would he need to be made a new creature in Christ? Would not the old suffice? “A new creation in Christ is God’s work only”, therefore, it is only by grace. You cannot make yourself a new creature, nothing you do can place you in Christ, for this can only be done by God’s workmanship: “…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…” (Eph. 2:10). Exclusive belief in the Gospel of the grace of God is the result of a man being made a new creature in Christ. He will not turn back to works, for he has been saved by grace alone. Man’s natural faith is an unbending bias toward works. The saved man has been blessed by grace, and his God-given faith looks only to grace as the means that has saved him and will keep him saved forever. Can anyone imagine a new creature in Christ believing in anyone else, or anything else but the Saviour and the glorious Gospel of His grace? Being made alive includes believing, being drawn to God by God, by His grace through His love. Being made alive, saved, born again, is loving and seeking the true God, and no other, and being given all that is required for salvation. Being born again is a work of salvation. It is the unique and supernatural work of God. The only thing that precedes it is the will, purpose, grace, mercy and love of God the Life-Giver. Were it not for God none would, or could, travel the road toward Him. Man can do nothing to make himself alive, or be born again, for man is dead in sins, and has no desire for the true God, and, therefore, absolutely no will or way of coming to Him. Consequently, nothing a man does can profit him, for he is encompassed by darkness, and in an eternal state of spiritual rigor mortis. Man at his best is nothing but vanity, for man is vanity: “…verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity…surely every man is vanity” (Psa. 39: 5,11 cf. Psa. 95:11). Christ said: “And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:40). And who are they who shall see the Son? Only those to whom sight has been given solely by grace. Only those whom the Father has given to the Son will come to Him (see Jn. 6:37). Seeing the Son and believing on Him are only possible through the gift of faith by grace. They are not as a result of the efforts of men, but gifts given by God to His people.

 

Salvation is by grace, not works. In an effort to show that such a thing as a man seeing and believing in the Son is something quite impossible for any man by nature, the Lord Jesus later said: “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:44). Salvation is impossible without the Father Who saves His people by grace alone. Christ says: “…no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him” (Lk. 10:22), and, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me…” (Jn. 6:37). Prior to salvation, no man even knows the Father or the Son. Salvation is the Son revealing the Father to His people by His grace, and giving them the gift of faith with which to believe in Him. Only those people whom the Father has entrusted to the Son will come to Him. There is no other way to come to the Lord Jesus, but by being given to Him by God the Father through grace alone. None shall, or can, come to Him unless the Father acts by grace. A saved man is chosen by the Father and given to the Son. Once a man is made alive all is done. Man can do nothing before being made alive, and there is nothing for man to do after he has been made alive, in terms of getting saved, being saved, or remaining saved. This is salvation by grace. Grace gives life. The grace of God does not need the works of men to sustain it. The men and their works, prior to spiritual life, are dead. Salvation is the Lord’s work by grace through faith, and these are both gifts from God according to His will and purpose. Salvation is by grace, and at no time does it stop being by grace. There is nothing man can do before he is saved to get saved, and there is nothing he needs to do, or can do, after he is saved to remain saved. Grace is like the train which takes a man to Heaven, a train which has a predestined course, runs on its own limitless, and independent fuel supply and which cannot be derailed. The grace of God is not some crutch given to a man by which he will be able to walk into Heaven, but is the means, the vehicle chosen by God which transports a man right into the Presence of God. Man needs do nothing in terms of making any effort to forge his own way to Heaven, for the train of grace does it all. Moreover, grace protects its recipients. To be saved by grace is to be reserved and preserved by, and for, God by the power of His grace, eternally (see Psa. 37:28; 97:10; Eph. 2:8; 1 Pet. 1:5; Jd. 1).

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Salvation comes from Almighty God and He gives it to whomsoever He wills. Nothing can stop this from occurring. Grace comes according to God, the Giver, and not man, the receiver. The elect of God receive His grace not by anything which is within them, their will, or their choice, etc., but by God’s will, God’s choice. If grace came because of man, it would not be grace. Grace must come from within, and because of, the grace giver for it to be true grace. It is the work of God alone that creates the new creature. One sees, one believes, because one is saved by grace alone. “God gives ears to hear and eyes to see. It is God alone who gives illumination and understanding of His Word that we might believe; It is God who raises His people from the dead, Who circumcises the heart; unplugs our ears. The apostle John recorded Jesus saying to Nicodemus that we naturally love darkness, hate the light and WILL NOT come into the light (see Jn. 3:19,20). And since our hardened resistance to God is thus seated in our affections, only God, by His grace, can lovingly change, overcome and disarm our rebellious disposition. The natural man, apart from the quickening work of the Holy Spirit, will not come to Christ on his own since he is at enmity with God and cannot understand spiritual things. Shining a light into a blind man's eyes will not enable him to see, since, as we all know, sight requires new eyes or some restoration of his visual faculty. Likewise, reading or hearing the Word of God itself cannot elicit saving faith in the reader (or hearer) unless the Spirit first ‘germinates’ the seed of the word in the heart, so to speak…Like unto Lydia ‘whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul’ (Acts 16:14), He must also give all His people spiritual life and understanding if their hearts are to be open and thus turn (respond) to Christ in faith. Since faith is infinitely beyond all the power of our unregenerated human nature, it is only God who can give the spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see the beauty of Christ in the Gospel. God alone disarms the hostility of the sinner turning his heart of stone to a heart of flesh. So the problem of conversion is not with the Word or God's Law but with man's prideful heart. The humility required to submit to the Gospel (which is beyond man's natural capacity) is, therefore, not prompted by man's will but by God's mercy (see Jn. 1:13; Rom. 9:16) since no one can believe the Gospel unless God grants it (see Jn. 6:63,65). Salvation is the work of One.”

 

The new creature in Christ is a child of grace and mercy, not works. The Christian’s parents are not his will and works, but God’s grace and mercy. Both the giving and the receiving are gifts from God. Grace is the Saviour on the tree. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of grace. He is grace personified. “In grace, God gives nothing less than Himself. Grace, then, is not a third thing or substance mediating between God and sinners, but is Jesus Christ in redeeming action.” Natural man does not look for the Saviour, for he is convinced he can get to God by what he does. He may talk about a saviour, and grace and mercy etc., but when it comes right down to it, lost man believes that salvation comes only after HE, the man, has performed some act, or acts, of obedience. Thereby, natural man shows his intrinsic belief that what God has done to save is clearly not enough. Man must add his part, play his role, before he can be saved. Religion knows all the words, but is blind to their reality. Even when a religious man believes in a god, he can never shake loose of the inherent feeling that he must contribute something to his salvation. This is what bondage to sin is all about. False gods do not open eyes, but keep them shut to the truth of God. False gods do not lead to grace alone, but hold a man in the grip of love for works as the way to Heaven. Obedience to the law in order to either get saved or remain saved is nothing but bondage (see Gal. 4:9). Salvation by grace through faith in the obedience of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is FREEDOM! No man-made religion has ever come up with a ‘road to salvation’ that does not ultimately base a person’s salvation upon what he does. There is no ‘way to God’ formulated by religion that does not teach that it is man and what he does that makes the difference between saved and lost. As Paul the apostle taught, salvation is by grace not works, it is by what God does not what a man does, otherwise grace is no longer grace. When does grace cease to be grace? When you have to do something before God can do something. Salvation starts with God, and is completed by God. Salvation is by God not man, otherwise God is no longer God. One can say one is saved by grace and sincerely believe that, however, if one has conditioned any part of their ‘salvation’ upon what they have done, or must do, then that person is not believing in salvation by the work of the grace of God, but in their own works.

 

Grace means God alone. Grace means salvation is by God alone. Grace fully convinces and satisfies the saved man—heart, mind and soul—that he is saved by God alone. Salvation by grace alone is salvation by God alone. The only way God saves is by what HE DOES and  ONLY by what HE DOES. Man can do nothing to get saved or stay saved because this is the work of grace. Salvation is by what grace is and by what grace does. Salvation is only something that grace can do. False grace is that which insists a man must contribute to getting and/or staying ‘saved’. God does not save by what He has done in conjunction with anything you do. Salvation is not according to grace and works, but only according to grace alone. Grace rules out any need for works. Grace is a denial of any need for works to save, or keep saved, for grace does it all. The apostle Paul stated that he did not frustrate the grace of God, by saying Righteousness comes by obedience to the law. So it stands to Biblical reason that Righteousness by grace frustrates, indeed destroys, any idea that salvation comes by way of a man’s obedience. “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if Righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21). The only way Christ did not die in vain is if Righteousness comes by grace ALONE. The reason salvation  by works is such an evil concept, is because salvation only comes by grace, only by what God has done. Attempting to mix grace with works is just as horrific an idea because it still makes salvation dependent upon a man: his choice and what he does, rather than exclusively by God’s choice and what He has done for His people. The whole principle of God wanting everyone saved and Christ dying for the sins of everyone, is what salvation by works is predicated on. God has done all He can, and now it’s up to each individual to choose Him. So, you see, salvation by grace and works is just a smokescreen for the blasphemy which is salvation by works. Salvation by grace and works is just a synonym for salvation by works. Every false gospel makes man the difference maker between saved and lost. The Word of God clearly teaches salvation is not according to grace and works, but only according to grace and the will of God. God does not save by his empowering you to do something before He can save you. God does not save anyone by empowering them to do something which, in itself, would frustrate the grace of God and make Christ’s death a vain one. If Righteousness came by obedience to the law, then God would not have sent the Saviour. There would have been no need for a Saviour if a man’s own obedience could gain him the Righteousness he needed to get saved. But God did send a Saviour, the one and only Savour Jesus Christ, for salvation via a man’s personal obedience is impossible. Salvation is by grace alone.

 

The very need for grace is a declaration that nothing else can save, or is, therefore, required for salvation. Grace alone saves, because only grace can save. Grace alone is necessary which is why an individual’s works have never saved anybody. It is by grace that a man is saved because there is nothing else that can save him. Genuine good works come from grace, but they play no part in saving anyone. God is the Saviour, therefore, salvation is by what God does, and not by what you do. Put succinctly, ‘by God are ye saved’. Those who foolishly claim this is nothing but a license to sin, simply do not know God, or His grace. “A true saved-by-grace-alone Christian desires to be free from sin, not to sin freely.” No true Christian believes that the grace of God is a license to live as one pleases. Only a lost man’s perverted understanding of grace could ever lead him to such a conclusion. The Scriptures teach the believer to deny “…ungodliness and worldly lusts…” and that they “…should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:12 cf. Gal. 1:4), not to get saved or stay saved, but because they are eternally saved and are new creatures in Christ. Most people who profess to be Christian claim to be saved by grace. From the Roman Catholic to the Protestant, all say they are saved by grace, but what they mean by ‘grace’ is, for the most part, not the grace of God. God’s grace is something He does. God gives grace, and grace brings salvation. Grace is God doing, and God doing first. Grace is God making alive. Grace is God giving birth to a new creature in Christ. Nothing a man does can precede his birth. The creature can do nothing before birth, nothing before the arrival of the grace of God that makes the new birth a reality in time. Grace is God saving. Grace is God saving before a man can do anything. Grace is God saving BECAUSE a man can do nothing. Grace is God saving without a man doing anything. To do anything which is pleasing to God, one must first be saved by grace through faith (see Heb. 11:6). What is done by a man after he is saved does not contribute to his being saved, for he has already been saved, and shall forever remain saved, by grace. All that was required for him to be saved eternally has already been done by God. The subsequent works done by man are simply the fruit of his salvation not the cause of it. Grace does not require any assistance from man. The Saviour needs no help as grace needs no assistance from a man’s works.  The moment anyone tries to assist grace by what they do, or illegitimately substitute the role of grace with their obedience, they destroy the entire concept of salvation being something which is totally undeserved, something which only grace alone can bring.

 

Grace is unconditional. Grace is not at all conditional, otherwise, there would be no need for God to love a man first so that the man would love him. God loving first is the evidence that there is no condition man can meet, and, therefore, must meet, so that God can then save him. A man loving God because God loved him first, is grace defined. “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). Salvation depends on God’s love, not a man’s love. No man can love God unless God loves the man first. The fact that people die in their sins and are lost forever in Hell, is evidence that God never knew them, and, therefore, never loved them. The only way a man can love God is if God loves him; the only way a man is saved is by God’s grace toward him. The Christian is saved because God saved him. God’s will, purpose, grace, mercy and love all come first BEFORE a man can do anything. A man’s love for the only true God is the blessing of God upon the man. It is the evidence that God has loved the man by grace alone. Man cannot even love God, let alone, do anything to come to God. Without God loving the man first, no man can possibly know Him, love Him, or come to Him. From that love, God’s love, comes a man’s love for God. Only a saved man loves the only true God. A saved man is always the receiver, made so by a loving and gracious God Who chose to have mercy on him. Saving grace has nothing in the world to do with what man does, or must do, but everything to do with God doing, with what God has done. The lost sinner needs grace, and the saved sinner needs grace. The lost sinner needs grace to save him, and the saved sinner needs the grace of God to keep him saved. Grace does not require a man to play his part to make grace effective in saving him, or in keeping him saved. If a man is saved by grace, he is saved by God alone. If a man is saved by God, he is saved by grace alone. If a man is ‘saved’ by works, then he has no salvation. Grace does not depend on anything or anyone other than God and His will to direct it to those He has appointed to receive it. Grace cannot be chosen, only given. Salvation cannot be chosen by man, but only FOR man BY God through the agency of grace. Grace does not await a man’s ‘positive response’ before it becomes operational. What God does is independent of man. That which sets grace in motion is the will and love of God. If grace is given because of anything a man has done, it is a false grace, and so, no grace at all. It is a satanic counterfeit that fools the religious, but not the chosen.

 

Again, the simplest definition of grace is ‘that which is undeserved’. The word ‘grace’ is ‘chen’ in Hebrew, and ‘Charis’ in Greek. It means "to bend or stoop in kindness to another as a superior to an inferior. God’s grace has been termed 'Unearned kindness' but it is more than an attitude of favour or mercy. Biblically, grace is unmerited favor. It is God's free action for the benefit of His people. It is different from justice and mercy. Justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. In grace we get eternal life, something that, quite obviously, we do not deserve. But because of God's love and kindness manifested in Jesus on the Cross, we receive the great blessing of redemption. Grace is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Grace rules out all human merit.” If we exchange the words grace and works in Romans 11:6, with the words God and man, what Paul was saying becomes even clearer: “And if by GOD, then is it no more of MAN: otherwise GOD is no more GOD. But if it be of MAN, then is it no more GOD: otherwise MAN is no more MAN.” “GRACE IS THE PRODUCT OF GOD THAT IS GIVEN BY GOD BECAUSE OF WHO HE IS AND NOT BECAUSE OF WHO WE ARE. It is the means of our salvation (see Eph. 2:8,9). We are no longer under the law, but under grace (see Rom. 5:2,15-20; 6:14; 1 Cor. 15:11; 2 Cor. 9:8; 12:9; Gal. 3).” Salvation is by the gift of grace not by obedience to the law, therefore, salvation is by God not man. God saves His elect people because He elected them. So salvation is given by God to His people because of who He is, and not at all because of who they are. Election and salvation by grace alone makes these people who they are. IF THE GRACE OF GOD IS UNDESERVED, THEN SALVATION ITSELF IS UNDESERVED. THIS MEANS THAT SALVATION CANNOT BE PRECEDED BY ANY ACT OF MAN’S THAT CAN EARN HIM SALVATION. You cannot do anything to deserve that which is undeserved. Grace is God doing, and God doing first. If any act were performed by a man that preceded grace, in order to procure grace, then grace would no longer be undeserved, and, therefore, no longer grace. If man could do anything to get saved, grace would simply be unnecessary, for if man can do, what need would there be for that which is undeserved, indeed, what need would there be for a substitutionary Saviour. This is precisely what Paul the apostle was saying in Romans 11:6, “…if by grace, then is it no more of works…if it be of works, then is it no more grace…” If salvation is by a Saviour, then it is not of the individual, and, if salvation is by the individual, then it would not need to be by a Saviour. If salvation is by grace, then it could not ever be by works, and, if salvation is by works, then it would not need the Work of a Saviour. If salvation is by that which is undeserved, then it can never be by that which is deserved, and, if salvation is by that which is deserved, then it can never be by that which is undeserved. The believer in grace does not appeal to works, and the believer in works cannot appeal to grace. The believer in Jesus does not appeal to his own personal works of obedience, and the one who does believe in salvation by personal obedience CANNOT appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ (see Matt. 7:21-23). If the works of a man preceded salvation, then salvation would not come from the love of God motivated by His will and grace, but by man’s love for God motivated by man’s will and works.

 

Many who claim to be Christian have been taught the colossal lie that God gives His grace by which He enables a person to choose Him, or to do some other act which will then give God the green light to save the person. This is false grace, and it is not the only true God Who provides it. It is what is called ‘prevenient grace’. The prevenient grace of Arminianism, which is derived from Roman Catholicism, and even finds its roots as far back as old 5th century Pelagianism, does not save anyone, but is said to merely begin a work which only man can finish. Such hogwash runs contrary to the Word of God which says “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). “Arminians claim that God gave a ‘prevenient grace’ to all men that frees their will and enables them to choose whether to believe in Jesus…As a result of the successful efforts of Arminius and other Jesuit agents, Molinism (Luis de Molina was a Spanish Jesuit monk) has since become popularized not as Molinism but as Arminianism. Many view Arminianism as an orthodox Christian view of Scripture, when in fact it is a corruption of the Gospel that has been injected into the Protestant denominations by Jacobus Arminius. Arminianism is simply a repackaged Roman Catholic, semi-Pelagian doctrine.” This satanic prevenient grace is said to prompt man to desire to sit up in bed, then assists a man to sit up in bed, but the decision as to whether, or not, the man gets up out of the bed is solely the domain of the man and his alleged free will. The key point of all such false gospels is ‘man must do’, thereby dispensing with the Biblical teaching that all men are, by nature, dead in sins, and, therefore, cannot do. Moreover, the teaching that man must do—which is based on the lie that man can do—does away with the Scriptural teaching that a man is saved purely by grace—what God does—for it ultimately conditions salvation on man. Man must do, is diametrically opposed to man being dead in sins. The reason why being saved by grace is being saved by grace alone, is that being saved by that which is undeserved can never have any work of man’s attached to it, for the moment you add a work to it, it ceases to be grace (see Rom. 11:6). So to add a work, a condition to salvation which must be met before one can be saved, is to make salvation something deserved, and, therefore, not something which comes purely by and because of grace. The only thing one can add to that which is undeserved is some act which deserves it. Work is deserving, earning, while grace is the complete opposite in that no one can do anything to deserve being saved by that which is undeserved. Many who try to join grace with works, say that God saves by grace after you accept His offer. In other words, ‘God saves by that which is undeserved after you have done something to deserve it’! Even if the only perquisite a man believes he must fulfil is to ‘accept God’s offer’, it is still a work which merits a response from God. It is complete nonsense, for it makes no Biblical sense at all, and has no Scripture which will support its deluded premise. Grace is what God does, and so, salvation is what God does. Anything deserved is done by man. Anything undeserved is done by God. Try and mix what man believes he must do, or can do, with what God does, in the matter of being saved and/or remaining saved, and you have a ‘solution’ which the Scriptures know nothing about. ‘Grace’ and works can only co-exist in man’s mad world of religion. ‘A man must do’ is central to false salvation. It is the core ingredient in all Babylonian religion. It is false teaching, and false teaching is always a counterfeit of what you need. If salvation ultimately depends on what a man must do, then grace is taken completely out of the picture, for God’s Word says salvation is by grace, it is BY WHAT GRACE DOES, that a man is saved. Salvation is by what God does, it is by HIS Righteousness alone that a man is saved. It is by grace that a man is made spiritually alive unto God, spiritually born again of God. Jesus said: “…no man can come to Me…” (Jn. 6:65). Concerning salvation “…with men this is impossible…” (Matt. 19:26), FOR, “…the flesh profiteth nothing…” (Jn. 6:63). Again, all of the glory for salvation belongs to God, therefore, all of salvation is of God, by grace. No glory for salvation belongs to man, therefore, the fact that all the glory for salvation rightly and only belongs to God, shows that God has done all that is necessary for a man to be saved and to remain saved. Grace makes the whole of salvation happen, it is not something which is merely contingent upon a man’s decision to accept it.

 

Salvation follows, it is only consequent to, and exclusively conditioned on, the will and grace of Almighty God, not the will, or works, of mere men. Arminians’ claim that they had to make their choice for God before God could save them, but that their not being able to make this decision without grace, is sheer nonsense, for salvation would then be conditioned on what a man must do before grace can actually make salvation functional in a person’s life. Their assertion is that the act of salvation is by grace, but that it cannot take effect in a person’s life unless man chooses God. Strict Arminianism says that this choosing is done independently of grace, otherwise, it would not be by man’s alleged free and independent will. After all, it would not be an independent ‘free will decision’ of man’s if it were in any way due to God’s influence. What they all fail to grasp is the fact that: works of any kind, including belief, cannot get a person saved, for salvation is conditioned on grace alone, on God alone—the One to Whom belongs all the glory for salvation—therefore, believing is merely an evidence that a person has been saved by grace, and never the cause. BELIEVING IS NOT A CONDUIT TO SALVATION, BUT AN EVIDENCE THAT SALVATION HAS ALREADY BEEN CONVEYED. Believing is the immediate fruit, and not the root, of salvation. Believing is a gift given, thus it cannot emanate from the heart of a dead sinner which never even desires the true God, but only from the will of a benevolent God Who saves only according to His will, grace, mercy and purpose in conjunction with His love for His people. There is no correlation between grace and works in terms of that which saves a man, for the two are diametrically opposed. A MAN IS SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH, AND NOT BECAUSE OF FAITH. A man is saved because of grace through its gift of faith. Faith is a gift given by grace, not a work performed by man. A saved man believing, is a man who believes because of grace. Scripture states that a man is saved only by grace through faith unto good works, and not because of good works, or even in collaboration with good works, “…by grace are ye saved through faith…not of works…For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…” (Eph. 2:8-10). A saved man is one who is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. That is grace. Faith is not a work of man’s, but is a gift from God. Salvation is completely conditioned on the will of God. Just as a man loves God only because God loved him first, so too, a man can only believe in God because God has given him the gift of faith to believe. Thus, faith is not a work of man’s, but is purely a gift given by God. No man can believe in God, who is not the workmanship of God—a new creature created in Christ Jesus by grace alone (see 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). None of the good works which have been ordained for the elect to walk in are, or can be, performed prior to their being created in Christ Jesus, in other words, prior to their salvation. The works a saved man is given come because he is saved. They are not given to lost men, but to saved men. No man can perform the works of God before being born again by God. No man can see the Kingdom of God prior to his being born again of God (see Jn. 3:3,5,6). This means that no man can see the Kingdom of God by any obedience to any law. The ground of salvation is the Righteousness of Christ. It is the act, or acts, of the Saviour to which the truly saved man appeals to, and never his own deeds. The chosen of God are “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience…” (1 Pet. 1:2), not because of, or due to any prior act of compliance. Salvation is by grace alone. “…God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us (not by us), who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3,4), because of grace.

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Salvation is totally dependent upon the will of God, not the will of man. The giving of grace ensures salvation, for grace is the manifestation of the will of God that His people be saved. It is a Biblical fact that nothing and no one can stop or hinder the will of Almighty God. Anyone who believes God’s will can be tampered with is no less a fool than the man who says there is no God. “For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isa. 14:27); God “…doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” (Dan. 4:35); “…the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men…” (Dan. 4:32);  “Behold, He taketh away, who can hinder Him? who will say unto Him, What doest thou?” (Job 9:12). None can possibly resist His will (see Rom. 9:19). “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” (Dan. 4:35 cf. 2 Chron. 20:6; Job 9:12; Eccl. 8:4). God says of Himself: “…I will work, and who shall let it?” (Isa. 43:13). The phrase who shall let it means: "‘who can turn it back’; either His work, or His hand in working; God’s purposes cannot be disannulled; His power cannot be controlled; His work cannot be made void, or of no effect; He always succeeds, for He has no superior that can obstruct Him”. “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased….For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in Heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places…Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” (Psa. 115:3; 135:5,6; Isa. 46:10). What God desires never conflicts with what He causes to come to pass.

 

If it was the will of man which made the difference between saved and lost, then salvation would not follow the grace of God, but the work of man. Grace is God doing first. “…who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Cor. 4:7 cf. Gal. 2:6). Receiving that which is of God is about God giving it, not a man accepting it. To receive is to have been given, not to have accepted. Those who are saved are saved because they have been given salvation, not because they have done anything to attain it. Grace is received not earned. Salvation is received not earned. How can grace that is undeserved bring a salvation which must be deserved? If grace is free then so is the salvation it brings. If works are the diametric opposite of grace, how can salvation by grace come because of works. Importantly, it must be noted that the receiving can only take place via the grace of God, otherwise it would be a man who made the difference in his life by a work, and not God solely by grace. Grace and salvation are chosen by God, not man. They are His to give, not man’s to choose. Gifts are for giving. Man’s doing anything to get saved before he is saved is a denial that no man, by nature, can come to God. It is a denial of spiritual death. The denial of spiritual death is no different to believing Satan’s lie that man would not die. Man is dead in sins, hence the necessity for grace if any are to be saved. Man being dead in trespasses and sins is conclusive evidence proving that salvation is not by that which is deserved, but only by that which is undeserved: grace. Both the giving of grace and the receiving are gifts. God alone makes the difference between saved and lost. Grace alone makes the difference between saved and lost. Therefore, man has nothing in which to glory except the cross of Christ: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Gal. 6:14,15). SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT WHATA MAN HAS DONE, BUT WHAT GOD HAS MADE HIM. Salvation is not about works, but grace alone. How can a man say that what he has done makes him differ from those that are lost, when all of salvation hinges upon the will and grace of God. How can a man say that what he has done makes him differ from those that are lost, when a saved man is a new creature created by God in Christ Jesus unto good works, not an old creature saved by dead works. Salvation is not by what a man does, or does not do, but what he has been made to be. How can a man legitimately say that what he has done makes him differ from those that are lost, when all the lost are equally dead in trespasses and sins, thus unable to do anything to come to God. How can a creature dead in sins boast about anything it has done? The Christian is dead to the ways of religion, because he has been made alive to the Way of salvation: Jesus Christ the Lord of glory. Everything the saved man has, and everything he is, has been given to him and received by and because of grace.

 

Jesus said “no man can come to Me”, therefore, anything a man does is clearly irrelevant to his being saved. The works of men are unrelated to salvation, for salvation is by grace alone. You cannot come to Christ by who you are, or by what you do. Dead works cannot bring you to the Saviour. A spiritually dead life can do nothing to bring you to the Saviour. Nothing but the grace of God can take you to Him. Jesus said: “…no man can come unto Me, except it be GIVEN unto him of My Father” (Jn. 6:65). The fact that no man can come to God, shows that nothing a man is, or can do, can lead him to the only true Messiah. In other words, works are an utterly profitless means to salvation. No man can, means salvation cannot be earned. Except it be given reveals that salvation can only be by grace. No man can come to Jesus unless it is given to the person to come, by grace. To come to God is something which must be freely given to a man by God. No man has the ability or desire within him by nature to come to the only true God. Coming to Christ is a gift, and it can only be given by the Father. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me…” (Jn. 6:37). It is not ‘All that choose Me shall come to Me’, but only “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me”. No saved person ever came to Jesus by what they did, for the only ones who have ever come to the Lord Jesus Christ, are the ones the Father has chosen before the world began, and given to Him by grace alone. Works of any kind are not the mechanism God has chosen for His people to come to Him. GRACE is the only mechanism God uses to save His people from their sins. Salvation is not by choosing, it is not by what a man does, but only by God giving. Salvation is not by a choice made, but by a gift given. That is grace. Whatever a man does can never lead him to God. This completely eviscerates the idea that man must do before he can be saved. What can man do when the only way he can come to God is by a gift from God. What can man do when the only way he can come to God is by being given by the Father to the Son. What can a man do when the only way he can come to God is by being graciously drawn to God solely by God. No man has within him the vital content or force to be saved God’s Way—not to mention the inclination or will to believe the Gospel of grace—for he is deprived of all such things because of sin. Sin killed man, and the only way he can be revived is by the grace of God. The grace of God is the only Way to Life eternal. The only way to not get to God, is by either doing nothing, or by doing something. Get circumcised, stay uncircumcised, do everything, don’t do anything, nothing about you, or what you do or don’t do, is going to get you to God (see Gal. 6:15). That is the horrible, appalling state every man is in by nature. The Word of God calls it, “having no hope”, being “without God” and being “without Christ” (see (Eph. 2:12).

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