A heretical gospel void of works…..
Today’s gospel in America is not Jesus’ gospel. Today’s gospel is about “self” and based on certain scriptures pulled out of context while others are completely ignored.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God..not of works, lest anyone should boast…”
This is THE verse quoted by those who wanna omit works as part of salvation. No verse in scripture stands alone as being sufficient for doctrinal proof. Scripture demands comparing scripture with scripture. It is ironic how Ephesians 2:8-9 is so highly proof texted while the following portion of those scriptures is never mentioned…..
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM.”
Hmmm….We are created by Jesus for “good works? I thought “they” said that “Jesus paid it all” and that all is required of me is to believe that?
Consider the scriptures that completely contradict what Ephesians 2:8-9 say on their own, apart from their chapter’s context and the sum of the entire Bible, especially the New Covenant…..
Phillipians 2:12-13
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always OBEYED, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, WORK OUT your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will AND TO DO for His good pleasure.”
If works are not part of acquiring salvation, then why does Paul command salvation to be worked out? Why did he not just preach, “Pray the sinner’s prayer and receive Jesus into your heart and you are saved?” Why? Because that isn’t in the Bible! Anywhere. Period.
In James 2:14-26, James declares works emphatically as a necessity for salvation….
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith BUT DOES NOT HAVE WORKS? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not GIVE THEM the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it DOES NOT HAVE WORKS, is DEAD. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Well I say…Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith BY MY WORKS. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons BELIEVE—and tremble! (are they saved?) But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father JUSTIFIED BY WORKS when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together WITH HIS WORKS, AND BY WORKS faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man IS JUSTIFIED BY WORKS, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also JUSTIFIED BY WORKS when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD also.”
James goes on to say in chapter 1, verses 22-25…….
“But BE DOERS of the Word, and not hearers only, DECEIVING YOURSELVES. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and CONTINUES in it, and IS NOT a forgetful hearer but a DOER of the WORK, THIS ONE will be blessed in what he DOES.”
Works alone do not save us. And Faith alone does not save us. But Faith with works saves us and show that we are saved, if we continue until the end of our life here serving Christ loyally. We are justified by our works done in (faith)FULNESS. Jesus spoke of bearing fruit WORTHY OF REPENTANCE. He declared that any tree that is not bearing godly fruit is cut down and burned in the fire. Good trees do not bear bad fruit. He said His followers could be discerned by the kind of fruit they produce and likewise, those who are not His followers will be known by the fruit they produce.
The term “saved” used in modern church is used loosely as a “here and now” term for declaring faith alone in Jesus. But according to scripture, “saved” is a term reserved for a future time, after life here is completed.
Scripture says, “They that endure UNTIL the end, the same will be saved.” So, according to scripture, we are saved AFTER a life of loyal servitude, IF we endure until the end in the work He has called us to do. Saying some prayer doesn’t render immediate and absolute salvation. A life of faithful servitude until death does!
The majority of western Christianity has bought into “another gospel” that removes responsibility from one’s own salvation and mingles the message of the Cross of Calvary with the message of Salvation as being one and the same. They are NOT! They work together but are not the same. Salvation precedes Jesus and the Cross. The Cross was about dealing with humanity’s sin debt. Moses, David, Elijah, Samuel, and so on were all saved BEFORE Jesus and the Cross. The Cross paid their ransom for sin and thus allowed them access to receiving immortal bodies and entrance into God’s Heaven. Up until this point, they had been in “Paradise”, which was in the heart of the earth, in a spiritual place called Sheol (Hell). Jesus explains this in Luke 16:19-26……
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’”
Those in torment could see those in Paradise, and likewise, those in Paradise saw the tormented. But there was an impassable boundary set by God between the Old Testament saints and the eternally damned. Jesus is teaching this truth of those whose deaths preceded His living as a man. Remember, on the Cross, he assured the thief who believed Him, and whose heart chose to follow, that He would be with Jesus that day in “Paradise.” And he and Jesus died, and like all before them, they go into Hell (Sheol). Jesus is going for just 3 days! Scripture said that while in Hell that Jesus took the keys to Death, Hell, and the Grave from the enemy and that He led captivity captive, meaning He took those saints whose sins had previously not been paid for by the blood of a perfect Lamb, and led them out, and they arose from the grave following Jesus, and were seen by many walking around Jerusalem. (Matthew 27:52-53)
You see, the Cross was not for Salvation, but to pay the ransom owed to Hell for sin. This payment dealt with the sin issue for all time…. past sin, present sin, and future sin, when brought to Jesus and confessed and forsaken. But, despite modern reformation theology, the Cross was NOT salvation. Salvation is and has always been acquired by loyal, obedient faith in following Yahweh/Jesus Christ, in dying on our own crosses daily to this world and the things therein, laying aside our life and personal desires for His Will, and performing His Word by becoming an extension of who He is here in this earth. Any gospel that is void of works as pertinent to salvation is heretical! Faith without works is dead faith and damning! There is no sinner’s prayer, no vocal profession of faith not consummated by works, nor anyone leading others in receiving Jesus into their heart found in scripture, anywhere. What we do see is Jesus approaching men who are asked to lay aside what they were doing and FOLLOW HIM! That is Biblical Salvation. Believe Him and Follow Him!
Matthew 4:19-20
“Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”
They were justified by their faith through obedience to completing the work and keeping themselves unspotted from the world system.
“But hold on, Chris! The Bible says…..
Romans 10:9-10
because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.”
Well, like about every other passage used in the “gospel of Me”, people quote this excerpt of scripture to justify an implied vocal profession of Jesus UTTERLY void of the context audience to which Paul was addressing. Tell me, since when in your Americanized false Jesus gospel has “confessing Him” ever meant that in so doing you would be fed to lions in an arena for Roman entertainment, or having your arms strapped to one horse, while your legs are tied to another horse, and if you will not renounce Christ as Lord, (or to put it in the current discussion, if you will “confess Him with your mouth and believe in your heart that His resurrection will become your own”), that you will be ripped apart by these beasts???? THAT is what confessing Him meant in the context of Rome!!! So people need to stop blaspheming the Word to justify a self-focusing lie, in that they really won’t die to self for Him!