Salvation through Faith
Since we all fall short of God's
perfect standard of righteousness,
in order to be saved we must
put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz:
I'm sure most of us have met people
who believe that they will enter heaven,
hopefully because of their good works.
In other words, it's somewhat
like a balancing situation of scales.
And if the good works outweigh the bad works,
hopefully we'll be accepted
into God's eternal kingdom.
But Paul is trying to show us,
and definitely is showing us,
that that's not a true view
of how we inherit eternal life.
It's based on faith.
So let me read that Principle once again
so we get the full force of it:
Since we all fall short of God's
perfect standard of righteousness,
in order to be saved we must
put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now to support this Principle
notice what Paul does.
And I've called this God's righteousness through faith.
Romans chapter 3, verse 21 and following:
But now, apart from the law,
the righteousness of God has been revealed,
attested by the law and the Prophets.
The righteousness of God
is through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe,
since there is no distinction.
For all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God.
They are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus.
That's a pretty clear statement
to support this concept, this Principle.
Now prior to these statements,
Paul wove together a number of
Old Testament sources--mainly from the Psalms--
to demonstrate that we all have sinned.
And deserve judgment.
He just flows these together there
in your biblical text.
But thankfully, Paul then presented
the solution to our human predicament.
And that solution obviously is
salvation by grace through faith.
Paul really, beautifully illustrated this
when he wrote to the Ephesians.
And again, nothing could be clearer.
First of all, he says this in Ephesians 2:8 and 9:
For you are saved by grace through faith,
and this is not from yourselves;
it is God's gift--not from works,
so that no one can boast.
Pretty clear.
And yet so many people read that
and don't understand it.
Now what about works?
Well works are important.
Not for salvation but because of salvation.
And so Paul goes on
in verse 10 with these words:
For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared ahead of time
for us to do.
Salvation is by grace through faith.
But true faith and true conversion,
and a change of heart,
and a born-again experience,
leads then to work out our salvation.
Not for our salvation. But because of our salvation,
to begin to live like Jesus Christ.
Not in our own strength but through
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Which we'll see, Paul really develops
a little later on, particularly when he
gets in to chapter 8.
So another Reflection and Response question:
Why is it so difficult for many people
to accept the fact that salvation
is a free gift?
For some I think they feel: too simple.
It's just too simple.
Or it's too easy.
Or from a human point of view,
it doesn't make sense.
Or it doesn't seem to be fair.
And to be honest we all have
questions about that.
And ultimately by faith, we need to understand
that God is a righteous judge.
I really appreciate and I've referred
to this before of an interview
that the late Billy Graham had
on Good Morning America.
And he was being interviewed.
And the gentleman that was
interviewing him says: Billy.
Charlie was his name--he said:
What about those who have never heard?
And there's got to be another way.
And Billy just responded by quoting Jesus.
He said: Well Jesus said in John 14:6
that He was the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man comes
to the Father except by Him.
And then Charlie responded by saying:
But that doesn't seem right.
That doesn't seem fair.
And I still remember Billy's response.
He said: Charlie, we just have to trust God
that He's a righteous judge.
End of discussion.
I thought it was a very wise response.
But here's the Principle, once again,
to Live By that comes from what
Paul is sharing here in Romans:
Since we all fall short of God's
perfect standard of righteousness,
in order to be saved we must
put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.