WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.
Salvation is man’s most imperative, crucial and urgent need… “for all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” (Romans 3:23)
If we expect to become righteous by our own achievement or justify ourselves by an attempt to keep God’s law perfectly we are reminded by God through His inspired word in Romans 3:10 “there is none righteous, no, not one” and in Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Without Christ, a sinner is estranged – separated from God’s people, a stranger to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God. (Ephesians 2:12).
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a
“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.” Ephesians 2:8-9 Grace means a free (not cheap) and unmerited gift or favour. God bestows favour even upon the ill-deserving and grants to sinners pardon of their offences and bids them accept eternal salvation through Christ. Grace is God’s part in our salvation. Faith is our response to God’s grace.
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 God’s grace offers salvation to all people regardless of their race or record.
Salvation By Grace Is Conditional.
God saves us by grace; God’s offer of grace is conditioned on our faithful response to His will. “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” Ephesians 2:8a. If salvation were by grace alone, since grace is extended to all, literally all would be saved: even those who did not wish to be – such universalism is untenable.
God has determined that we play a part in our salvation by exercising choice and faith (not works). Man’s part is to have faith or to believe on the Lord. We are justified freely by his grace…through faith...
Repentance and faith are not vicarious but are the free acts of men. Men, with their own mind, heart, and will must renounce sin and receive Christ. Turning from sin and reaching out in faith to Christ are the acts of man, and every man who so responds does so because he honestly wishes to do so. He wants to be forgiven and he can only be forgiven by repenting and believing. No one can turn from sin for us, we must do it. No one can trust Christ “in our place,” we must personally, knowingly, and willingly believe, trust or have faith in Him in order to be saved. God doesn’t repent and believe for us, we repent and believe.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:23-28
What Is Saving Faith?
God paid the price and offers us salvation freely (not cheaply but extremely costly). Obedient faith does not attempt to earn or merit salvation. It is evident that we cannot save ourselves.
Biblical faith is living and obedient. “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,” Hebrews 5:9. We see a Biblical demonstration of saving faith in Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
Noah and his family were saved from destruction because he, “moved with godly fear, prepared an ark…and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith “ The same kind of faith saves us today. Faith is Faith in action.
