A brother said:
“If you believe we are justified by our own power, through things God has given us to do,…”
TB: The Bible teaches that salvation is by grace THROUGH faith (Eph.2:8). Faith (believing) is a thing that God has given us to do. Nobody can do it for us. Jesus does not do this for us. So, I believe like Paul that we are justified, not by our own power, but definitely “through things God has given us to do”. One of those things God has given us to do is BELIEVE (Heb.11:6). It is THROUGH faith that grace becomes our possession (Rom.5:1). We exercise our minds and hearts upon the word of God and “faith comes by hearing”(Rom.10:17). We do the hearing, the listening, the studying of the evidence revealed. It is BY hearing that faith comes. Hearing is something we must do. This is one of the “things God has given us to do”. Now, I do not believe that I am justified BY my own power. I believe that He gives me the power of salvation through hearing the word of the gospel (Rom.10:17; 1:16). Now, our brother goes on to say that if we believe that we are justified “through things God has given us to do”:
then your salvation becomes dependent on you and your obedience to God.
TB: But, God does not force us to be saved. So, there is a sense in which much really does depend on our willingness to yield and obey. I know it ultimately comes from Jesus, and I know that I cannot save myself except He provide the means and state the conditions or terms of pardon. But, after he provides the means and states the terms of my acceptance, then it becomes dependent on my willingness to yield and obey those terms of acceptance and pardon. Our brother goes on to say:
On the other hand, if you believe we are justified by God’s grace and power, then your salvation becomes totally dependent on God and His lovingkindness. You can figure out which of those paths leads to confidence and which of those paths leads to deluded self-righteousness or hopelessness.
TB: Well, I believe that I am saved by God’s grace and power, but I also have to believe that it is THROUGH faith that I must bring to God. Now, if I TOTALLY leave everything up to God, then I will not be saved. As loving and kind as God is, God is leaving some things up to me. I can yield and obey or I can turn from His grace and let Jesus’ death be in vain for me. God has already voted for me. I have to cast the deciding vote. When I decide to vote for God’s salvation by obeying His terms of pardon, I have every reason to be confident in my salvation. That is NOT a path that leads to self-righteousness or hopelessness.
It is not “self-righteous” to believe that I must meet GOD’s terms of pardon. It would be self-righteous to think that I do not need to or have to. It is not hopeless to think I have to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins. It would be hopeless if I refused.
So, having looked again at our brother’s words, I still disagree with them. I have not twisted them or taken them out of context. I realize that a little later he made a disclaimer that he does not believe in “cheap grace”, but that disclaimer contradicts the idea of being totally dependent on God and His lovingkindness, because if it costs me anything, cheap or expensive, then it is not totally dependent on God and His lovingkindness. It depends some on whether I am willing to pay the cost demanded, whether cheap or expensive.
I also said and realize that ONLY by grace do I have a chance at all, but the fact that it is a chance to be saved, and that chance is up to me, surely indicates that it is not ALL “totally dependent on God and His lovingkindness”. When our brother says it is not “cheap grace”, he is implying that it may cost us something, and if it costs us anything, then it is not “totally dependent on God and His lovingkindness”.
I know the MEANS of pardon (Jesus’ blood) and the TERMS or conditions of pardon are totally given by God’s grace. He did not have to give the means or terms because of any goodness on my end. But, meeting the terms of pardon is totally up to me. There is much that DEPENDS on me. Am I wrong? Does ANY of the possession of the gift of salvation depend on me? Yes! It depends on my hearing, my honesty with the evidence presented, and my willingness to believe and obey the terms of pardon. Where am I wrong? In what way have I misrepresented anything a brother said?
Now let me address this question to our brother: Does salvation depend on us at all? If it does not, then all of us are saved automatically. Jesus died for us all. There is nothing we can do to be lost, because being lost is not up to us, and there is nothing we can do to be saved, because being saved is not up to us. If salvation does depend on us at all, then to whatever degree that any of it depends on us, to that degree it cannot TOTALLY depend on God and His loving-kindness. The part where God gave terms of pardon and appealed to us to obey those terms of pardon, leaves that much up to us. We can keep tagging along with this perverse generation and remain condemned with them, or, we can save ourselves from this perverse generation by meeting God’s terms of pardon(Acts 2:40). But, if it depends on my willingness to hear and believe and obey, then the argument our brother makes is not true. - Terry W. Benton
