The Great Lie
A large portion of humanity buys into the great lie that we have the ability within ourselves to save ourselves, or at least help God in the salvation process, whether to a small or large degree. The Bible is plain that salvation is completely by grace and not by human works (Eph 2:8-9). Grace is unmerited favor; it is undeserved goodness. Grace flows from the heart of a giver who loves graciously and chooses to bestow kindness regardless of merit. None of us deserve God’s salvation, and we cannot, by any means whatsoever, earn it. The beauty of grace is that it is given freely, without cost to the recipient, and with no expectation of payment. It’s a gift. Free and simple.
In grace, the kindness shown is rooted in the goodness and open-handedness of the giver and is in no way predicated on the beauty or worth of the object. In fact, grace is greatest when the object is the least worthy or most undeserving, for if any merit can be given by the recipient, then grace ceases to be grace. Human works do not save. They never have, and never will. God expects good works to follow salvation (Gal 6:10; Eph 2:10), but they are never the condition of it (Rom 4:4-5; Gal 2:16).[1] Paul wrote, “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28), and “To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom 4:5). Additionally, he stated, “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). God’s plan of salvation excludes all human efforts. His eternal salvation is based on grace, where He does all the work, and we receive His blessings as a free gift. This means God gets all the credit and glory, while we benefit from His goodness.
Any human effort to save oneself, whether as a prerequisite, corequisite, or postrequisite to faith in Christ, automatically produces a false gospel that saves no one. Salvation is entirely from the Lord. God sent His Son to die for our sins, and to die for all of them. And the Son accomplished the Father’s work on the cross, forever satisfying every righteous demand of the Father concerning our sins. The plain teaching of Scripture is that Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and “Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18), and “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). As spiritually impoverished, we approach God with the empty hands of faith, offering nothing but receiving everything He offers. It’s important to understand that faith does not save; rather, Christ saves. He alone deserves all glory and credit, and we receive the blessings of His sacrifice on the cross.
Eternal salvation is a free gift from God, available to all who desire it. Jesus died for everyone (John 3:16; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2), which means everyone is savable, and the gospel of grace is open to all who want it. The Bible speaks of “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3-4), who has brought “salvation to all men” (Tit 2:11), and is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Faith in Christ is the sole condition for salvation. Scripture states, “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and “you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26), and “I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Paul tells us, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Eternal life is completely free because none of us can earn it; the cost is too high, and we lack the currency to pay for such a priceless gift. But Jesus paid our sin debt in full, having died on the cross in our place, and we were redeemed “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:19). The blood of Christ is the coin of the heavenly realm that paid our sin debt, and when we trust in Christ as our Savior, all the benefits of the cross are applied to us, and we receive eternal life.
God has brought eternal salvation to an irreducible minimum whereby faith alone in Christ alone is all that is needed to be saved. But Satan, the great liar, because he cannot reduce the gospel message by means of subtraction, always seeks to pervert and neutralize it by means of the addition of good works (i.e., water baptism, turning from sin, joining a church, etc.). The Christian who seeks to evangelize the lost must always be careful when sharing the gospel of grace to make clear that salvation is by grace alone (it’s underserved), through faith alone (not by works), in Christ alone. A person needs only Christ to be saved. No one else. Nothing more. The matter is simple, Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and raised again on the third day as Scripture reveals (1 Cor 15:3-4). That’s what He did for us. He died for our sins. And to receive the benefits of the cross, forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7) and eternal life (John 10:28; Rom 6:23), when we simply “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31). Believing in Christ means we trust Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; to save us eternally. Please trust in Christ as your Savior.
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Dr. Steven R. Cook
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[1] Good works have no saving merit before God. Isaiah wrote, “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa 64:6a). Paul wrote, “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16), for “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9), and God “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works” (2 Tim 1:9), and “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness” (Tit 3:5a). Though human good works may have value in the sight of other people, they have absolutely no saving merit in God’s sight. None at all!