Righteousness By Faith : How To Be Saved According To The Bible

Today’s topic is Righteousness by Faith: How to Be Saved According to the Bible.

No human being can ever honestly boast that he saved himself. The glory is all God’s. Listen to this treasured passage on the subject in Ephesians  2:8: “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.  

Notice is grace on God’s part and faith on man’s part. Not that faith is the means of salvation, it is simply the channel. It is not of yourselves; that is plain and clear, isn’t it? Salvation is not effected by human effort; it is “the gift of God” – a free gift “without money or without price” (Isaiah 55:1). Neither is it “of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9). Right here we need to be very clear – works are not a cause but an effect of salvation. There is proof of it – “By their fruits, ye shall know them,” say the Scriptures in Matthew 7:20.

 

When we have found salvation through faith brought about by the unmerited grace of God provided in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, we are to walk in the ways of God; our works, our living, our deeds – all are the fruitage of God’s divine act in us.

 

Through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus “unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk (or live) in them” (Eph. 2:10). Let’s never take any of the credit or any of the glory to ourselves; it is all of God.

Now comes the good news – God provided righteousness for ungodly sinners. This makes it clear why we can never be saved until we are ready to admit that we are ungodly, that we are sinners, that we are unrighteous. Then and then only can we find salvation. There is no salvation for people who are already righteous in their works.

 

When God’s people stand before the great white throne and hear the voice of Jesus say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21), it will all be in the name of Christ, all to God’s glory. God provides righteousness for unrighteous sinners who have nothing to plead on their own behalf, who recognize that their human attempts to fulfill God’s holy precepts and to make themselves righteous are of no avail.

 

God’s righteousness is revealed in His holy law; He dealt with its demands by coming Himself to this world in the person of His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. On Calvary’s cross, He received His own judgment for human sin. There Christ drank to the very depths the cup of judgment that our sins demanded.

 

Think of it! The Lord, the Holy One, the Righteous One, the Just One, who is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26), suffered on the cross the penalty that our sins – yours and mine- demanded as if He were corrupt, wicked, licentious, untruthful, unholy, and unchaste as the men and women of this world have been and are.

 

In the video below Pastor Doug Batchelor preaches on the subject of salvation. The sermon is based on the conversation Christ had with Nicodemus as found in John chapter 3.