GOD'S SALVATION

People will readily give up many things to try to earn their salvation. That's why works' religion is so popular. To the natural heart, the first question that comes to mind is, "What must 'I' do to inherit eternal life?" and not, "What must GOD do to save a wretch like me?" People would rather burn a candle, kiss a statue, walk an aisle, repeat a prayer after a preacher, give alms, submit to men's rules and regulations, etc., because being in the flesh, they do the things of the flesh. Many will even acknowledge that salvation is by grace, but still believe that their will or decision determines their destiny. They cling to their profession in false religion, not wanting to acknowledge that they are "without hope, without God and without Christ," Ephesians 2:12.

There is no worse delusion than to go on pretending or assuming that it really doesn't matter who we believe, how we believe, or why we believe. Christ told the Pharisees plainly, "No man putteth new wine into old bottles (wineskins); else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles marred: but NEW WINE MUST BE PUT INTO NEW BOTTLES." Mark 2:22.
The real question is, "Has the Lord Jesus Christ been made to you WISDOM, RIGHTEOUSNESS, SANCTIFICATION, AND REDEMPTION?" 1 Corinthians 1:30. THIS is the sum and total of salvation!

• · By God's Spirit, you are made to see Him in His incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension as the very WISDOM of God, being the Substitute of His chosen ones. It is because of His effectual sacrifice that God is just in justifying those He represents, Romans 3:26.
• · Through faith in Him, you are brought to submit to the very RIGHTEOUSNESS of God, which God imputed to the account of every one of His elect upon completion of the obedience of Christ unto death- Romans 10:3,4.  Faith sees a just God who is satisfied on the sinner's behalf, no longer looking on any of His elect as guilty or condemned, but as SAINTS, just as righteous as God Himself, Romans 5:1.
• · By His grace, you are SANCTIFIED, not by works of righteousness of your own, but by the very Spirit of Christ working in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure, John 17:15-19.

This all adds up to a good hope of REDEMPTION. It refers here to the yet future redemption of the body, at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 8:23.  Would any be so foolish as to cling to the rags of self-righteousness, or the beggarly elements of a man-centered, man-exalting profession, in exchange for the God honoring, Christ-exalting Gospel of salvation?