THE LORD'S WAY OF SALVATION
In the past I have striven in my “News & Views” to regularly set forth the Lord's way of salvation from sin. In looking back over the past year, I see that it has been several months since I have addressed this important subject. This “News & Views” is intended to remedy that unintentional oversight. Just think! What a tragedy—an eternal tragedy—it would be to stand before the Lord on the day of judgment only to hear Him say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (you who ignored My law and did otherwise) (Matthew 7:21-23).
The only way any of us will be saved is by the Lord's way. Jesus affirmed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). “I must needs go home by the way of the cross: There's no other way but this.” As the apostle Peter once asked rhetorically, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?” (John 6:68). We will not be saved by what we have always thought, believed, or felt about how to be saved. We will not be saved by what our parents or grandparents may have believed about how to be saved. We will not be saved by what the culture around us says. We will not be saved by what many theologians, preachers, and televangelists tell us.
A popular preacher, the son of an even more popular preacher, often appears on TV and tells people to say a certain prayer and they will be saved. Where do you read of such in your Bible? Read the New Testament—the last will and testament of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:15-16)—from Matthew to Revelation and tell me where Jesus or any of His apostles ever told any inquirer to say a certain prayer in order to be saved. I read where a man who had been praying and fasting for three days was told, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 9:1-19; Acts 22:1-16). That man was Saul of Tarsus who became the great apostle Paul. Has God provided a way of salvation for us today that was not available to Saul? Will it not be tragic to stand before God on the day of judgment condemned to eternal torment because you did not read God's word for yourself to see what it says about how to be saved? In this issue of “Hugh's News & Views” I will give book, chapter, and verse from the Bible about how to be saved. Turn to the passages and read them for yourself. Do not take my word for them (Acts 17:11).
The gospel is God's power to save (Romans 1:16). At the heart of the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-5). In this text Paul says that we are saved by the gospel (V. 2). He referred to it as “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). For this reason just prior to His ascension back to heaven, Christ commissioned His apostles to “go teach all nations”; to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16). He did this because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17), and “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Are we diligently seeking God? Then let us listen to Him as He speaks to us through His inspired word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Faith in God, faith in Christ, faith in the Bible as God's word enables one to search and see what God, Christ, and the word say about how to be saved.
To be saved one must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way to God (John 8:24; John 14:6). It is to Christ that we must look for salvation. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up (on the cross, hf), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). (For the background to the reference to Moses and the serpent, see Number 21:4-9).
In looking to Christ for salvation we learn that He and His apostles commanded all men everywhere to repent of (turn from) their sins. Jesus said, “I tell you...but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). In his sermon in Athens, Paul preached that God commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). To repent means to change one’s mind, leading to a change of actions and a change of spiritual direction in one’s life. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). If you are lost it will not be God's fault, only your own fault.
When one truly believes that Christ is the Son of God and one's only savior that person will freely confess his faith in Christ. Christ declared, “Therefore, whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Just as the Ethiopian eunuch confessed, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37, KJV), so one today must confess that same truth and then continue to confess that truth by their manner of life (Romans 10:9-10; Romans 12:1-2; Philippians 1:27).
To be saved one must also be baptized (immersed in water). Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). One (belief) without the other (baptism) falls short of the Lord's way of salvation. On the day of Pentecost, Peter told inquiring sinners, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). I see that son of a popular preacher on television and wonder why he will not tell people what Jesus said one must do to be saved (Mark 16:15-16), why he will not tell them what Peter told inquiring sinners to do (Acts 2:38), why he will not tell them what Ananias told Saul to do (Acts 22:16). He would not need to come up with a contrived message; he could simply quote or read from his New Testament these passages of scripture. He would then be setting forth the Lord's way of salvation! “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).
In baptism sins are washed away (Acts 22:16). In being buried with Christ in baptism one enters into the death of Christ where His blood was shed (Romans 6:3-5; John 19:32-34). Christ shed His blood “for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28); we are baptized “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). It is when we are baptized that we are saved from our sins (1 Peter 3:21).
But baptism is not the end, it is just the beginning of a new life (Romans 6:3-5). One is baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27), and in Christ one becomes a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Once in Christ we are to develop the Christian graces (2 Peter 1:5-11). We must “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). We must avoid the works of the flesh and manifest the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26). We must be steadfast and unmovable (1 Corinthians 15:58). We must be faithful even to the point of death (Revelation 2:10).
Some of my readers have never obeyed the gospel and are therefore in a lost state (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). I have a deep and sincere love for them and their souls and a compelling desire to share the Lord's way of salvation with them. I want all of them to hear and understand the pure gospel of Christ, as opposed to a perverted gospel (Galatians 1:6-9). Therefore, I urge all to read the passages cited in this essay. In this way you will be hearing what the Lord, not man, says about how to be saved. When you know what to do, then do it! Only when you do what people did in New Testament times can you become what people became in New Testament times and receive what people received in New Testament times—forgiveness of your sins, adoption as a child of God, membership in the body of Christ, and the promise of a home in heaven. If I can assist you in any way, please reach out to me.
Hugh Fulford
