The High Cost of Cheap Grace: Salvation Conditional

INTRODUCTION

Salvation is God’s free gift to man. But do you realize what it cost? Have you ever considered that God punished Himself for our salvation?

INTRO

Before we continue if you have not watched Part 1 and 2 “The High Cost of Salvation.” Be sure to do so before watching this one.

The story is told of a boy asking his preacher, “Sir, what can I do to be saved. The preacher replied, “Son, you’re too late.” “What!” exclaimed the boy, “I’m too late to be saved?” “No, you’re too late to do anything, Jesus already did it all two thousand years ago.”

Salvation is wonderful and so is God’s Grace; the two are so interconnected that they are inseparable.

Yet, so many have watered down and cheapened the grace of God, that it is no wonder that there is so much confusion about it.

Salvation is free…but…

BODY

SALVATION IS CONDITIONAL

With that statement, many would quickly say, nope…Jesus bought our salvation, he paid it all, and there is nothing we need to do or can do, such as the illustration mentioned a moment ago.

However, it is interesting that the NT writers and preachers did not know this.

In Acts 2, when Peter and the others were asked, “What shall we do?”—Acts 2:37. Peter did not say, “You’re too late. Jesus did it all fifty days ago on the cross. There is nothing for you to do.” Rather, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”—Acts 2:38.

To put it simply, there was something these believers needed to do in order to acquire salvation and access the grace of God. The text continues, “And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”—Acts 2:40.

Hold on!—They were told to “Be saved” or “Save yourselves…” How or in what sense? Certainly not in earning salvation but in simply obey God on His terms. God being the gift giver, has the right to attach whatever conditions He chooses to the gift in order to receive the gift.

The apostle Paul wrote more books of the NT than any other write; he also said more about grace than anyone else. He used the word approximately 89 times of the 128 times it occurs in the NKJV In all those references Paul never once said salvation was unconditional or by grace only.

How did Saul (Paul) understand salvation by grace through faith when he was saved?

He asked on the road to Damascus, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”—Acts 9:6.

Paul must have misunderstood. He should have known that grace only through faith alone is all that is necessary, and that “doing” something would mean he was trying to save himself. Surely Jesus corrected him. No, Jesus answered, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”—Acts 9:6.

Maybe Saul misunderstood, but the inspired preacher would clarify things.

Ananias came to Saul with this command, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’”—Acts 22:16

Paul had been a believer for three days, yet still had sins to be washed away. He did not argue that baptism was unessential to his salvation; he did not argue that it was a good thing to do at some point, but not necessary. He did not argue that he was already saved and he would just wait until Baptismal Sunday. Instead, he “arose, and was baptized” to wash away his sins—Acts 9:18.

Did Paul later renounce what he did, and admit regretfully that he had tried to earn (merit) salvation by doing good works?

No, he continued to speak of “obedience to the faith” (Rom. 1:5) and of “faith working through love.”—Gal. 5:6. He linked grace and obedience together (Titus 2:11-12) and urged Christians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”—Phil. 2:12. He discussed the necessity of obeying the truth (Rom. 2:8; Gal. 3:1), and obeying the Gospel (Rom. 10:16). These were all part of the gospel of which Paul said there was not another—Gal. 1:6-10.

We cheapen the grace of God, when we set aside the conditions that God has placed on salvation.

Don’t stop here, be sure to check out the last video in this series, where we will learn what the author of eternal salvation (Jesus) told us to do to be saved and access the grace of God.

If you would like more information call and leave a message at the number on the screen. You can also text it, if you prefer. You can also visit via email when you use the contact page, under services, above.

Thanks for watching

We hope to see you tomorrow

Bye for now.