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Bible Will I Find: Saved By Faith, Not The Law? Part 2 By: Gary Colley
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Bible Will I Find: Saved By Faith, Not The Law? Part 2 By: Gary Colley
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In this writer’s 45 years of continually preaching the Gospel, no one in the churches of Christ has ever been heard to say, that men are not saved by faith. We affirm that there is no other way to be saved but by faith (Jn.8:24; Rom.5:1). The faith that saves is the faith that believes and obey God’s power unto salvation, the Gospel (Rom.1:16-17). Paul says that our salvation if dependent on “faith which worketh by love” (Gal.5:6). “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us…” (Tit.2:11-12). Paul further teaches us, that we are not saved “by works of righteousness which we have done,” or which originated with us, “but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration (baptism GC), and renewing of the Holy Spirit (new life in Christ GC). He also states, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law (of Moses GC); YE ARE FALLEN FROM GRACE” (Gal.5:4). But while we would never say that one is saved without faith, at the same time we do affirm, and correctly so by the Bible, that no man can be saved by the works of the Law of Moses or “faith only” (Gal.2:16; Jas.2:24). If anyone could be saved by the works of the Law of Moses, and not by obedient faith, it would have been Paul! (Gal.1:13-14). Paul gave up what he had depended on in the past for his salvation, that is the Law of Moses, so that he could enjoy obedience to Christ, and the blessings that come by Him (II Cor.1:20-21). Jesus came to establish a better plan of salvation. He said in the Sermon on the Mount, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt.5:20). There had to be a better plan of righteousness or salvation than had been given in the Law of Moses or men could not enter the kingdom or church. The Law demanded perfection, but no man except Jesus kept it perfectly (Rom.3:23). Paul said, he could not be saved by his own righteousness, nor that which is of the law, “but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith (Phil. 3:8-9). Christ came to abolish the Law of Moses, to remove is as a Law, so that He could establish His own new law (Matt.5:17; Eph.2:14-15; Rom.8:1-2; Gal.6:2). Our salvation is a “gift” (Eph.2:8), but without a receiver the gift is not completed. We must receive the gift by embracing the conditions of the Gospel, of faith, repentance, confession, and baptism, by which God promises salvation (Acts 18:8). These are the “good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph.2:10).
–Gary Colley