Saved by Grace

Saved by GRACE and not by WORKS or Is BAPTISM a WORK?

So, are we?

Are we "Saved by GRACE and not by WORKS"?

Well, if we are going to be truthful to our studies and truthful to the scriptures and what they say. I would have to say, “ABSOLUTELY YES!”. We are saved by grace.

Thank God for this!

Get your Bible out and look at all the wonderful scriptures that teach this. Here are just a few.

( 2 Timothy 1:9-10 , Romans 11:6 , Acts 15:10-11 , Ephesians 2:4-5 )

But the problem is that so many people do not understand what ’grace’ is.

The dictionary defines many different meanings for the word ‘grace’. Everything from “prayer at mealtimes” to “add elegance to something” to “finance Same as grace period” to “form of address:used as a title when addressing a duke, duchess, or archbishop” to a “gift of God to humankind”. But remember what we said in an earlier study about how using a dictionary may not be our best source of information to tell us what words mean.

Actually I was looking for the definition I had once heard someone tell me. That is, “Grace means unmerited favor”. Because I really liked this meaning, because I believe that this is the idea the scriptures have when they talk about ‘grace & being saved by it.’ That it is “unmerited favor”/“undeserved favor”.

And it was only because of God’s love and mercy that He bestowed His grace to us.

But here again, the problem still exist. So many people do not understand what ’grace’ is. And to those people that have not taken a few moments of their time to meditate upon what grace is and how it relates to the relationship between God & man. And not just something they have heard someone say on Facebook, or Email, or Radio, or TV, or somewhere else (including me). I will now ask this VERY IMPORTANT question.

(Even though we have already talked about these things in earlier studies.)

+Do you still not understand and believe? ( Matthew 13:13-15 , Matthew 13:19 )
+That God created the Heavens and the Earth ( Genesis 1:1 )?
+And that God created man ( Genesis 1:27 )?
+And that God is greater than man ( John 10:28-29 )?
+And that it was because of God’s love for man, that God chose to give His Son so man could be saved ( John 3:16 )?
+And what all of this means?

Think about it for just a moment!

In brief: God made the worlds. God made us. We belong to God! Therefore God can do anything with us, for us, or to us, that He wants to do. We are His to do with whatsoever He chooses to do. He could say, “I made the world. I made man. I think I will make a big fire and throw everybody in it.”

It is just like a picture you might draw on a piece of paper. If you wanted too, you could just wad it up and throw it into the fire. It is yours. You made it. It belongs to you. You can do with it what ever you so choose to do! Or you could hang it on the wall. Give it a place of honor. What ever you want to do. It is yours. It belongs to you!

And that my friend, is what grace is!

So God decided He would GIVE everyone (the world) the opportunity to be saved ( John 3:16 ). [Side note: Some of you are probably saying, “ ‘Opportunity?’ This verse is not talking about ‘Opportunity’. It is talking about ‘Grace’. The Bible says that we are saved by ‘Grace’. Christ died for EVERYONE!” And I would have to ask, “If it is not ‘Opportunity’, but only ‘Grace’ that God is talking about in this verse, and we are saved by this ‘Grace’. Then ’everyone’ is automatically saved, because Christ did die for everyone.”]

So what God is actually saying here is that He decided that He would GIVE everyone (the world) the opportunity to be saved. Not because He had to. Not because we deserved it. (It was ‘unmerited’. After all, what could we ever do to cause God to owe us salvation or anything else? Nothing!). But He gave it to us because He loved us ( John 3:16 ).

He 'GAVE' ( “UNMERITED favor”, “Grace” ) the 'opportunity' of salvation to us, to everyone. So those that wanted to be saved could be saved. Even though this opportunity was given to everyone, the Bible teaches that most people will not take advantage of this (God’s Grace) opportunity. And will end up being eternally lost ( Matthew 7:13-14 ).

And again my friend, that is what God’s Grace is!

We could never be saved by works. We could never do enough ‘Good Works’ to get to heaven, ever ( Matthew 7:22-23 )!

But for some reason, a lot of people still think that all they have to do is be good. Well they need to quit listening to everyone else, and start reading and studying their Bible.

So, one more question still needs to be answered.

Is baptism a work?

Well, yes it is. No, it is not. Yes it is too.

That answer sounds kind of weird, but it is the truth.

Baptism IS a work. A work of faith. Like the person in a burning building. If running outside to be saved is a ‘work’, then, yes, baptism is a work. But it is NOT a work as something you would do to try to work your way to heaven.

It is a work like what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:21-29 . When He was saying we must not be just hearers, we MUST be DOers!

And IF you still think that baptism is something you do not have to do because it is a work, then we don't have to believe either, because believing is a work too. ( John 6:28-29 )

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