By Grace Through Faith

What Must I Do to Be Saved?

A jailer in Philippi, trembling after an earthquake had shaken his prison open, asked the most important question anyone can ask: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas gave an answer short enough to remember for a lifetime: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:30–31).

Every religion of human making answers that question with a list: do this, keep that, climb higher. The Gospel answers it with a Person. Salvation is not something we achieve for God. It is something God has done for us in Christ, and we receive it as a gift. Get this question wrong, and nothing else you believe can save you. Get it right, and you can know today that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

We believe every person is a sinner by nature and by choice, unable to reform himself or stop sinning by his own power. His only hope is a total change of mind about his sin and his helplessness, and a turning to Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It is not earned by good works, and it is not conveyed by baptism or any other rite.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”EPHESIANS 2:8–9 · KJV

A Gift, Received by Faith

Scripture does not leave this question to guesswork. Text after text gives the same answer.

By Grace, Through Faith, Unto Good Works

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”EPHESIANS 2:8–10 · KJV

Paul frames salvation in three short phrases. By grace names the source: God's undeserved favor. Through faith names the means: the empty hand that receives. Unto good works names the result: a new life that follows salvation. Grace is the root, faith is the hand, and works are the fruit. Notice where Paul puts good works: after salvation, in verse 10, never before it.

Not by Works of Righteousness

“But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”TITUS 3:4–7 · KJV

Titus 3 shuts the door on every human contribution. God saved us not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. Even our best deeds are left out. And the result is complete: being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Wages or a Gift

A paycheck is earned; a gift is received. If salvation came as wages, God would owe it to us. Instead He justifieth the ungodly, counting faith for righteousness to him that worketh not, but believeth. Grace and works cannot be mixed. Add works to grace, and grace is no more grace.

Believe, and Confess Him as Lord

Saving faith is personal. With the heart a sinner believes that God raised Jesus from the dead, and with the mouth he confesses Jesus as Lord. That confession is not a work added to faith. It is what faith says about the One it trusts. And the promise is open to all: whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Repentance Toward God, Faith Toward Christ

Jesus began His preaching with repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15), and He sent His disciples out so that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations (Luke 24:47). Paul summed up his whole ministry as repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). God now commandeth all men every where to repent (Acts 17:30). Repentance and faith are not two separate steps to salvation. They are two sides of one turning: away from sin and self, and to Christ.

Christ Alone

Faith saves because of its object. Faith in a church, a ritual, or your own goodness cannot save, however sincere it is. Jesus is the only Saviour, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And if we could save ourselves, the cross would be pointless: if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain (Galatians 2:21).

Grace, Faith, and Repentance

Three words carry this doctrine. Each one is easy to misunderstand, so it is worth defining them with care.

Not of Works, Not of Rites

If salvation is by grace through faith, nothing can be added to it. Paul said so with startling force: whoever adds conditions to the grace of Christ preaches another gospel and stands under God's curse (Galatians 1:6–9).

Why Works Cannot Save

• The standard is perfection. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10). No one but Christ has ever met that standard (Romans 3:23).
• Our best is stained. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Good deeds cannot pay for bad ones, any more than paying today's bills cancels yesterday's debt.
• Works leave room to boast. Salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9). Faith excludes boasting because it looks away from itself to Christ (Romans 3:27).
• Works would make the cross needless. If we could be saved by our good works, why would Jesus have had to die (Galatians 2:21)?
• Works can never give assurance. If you trust in your own work, you can never be sure you have done enough. If you trust in the work of Jesus, you need never doubt it.

Why Rites Cannot Save

Many churches teach that saving grace comes through sacraments. Christ gave His churches two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and every believer should obey Him in both (see Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper). But they picture salvation; they do not produce it.

• Abraham was justified before he was circumcised. God counted his faith for righteousness years before Abraham received the sign, which was a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised (Romans 4:9–11). Baptism, the Lord's Supper, church attendance, and generosity stand in the same place. They are acts of faith, not the cause of salvation.
• Cornelius was saved before he was baptized. He and his household heard Peter preach Christ, believed, and received the Holy Spirit. Then they were baptized (Acts 10:43–48).
• The thief was saved with no rite at all. Nailed to a cross, he could do nothing but trust, and Jesus promised him paradise that very day (Luke 23:42–43).
• Paul set baptism apart from the Gospel. Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17). He could never have said that if baptism were the means of salvation.

If the church keeps the rite and the rite holds salvation, then the church becomes the keeper of salvation. Scripture gives that place to Christ alone, the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). Anyone trusting in his baptism instead of Jesus is not saved, because saving faith rests on Christ alone. See Baptismal Regeneration.

Not a Prayer, a Card, or a Feeling

The same is true of things evangelicals sometimes lean on. You are not saved because you walked an aisle, raised a hand, signed a card, shed tears, or repeated a prayer. A prayer can be the honest voice of faith, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). But words do not save. Christ saves, and He saves everyone who trusts Him.

Sacraments, Lordship, and Free Grace

Christians who love the Lord have disagreed about how grace reaches the sinner and how faith, repentance, and good works fit together. Two conversations matter most.

The Roman Catholic View

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that salvation is God's gift and that no one can earn the first grace of justification. The Council of Trent said that nothing that comes before justification, “whether faith or works,” merits it (Session VI, chapter 8). But Catholic teaching holds that this grace ordinarily comes through the sacraments, which the Catechism calls “necessary for salvation” for believers (CCC 1129). Justification is conferred in Baptism, “the sacrament of faith” (CCC 1992). Faith must be joined to hope and charity. The justified, cooperating with grace, can merit an increase of grace and eternal life (CCC 2010), and grace lost through mortal sin is restored through the sacrament of Penance. Catholics read James 2:24 and Galatians 5:6 as showing that faith alone is not enough.

We gladly agree that salvation is God's gift and that true faith works by love. But Scripture never makes faith plus the sacraments the way of salvation. God justifieth the ungodly who believe (Romans 4:5). Salvation is not of works (Ephesians 2:9), and grace mixed with works is no more grace (Romans 11:6). Grace that must be kept up by rites and merit leaves no one sure of heaven. Grace received by faith lets every believer know that he has eternal life (1 John 5:13). See the full comparison, How is a sinner made right with God?, and Justification.

Lordship Salvation and Free Grace

Among evangelicals who agree that salvation is by faith alone, a sharp debate broke out in the late 1980s. John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus (1988) made the phrase lordship salvation widely known. Zane Hodges answered with Absolutely Free! (1989), and Charles Ryrie's So Great Salvation (1989) took a gentler form of Hodges's side.

Free grace teachers want to guard faith alone. They warn that if obedience becomes part of saving faith, works slip in by the back door and no one can be sure he is saved. Faith, they say, is trusting Christ's promise of eternal life, and assurance belongs to faith itself. Repentance, where they call it a condition at all, is a change of mind about Christ. Most expect believers to bear fruit, but they insist that fruit is not a condition of salvation, and some allow that a true believer may show little of it.

Lordship teachers want to guard against empty profession. They warn that a faith that never changes anyone is dead (James 2:17). Saving faith, they say, includes repentance from sin and submission to Christ as Lord, and a true believer will certainly bear fruit, though imperfectly. They deny that this is salvation by works, because the change is God's work in the believer.

Where We Stand

Both sides guard something precious. With free grace teachers, we hold that salvation is a free gift and that works never earn it, keep it, or complete it. With lordship teachers, we hold that saving faith is more than agreeing with facts and that the new birth always brings new life.

• Saving faith receives Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The sinner who believes in his heart confesses Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9). Someone who calls Jesus Lord but has never submitted his life to Him is not saved (Matthew 7:21).
• Repentance is necessary, and it is not a work. It is the change of mind that turns a sinner from trusting himself to trusting Christ (Luke 13:3; Acts 20:21). John's Gospel never uses the word repent, yet it calls for belief nearly a hundred times, because the belief it calls for turns from darkness to the light (John 3:19–21).
• Change is the result, not the requirement. Jesus' lordship does not mean you must change in order to be saved. It means that authentic salvation will result in a change (2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 2:11–12). We are not saved by righteous living, but righteous living is expected of everyone who belongs to God.
• Evidence is not proof. A lack of fruit may mean a believer living in rebellion, a believer who has never been taught, or a person who was never saved (1 Corinthians 3:1–3). Fruit cannot earn assurance, but a life with no change at all is a reason to examine yourself (2 Corinthians 13:5).
• Assurance rests first on God's promise. God wrote His Word so that believers may know they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). The Spirit's witness (Romans 8:16) and a changed life confirm it. And everyone who is saved is kept forever (John 10:28–29; see Eternal Security).

A Short History

The question is as old as the church. Some men came to Antioch teaching that Gentile believers must be circumcised to be saved. The church at Jerusalem, with the apostles and elders, answered that Jew and Gentile alike are saved through the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ (Acts 15:1; Acts 15:11; see the Jerusalem Council). Paul wrote Galatians against the same error. In the fifth century Pelagius taught that people could obey God without His inward grace (Pelagianism). In 1517 Martin Luther challenged the sale of indulgences, and in the years that followed he proclaimed to much of Europe that sinners are justified by faith alone (the Ninety-five Theses). Rome answered at the Council of Trent. But the Gospel of grace was never lost from Christ's churches, and Baptists hold it because Scripture teaches it, not because a reformer preached it.

Resting in Grace

Salvation by grace through faith is not only a doctrine to defend. It is a gift to receive and a truth to live in.

Settle It

Ask yourself honestly: who or what am I trusting for the payment of my sins? If the answer is anything but Christ, or Christ plus something, turn to Him today. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). If you are unsure, settle it once and for all.

Rest

If you have trusted Christ, stop trying to earn what God has already given. Your standing with Him does not rise on good days or fall on bad ones. You did nothing to gain your salvation, and you can do nothing to lose it.

Work, Because You Are Saved

We do not do good works to be saved; we do good works because we are saved. The grace that saves you also teaches you that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Titus 2:12). Let gratitude, not fear, drive your obedience (Titus 3:8).

Keep the Gospel Clear

Don't overcomplicate the Gospel. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Everyone who turns from trusting himself to trust Christ alone as Saviour is saved, by grace through faith, not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9). When you share it, do not add conditions God never gave, and do not leave out the repentance and faith He did command. Keep it clear, and keep it open to everyone.

Explaining It to Someone

1. God loves you, and He is holy. He gave His Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish (John 3:16).
2. You have sinned, and you cannot save yourself. All have sinned, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23).
3. Christ paid it all. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
4. Salvation is a gift, not a wage. It is by grace through faith, not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9).
5. Turn to Him and trust Him. Change your mind about your sin and about Jesus, and call on Him as your Lord and Saviour. Whosoever calls on His name will be saved (Romans 10:9; Romans 10:13).