Although our subscribers are, for the most part, already saved, and many are well-versed in the Scriptures, mature in their spirituality, and fruitful in their own ministries, we still like to devote at least one issue each year to the doctrine of salvation. While there is little need amongst our subscribers for an exposition of this doctrine, there is a crying need in the world for an understanding of just what it takes to be assured of a place in heaven. In a day when the professing church finds itself in a swirling declension of apostasy, where a social sermon is the only sermon most church-goers ever hear, and where God’s grace is minimized in favor of the supposed Christian’s good works and moral superiority, it becomes ever more important that all true Christians know how to present the Gospel message clearly and succinctly. We pray that you will read this issue as if it were the first you have ever seen on the doctrine, and that you will each glean some small measure of new knowledge from it.

Everywhere Christianity is preached, it is finding itself submerged under a swarm of hypocritical admonitions to clean up the flesh. Those who ought to be bringing the Gospel to the unsaved know very little doctrine themselves, and they fill pulpits around the world with great swelling words of vanity and self-righteousness, demanding that their congregants become as righteous as God Himself is righteous. They offer false promises, and they do not account for the shedding of Christ’s blood as the only remedy for sin. The hope of the self-righteous is no hope at all, for deep in the heart of every living soul lies the knowledge that he simply does not measure up. He knows that he has stolen, that he has taken the Lord’s name in vain, that he has lusted after another’s spouse, or that he has done a thousand other things to separate himself from God, but he knows naught of the blood of the Lamb; nothing of the grace of God; nothing of the propitiation of the Law at Calvary.

And he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
And you will be saved, you and your household.”
(Acts 16:30-31)

In all of the Scriptures, this is the only place where the question is expressly asked and plainly answered. It is an interesting passage in several particulars. The “he” that is spoken of in this verse is a Gentile jailer in the city of Philippi. The “them” that are spoken of are the Apostle Paul and his fellow-worker, Silas. After being beaten with rods many times, they were thrown into prison and their feet placed in stocks: this, for preaching the Gospel in that city whose citizens Paul would come to love very dearly. Certainly, they must have been very sore, and exhausted from the ordeal they had endured, yet even at midnight, they were singing hymns and praying. The other inmates at the jail surely were confounded that those two could be so happy as to sing hymns, and all of them listened to the songs and prayers of this faithful pair of evangelists. A great earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, causing all the doors to open. All of the chains in which the prisoners were bound were loosed.

The guard had been told in no uncertain terms that these prisoners were not to be allowed to escape. An angry mob had torn the clothes off the evangelists’ bodies, so that they were naked. The jailer, fearing that his superiors would have him executed if the prisoners escaped, was overwrought with dread. Fearing the very worst, that the prisoners had all made good their escape, the jailer was about to fall on his own sword, thereby avoiding the public humiliation of being whipped and slain. One can almost imagine the horror that must have gripped his soul at the thought of plunging the sword upward into his own body. But he deemed that less horrible than what he must face at the hands of his superiors.

It was dark, very dark; no windows, no torches, no candles. It was midnight, and the cell block was cloaked in darkness. But Paul knew that the jailer was about to kill himself, and he cried out to the stricken man, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here” (Acts 16: 28). Not even the other prisoners had fled the jail when the doors were broken open by the earthquake. We are not told why the others did not make their escape, but we are told that they were all there. The jailer called for a light to be brought into the cell block. He ran in and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. Why the jailer should choose those two instead of any other inmate is not told, but only that he did. Perhaps it was because he knew that it was them who had called out to him.

Of course, as Christians, we have an insight that the unsaved do not have. We understand that the jailer came to Paul and Silas because it was God’s purpose to save him that night. God still uses that same process today in the salvation of lost souls. He will convict a person until that person is at the very point of breaking, and then He will put him in touch with a minister of the Gospel, who will in turn present the Scriptures that he is led to present, and the sin-darkened soul will be enlightened by those verses that the Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of the evangelist.

The Philippian jailer surely had no theological concept of either sin or salvation, being a Gentile, and surely worshiping false gods. When he asked how he might be saved, his mind was filled with the terror of Rome. He was not thinking about heaven or hell, but he was hoping to evade the inquisitors who would interrogate him regarding the destruction of the jail. He was worrying about how to save his temporal life, but Paul answered him with the means of gaining eternal life: All hope of the former ends at a hole in the ground, and all the glory of the other begins at the resurrection of Church-Age saints, at the rapture of the Church.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Question asked, question answered. There is nothing here of any sort of works necessary for salvation. No hint of confession or baptism. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The jailer and his family heard and believed the Gospel and were saved, whereupon Paul then baptized them. But the baptism was the result of their saving faith, not the cause of it. The jailer, before his baptism, washed the bloody backs of the two evangelists, and after that, they were baptized. Baptism here, as elsewhere, is a public profession of a personal belief, an open confession of the deepest inner faith. As Paul had said so clearly, the jailer and his family believed and were saved, and baptism was not the first of their Christian works, but the second, in that the jailer tenderly cleansed their wounds, so wrongly inflicted. This ought to be the order for every Christian, his first public profession of his faith in the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord as sufficient to pay the full penalty of his sins. But baptism should never be confused with salvation itself. It is a command, not a cause.

What happens to individuals and to groups such as churches also happens to nations. Every nation presents itself to its people as right on every issue; and all who oppose them as evil at worst, or wrong at best. But, like individuals, nations are often wrong, and nationalism rises in defense of wrong ideas and ideals just as strongly as it does on behalf of that which is right. Nations also can be self-righteous, and all are.

We may, however, discuss nations and peoples from a theological perspective. Every nation in the entire world, save one, Israel, is a Gentile nation. Every nation in the world has a relationship with Israel, whether it is adversarial or helpful. There are those nations that openly hate the Jewish state, and would push them into the Mediterranean if it were possible to do so. And there are those nations that consider themselves friends of Israel, defending her right to exist. In fact, by virtue of membership in the United Nations, every nation in that organization does support Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign state.

To pull no punches, let us state outright that Israel is as apostate in her relationship to God as any unbeliever among the Gentiles. We know that she will yet relent and repent and accept her Messiah, but only after she is thoroughly chastened with the iron hammers of conviction. And we know that those hammers will be wielded by the Gentile nations—all of them.

The world sees the Arab peoples as Israel’s sworn enemies, which they assuredly are. But they do not see the Western nations in the same light. Because it was the West that led the drive for Israeli statehood, and because it is the West that primarily supports Israel today, the world views the West as Israel’s friend, and the United States in particular as its greatest benefactor. From a human perspective, that is the only conclusion that can be drawn. It is logical. And we reason among ourselves as did the Pharisees of old, and we are as wrong today as they were then.

ADAM

The Command (Test):

God’s Provision for the Failure (Promise)

Adam’s Obedience Leads to Salvation :

Adam believed the promise that through the woman a Savior would come. Believing God’s word, he was saved by the Lord’s grace! Adam demonstrates his faith by naming the woman Eve; she would live to give birth.

ABRAM

God Gives Abram a Promise:

Abram’s Response (Belief):

Once again a man is saved by grace through faith. He later demonstrates his faith by offering the promised son Isaac.

MOSES

God Set to Destroy Israel for Idol Worship:

Though Israel is Under Law, Moses Appeals to God on the Basis of Promises Made to the Fathers:

God’s Response is Once Again Mercy:

DAVID

The Great Man Under Law Sins, Murdering a Husband and Taking the Widow as Wife:

When a “Lesser” Sin is Reported, David Declares the Offender Must Die:

But God, Rich in Mercy, Forgives David, a Man Always Seeking the Gracious Heart of God:

JESUS CHRIST

Israel is to Repent of Disobedience (Lawlessness) and Receive the Promised King:

Israel Rejects the King:

God, Obliged to the Patriarchs, Promises in the Future Christ Will Return to Be King of Israel:

PETER

Preaches to Israel a Repentance and Baptism for Crucifying their King:

Israel Rejects the Message, Stoning Stephen:

God Has Mercy on Israel Today:

God Will Have Mercy on Israel in the Future:

PAUL’S GOSPEL

Through Israel’s Transgression the Gentiles Have Been Shown Free Grace:

“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet 3:14-16).

Paul’s Gospel Will Be Preached Now (Day of Grace) Until the Tribulation :

The World, Having Failed to Believe Grace, Suffers in the Tribulation Under Antichrist:

Then The Gospel of the Kingdom Will Resume- The World must Repent for Rejecting the Judge:

Afterward Christ will come to judge and rule and then God will restore all things in eternal perfection.

So we see the Gospel of God’s Mercy will be proclaimed throughout the Ages until all things be perfected in the eternal state.

~OMM

“It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain” (Gal 2:2).

It is important for Christians to understand there is a gospel today of grace for all nations. This is known as Paul’s Gospel, the doctrine by which we are established (Rom 16:25, 1 Cor 15:1). This message was unlike that preached by Jesus before the cross and will be heralded by the tribulation 144,000 Jews; known as the Gospel of the Kingdom (“Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”). Nor is Paul’s Gospel that of Peter’s, insisting on the repentance and baptism of Israel that the rejected King may return. (Acts 2).

Paul’s Gospel is a mystery kept secret until revealed by Christ from heaven to Paul:

“For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:11-12).

WILLIAM R. NEWELL Paul vs. Peter

Paul is the declarer of the Gospel of the grace of God to us - Take Romans to Philemon out of the Bible and you are bereft of Christian doctrine. For instance, if you were to take Paul’s Epistles out of the Bible, you could not find anything about the Church, or the Body of Christ; for no other Apostle even mentions the Body of Christ. P 6

.…their (sic. The Eleven) first testimony at Jerusalem and to Israel had been more of the Messiahship and Lordship of Jesus as the crucified, but now risen King, who was ready to return to Israel if they would repent (Acts 2:36; 3:19, 20, etc.). But Paul received his teaching from heaven, from the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than from Jesus on earth in His Jewish connections. Paul's Gospel has nothing Jewish about it. He had been so completely taken out of Judaism and all connections with "old things" that the Jews would never acknowledge him again. P 12

Paul’s Gospel imposes no work, no water baptism. Paul’s Gospel declares grace to all who believe in Jesus. (1 Cor 15).

MILES J. STANFORD

Paul's Gospel is, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen... (1 Cor. 15:3-5). The heavenly Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ begins with His death; not with His earthly life, "But I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11,12).

Paul's heavenly Gospel is exclusively for the Church. The glorified Lord Jesus directly communicated with Paul not only the great fundamental truths of the heavenly Gospel, but totally new revelations concerning His Body: identification with Christ crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended, the heavenly position and life of the Church, the co-heirship and co-reign of His beloved Bride, and much more.

LEWIS S. CHAFER Grace - The Glorious Theme

The good news to that nation (sic. Israel) was the "Gospel of the kingdom," and should in no wise be confused with the Gospel of saving grace (Acts. 20:24) P 132

Many today emphasize the baptism, covenant, and laws for Kingdom Israel, thereby depriving themselves of spiritual blessings in heavenlies (Eph 2). The great loss of the church is going backward to law and kingdom Israel rather than upward to Paul’s epistles of the glorious heavenly body of Christ.

The great truths contained in Paul’s Grace gospel to the Church grant the benefits, present position, instruction for conduct and future blessing for the Bride of Christ.

Two messages with an emphasis to two peoples. One message was phased out while another replaced the former.

“But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised (for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles), and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (Gal 2:7-9).

WILLIAM R NEWELL Romans Verse by Verse

When our Lord sent out the Twelve, in Matthew Ten, He said, “Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Now people resent that, because of their sad ignorance—both of the Divine sovereignty, and revealed plan. So, the first thing to clear away in our minds is the uncertain or false teaching, about the mission of Christ on earth. He was made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God; that He might confirm the promises unto the fathers. (Rom 15:8)

While Israel still had preference as God’s earthly nation, a message based on their covenants and promises was issued. Not even Peter had a chance to proclaim baptism to Cornelius (Acts 10:44). Now the gentiles are to hear the Good News apart from anything Jewish. This is Paul’s Gospel of Grace, the message we preach, teach and stand in today.

“...as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.’”
(Rom 3:10-12).

This is the essence of the difficulty that man faces in his approach to a life of righteousness. It is, in fact, not a difficulty, but an impossibility. Were it possible for a man to be righteous, surely, some would be righteous. Yet, the Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that there are none righteous, not even one. God does not turn a blind eye to any sin, great or small. Were He to do so, it could not be said of Him that He is a just God, but the Bible declares that He is just (Deut 10:17-18; 32:4; 2 Chron 19:7; Acts 10:34; 1 Jn 1:9). A just God must judge every sin. There is no middle ground upon which one may claim that he is not so very great a sinner. Jesus’ half brother James said plainly that if a man keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all (2:10). A single moment of hatred, the theft of a penny, a word of gossip, the withholding of good when it is in your power to provide it—any of these, and every other tiny infraction that a person can think of, are as serious as rape, plunder and pillage in God’s justice. To be guilty of a single sin is to be guilty of the whole law. How many sins did Adam have to commit in order to become guilty? And how slight was that sin? The eating of a single piece of fruit wreaked the downfall of the entire human race! The sin was not in the eating of the fruit, but in the rebellion against God that led to the eating of the fruit. God finds every act of rebellion equally foul, no matter how we humans judge things.

Those who depend upon their own goodness to get them into heaven must ignore the plain statement of the Scriptures: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:19-20). The Law was not given as a means by which man might become good enough to get into heaven. Not at all. It was given so that the sin of every man might be exposed, so that all might be condemned.

If the Bible ended at those two verses, we would all be in a most helpless situation, a hopeless dilemma. Fortunately, the Bible does not end there. Paul goes on to write, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:21-24). To the unbeliever, those lines of text are gibberish, but to the saved, they are the most wonderful news that God has to offer a fallen race.

We are not sinners because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinners. We enter this world predisposed to rebel against God. It is in our nature; it is in our hearts. The most staunch atheist is not truly an atheist; he is merely a liar, for what may be known of God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them (Rom 1:19). There are no atheists; there are only hard-hearted rebels who refuse to acknowledge what their hearts tell them is true. And this, because they do not know or accept the truth of the Gospel, that Jesus’ death on the cross was sufficient to pay for their own sins, and that His resurrection from the dead was the proof of their justification. People are not condemned to hell today for their sins, but because they reject the record that God gave of His son Jesus (1 Jn 5:10). And John continued, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 Jn 5:11-13).

When we take these verses and compare them to Romans 3:21-24, we come to understand that it is by our faith in the work of Christ at Calvary that the very righteousness of God Himself is accounted to us. The Gospel cannot be stated more clearly than Jesus stated it Himself: “For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn 3:17-18).

Had Jesus not been born of a virgin, He would have had man’s sinful blood, and He would have been a sinner Himself, unable to pay for anyone’s sins but His own. But because He was born of a virgin, His blood was sinless, and He could not be judged by the Law, having never broken a single precept of it. Therefore, because the Law could not condemn Jesus, He was able to take upon Himself the judgment that should rightly have fallen upon us. This He did, and all who believe that simple truth have God’s own righteousness charged to their account instead of the countless sins that they commit in their lifetimes.

In Leviticus 17:11, we are told that the life is in the blood. Paul said that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), thus necessitating the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. To make that point more emphatic, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews said, “...and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (9:22b). But Paul did not conclude his statement in saying that the wages of sin is death, but he continued, “...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).

Simply stated, the Law demands death for sin through the shedding of blood. Christ’s blood was shed at Calvary on every man’s behalf, and He became the propitiation, or that which satisfied the demands of the Law, for us. He died that we might live. “By His stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5d).

Finally, in order to ensure that we have no misunderstanding about this key point, Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (2:8-9).

All down through the ages, from the Garden of Eden, until the Flood; from the first Passover in Egypt to the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai; and from Sinai until Calvary, the blood of substitutes has been shed so that man might live When the blood of the Lamb of God was shed, no further sacrifice was necessary (Heb 10:26b). The judgment of sin was finished. In every age, man has failed to believe the simple truth that our God is a gracious God, and that He loves us enough (Jn 3:16) that He gave His only Son to be sacrificed in order that we might be saved by faith. God could not have possibly made it any simpler. He has done everything that is necessary for our salvation, and all that is left for us is to accept what He has done on our behalf. Even today, the world is peopled by a hard-hearted race that will not accept Him or His grace. It is a people filled with an unjustifiable pride in their own goodness. But the Scripture remains as a witness against them: “There is none righteous, not even one.” How patient, how long-suffering, how unutterably merciful is our God, who has given man such a long, long time to recognize and accept His inimitable grace? Even today, He stands ready and willing to save all who will come to Him. God’s love is abundant toward sinners, and these He welcomes with open arms, all on account of a simple faith in what he has said in his Word. It is inconceivable that man could be so stubbornly blinded, but he is. For those who resist the truth, there is yet a day of reckoning. “Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).