Heaven Guaranteed

Salvation:

is by faith in Jesus. (John 6:47)

Which Jesus? 

The Jesus who is the Son of God. (John 3:16)

The Jesus who died for the forgiveness of all your sins (on the cross) according to the Scripture, who was buried, who rose from the dead on the third day, according to the Scripture. (1st Corinthians 15:1-4)

No repentance of sins or turning from sins is necessary or allowed as a condition for salvation. (That is salvation by works of turning from sins.)

No good works are necessary or allowed as a condition for salvation. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

No water baptism is necessary or allowed as a condition of salvation. (That is salvation by ritual good works)

No continued discipleship to Jesus is necessary or allowed as a condition for salvation. (That is Lordship Salvation by Works False Gospel. (Galatians 1: 6-9)

Salvation is eternal. Eternal life. It is eternal life and the guarantee of Heaven at the moment of death. It cannot be lost, sinned away, or given back.

The eternal security of eternal salvation is the biblical truth.

Eternal salvation is a free gift 🎁 received by faith. (Ephesians 2:8)

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After the moment of salvation, of receiving irrevocable, irreversible, unreturnable eternal life (Ephesians 1:13-14), it is God’s will that we follow His indwelling Spirit and live by the truth of His Word, as children Of God. But doing this does not get us saved, nor is it any condition of being saved or “staying saved.”

Curtis Smale

If your definition of faith includes your good works, then you have salvation by works. And you cannot be saved by your works.

…the Lord Jesus tells us of a human condition that must be met: whoever believes in Him. All Jesus requires is belief in His promise. We are all free to come to Him in faith. You would think this emphasis on simple belief would be uncontroversial among Baptists, but you would be wrong because they disagree over the nature of faith.

Jesus says that faith alone is required for eternal salvation. There are plenty of Calvinist and Arminian Baptists who would agree, at least on the surface. They publicly teach that we are justified by faith apart from our works. However,   when you ask them what faith is, they redefine it to include works. For example, you’ll often hear preachers say something like this:

You can’t be saved by doing good works. You have to believe in Jesus. Of course, if you truly believe then you’ll do good works. If you aren’t turning away from your sins and reforming your life, you don’t actually believe. We’re saved by faith alone but never by a faith that is alone.

Don’t be fooled. This is a form of salvation by works.

To see why, imagine if the Judaizers had tried that reasoning on Paul. They claimed that Christians couldn’t be saved without being circumcised (Acts 15:1). Paul accused them of compromising justification and abandoning the gospel. Do you think Paul would have been at all impressed if the Judaizers had replied:

Oh Paul, we absolutely agree that salvation is not by faith and circumcision. But that’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying that salvation is by a faith that circumcises. We are saved by faith alone, that’s true, but if you aren’t circumcising, you don’t really believe.

Paul would have rejected such sophistry and so do Free Grace Baptists. There is no difference between teaching that salvation is by faith plusworks and teaching that salvation is by a faith that works. Both make works a condition of salvation and both are contrary to the freeness of the gospel promise.

The bottom line is that faith is faith and works are works. Hence, according to John 3:16, Jesus requires belief, not behavior.

But what about works? They have an important role to play in helping our neighbors and in Christian growth, maturity, and rewards in the coming Kingdom. But eternal life and eternal rewards are two separate matters. Rewards are earned (Rev 22:12), while eternal life is a gift, received by faith apart from works (Eph 2:8-9).

The Consequence

Fourth, the Lord presents the wonderful consequence of believing in Jesus. John 3:16 promises that believers have everlasting life. We don’t get it in the future. We don’t have to earn it or keep it. We have it. Everlasting life is a present possession.

S.L.