Expert: Spirit Sword - 5/26/2004

Question
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Followup To
Question -
I have accepted Jesus as my savior and my friends tell me i am now saved,. Do i have to be baptised also? another christian friend read me John 3:5 and said i have to be baptised to be saved


Thank you for your response, i am a new Christian and this is all very confusing to me. I thank you for using the Bible to help me find my answers. I told my friend what you wrote, and he said he doesn't agree and wanted to write you the following, but thank you for helping me:

First  you said, the thief on the cross went to Heaven, I would ask, where is Heaven but where God dwells, if it is some other place i don't wish to go there. Christ said to the thief THIS day you shall be with me in paradise, yet Christ said Sunday morning to Mary, touch me not, I am not yet ascended to my Father, so obviously the paradise mentioned earlier is not Heaven and can not be construed as such

second, you said it is a commandment of God for Christians to be baptized. I recognize the grace of God that is the only thing that can save us, but first we must do our part. and we must follow the commandments of God,to repent of our sins and qualify for His grace. You probably don't agree with that, so i'll let Christ tell you. In Mathew 7:21 He said, Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Water baptism is a commandment of God and we must do the will of the Father to enter the kingdom.

I appreciate your desire to follow God, and help others to do so, but please base your advice on God's words not your own thoughts. Jeremiah 23:1  

Answer
Hi Chris,

No problem, I'm glad to be able to be of some help.  

As a new Christian I would suggest you to get more familiar with the scriptures by reading and praying.   I would suggest to start off with the book of John in the New Testament and then read the rest of the gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke.        

Your friend is absolutely correct, we need to base our knowledge on God's word *only* and read what it says very carefully while trying not to add our own opinions and thoughts to the verses.  A good rule of thumb is to compare scripture with scripture to get a correct interpretation of the Bible.  As much as possible we need to let the scriptures define itself.  
  
The Bible is one harmonious piece of literature, God does not contradict Himself in any way.  There maybe some passages that appear to contradict another part but a careful study of the entire scriptures will reveal that it is in harmony.      

The best way to understand the Bible is to allow God to guide you to the truth.  If you are confused I would suggest to pray to God for guidance to the truth.  If you are honest, sincere and truly searching after the truth you will find it, but I encourage you to use your own judgment when studying the scriptures and listen to God's Word *alone*.   I will keep you in prayer and pray that God will guide you to the truth in His Word.   May God give you the blessing and wisdom to understand His Word.  

Romans 3:4 “Let God be true but every man a liar.”


Now let's talk about salvation for a second.  Let's reason together and come to truth.    

Doing the will of God means to obey God's word and his law.   
Since your friend agrees that water baptism is a commandment of God,  to obey this commandment means it is a work we do and an action we take to conform more to God's law and will.  It is considered a “work of the law”.  

Your friend also says “But first we must do our part. we must follow the commandments of God,to repent of our sins and qualify for His grace”  (Please show me in the scriptures where you read that we must follow God's commands first to qualify for his grace)  Following God's laws are considered works of the law.    

To say that we are saved by our works is wrong.  Why?  

Galatians 2:16 “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”   

No one is made just by their own actions or their own good works.

It is very dangerous to believe we are saved by our good works or by anything we do.  Let's let the scriptures tell us why.

Galatians 3:10 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

If we think we are saved by anything we do we are under a curse because that means we are to obey the entire law of God in order to get to heaven.   We'll never make it because it is impossible for anyone to completely obey the entire law of God.  (Romans 3:10-12)  

Galatians 3:11 “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.”  

We are not justified by our works, or our being good, or anything we do, but by *faith* alone.  

Let's have the scriptures define what faith is.     

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.   

And who is the author of this faith?  

Hebrews 12:2 “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,…”

God creates faith and faith is not just mere belief, true saving faith is accompanied by works!  True saving faith is accompanied by repentance!

James 2:17-19 “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble!”

We have been saved through the faith that God gives us by his grace.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)

We first become saved and then our salvation manifests itself through our good works of obeying God's law.   Our good works show we possess faith!  Our good works will never create faith or put us in a more favorable position to attain the grace of God.  We are justified by faith which Jesus is the author of!  If we have been saved through our good works, then Christ died for nothing!      

So now let's talk about Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”   

What is this verse telling us?  There will be those people that possess belief in God but are not saved.  It is not those with mere belief in God that will be saved, it will be those who possess faith accompanied by works that will be saved.  If a person says ‘Lord, Lord' and does not do what Christ commands, does that person really possess saving faith?   The likelihood is they don't!      

What does Jesus say?

Luke 6:46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord' and not do the things which I say?”

If we truly have been saved we will have faith, and if we have faith we will obey Christ!  Again I want to emphasize that faith will manifest itself through our actions and our obedience to God's law.  

In conclusion, those who do the will of God through faith will get to heaven, those who try to do the will of God to get to heaven won't.

I would suggest you to read the book of Galatians very carefully.

Let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.  


Archangel