Sadly, there are many preachers in pulpits throughout Christendom who teach that very same thing. They will often teach this by giving a message on the so-called “Sermon on the Mountain” (see Matthew chapters 5-7) where Jesus taught His DISCIPLES how they should live a righteous life and to love everyone. What they fail to see is that Jesus was NOT teaching them “how to be saved,” but rather “how to live if they are saved.” Good works should “follow salvation,” but they are NOT the “way of salvation.” In Ephesian 2:8-9 we read, “For by grace you have been saved THROUGH FAITH, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, NOT OF WORKS, lest anyone should boast.” These words are crystal-clear: the sinner is NOT SAVED BY WORKS, yet verse 10 goes on to say, “For we are His workmanship, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Once we have believed on Christ and His finished work on the cross, we are a new creation in Christ, as we see in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.” This new life that we have in Christ gives us the DESIRE to do good works and the Holy Spirit in us gives us the POWER to do them (see Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-10 with Galatians 5:16, 22-25). These good works will glorify God who, as we have seen, planned our lives for His glory before we were even saved. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Jesus told us that His death on the cross was necessary or no one could go to heaven to be with Him. “But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, IT REMAINS ALONE; but if it dies, it produces much grain…Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour…And I, if I AM LIFTED UP FROM THE EARTH, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ This He said, signifying by what death He would die” (John 12:23-24, 27, 32-33). God the Father sent Jesus into the world to DIE FOR SINNERS ON THE CROSS to pay for our sins (1 John 4:9-10). Jesus told a man named Nicodemus that He would die by crucifixion and that those who believe on Him have eternal life: “And as Moses LIFTED UP THE SERPENT in the wilderness, even so must THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP, that whoever believes on Him may not perish, but have life eternal. For God so loved that world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him may not perish, but have life eternal” (John 3:14-16). Without the crucifixion of Christ, no one could be saved!

This message of salvation is rejected by most people because they believe it is foolish. This view will end with them going to eternal ruin in hell. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is FOOLISHNESS TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Paul went on to say, “it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to SAVE THOSE WHO BELIEVE” (verse 21). Does my reader believe the “message of the cross” is foolishness, or do you believe it is the “power of God” which God uses to “save those who believe?” I was saved 50 years ago by believing this amazing “message of salvation through Christ crucified” and it has been my joy to echo the words of Paul in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for IT IS THE POWER OF GOD TO SALVATION FOR EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES.”  (DO)  (735.5)