Tag: salvation

Put Your Faith in Action

Good deeds and right living don’t earn our salvation, but they do confirm it

Paul writes to his friends in Thessalonica. He reminds them—and us—that salvation is a gift from God. We can’t earn it and can only receive it through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

But it seems that many people do try to earn their salvation through their actions, by living in right ways and doing good works for others.

James helps us put this into perspective. Though our actions don’t earn our right standing with God, they do prove it.

He asks, “How can I see your faith apart from your actions?” He goes on to say, “I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice. You’ll know my faith is real by the things that I do,” (see James 2:18).

From God’s perspective, our actions don’t earn us anything. Yes, doing good may earn us attention from other people. We can receive appreciation from those we help and admiration from those who watch us.

Yet to God our good works don’t matter.

Then why should we bother?

It’s through our right behavior and what we do to help others that we prove we have faith. By putting our faith into action, we demonstrate that it’s real. Faith without works is dead.

We don’t act in certain ways to garner God’s favor. Instead, the things we do emerge from our gratitude for what he has done for us. Think of our actions as a tangible way of saying “thank you” to God for the gift he gave us.

By his grace and through our faith, we receive salvation. We need nothing more. But if we truly appreciate this gift of what he has done for us, then we show him by what we do.

We put our faith into action. And that honors God.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is James 1-3, and today’s post is on James 2:18.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

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Tags faith, salvation

Christian Living

We Must Choose to Follow Jesus Every Day

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 5, 2016
2 Comments on We Must Choose to Follow Jesus Every Day

Each Morning We Decide How We Will Live that Day be it For Ourselves or For a Greater Purpose

In highschool a friend caught me off guard when she said with confidence that “once you’re saved you can’t lose your salvation.” I asked her where the Bible said that. She didn’t have an answer about why she believed in eternal security.

Instead she just insisted it was true. Her minister said so. “Once saved, always saved,” she spouted. She was as sure of that as her own name. She had prayed a prayer asking Jesus into her heart and that was all that mattered. End of discussion.

I worried about her conclusion and her eternal destination. I implored her to not treat something so important with casual indifference. She began acting less and less like someone who followed Jesus. I watched as she turned and walked away from him.

Before long she was talking and acting like someone who didn’t know Jesus at all. She believed she had her eternal get-out-of-jail-card, and nothing else mattered.

The Doctrine of Eternal Security

People who study such things call “once saved, always saved” the “doctrine of eternal security.” Grabbing a spattering of carefully selected Bible verses they build a case for their conclusion.

I’ve spent time with such people who consider eternal security as an unquestionable, absolute truth. I kind of see their point but think the evidence they present is far from conclusive.

I’ve also spent time with people equally convinced that the principle of eternal security is an errant conclusion. They have their own verses to support their contention.

I kind of see their point, too, but I think the evidence they present is far from conclusive.

I agree with both camps, though I hold each of their conclusions loosely. By faith I have a certainly of what life after death holds for me, but I will not treat this confidence carelessly. Too much is at stake.

An Example from Marriage

When my wife and I married, we agreed it was for the rest of our lives. Divorce would not be an option. However, each day we also make this decision again. We choose to remain committed to each other and love each other.

Most days we do this well and other days, not so well. Yet in each of these days we move forward as a married couple.

Only a fool would claim that saying “I do” one time at a wedding ceremony was enough and that actions from that day forth mattered not. So, I choose to say “I do” every day to my wife.

I do the same with Jesus, too. Each day I say “I do” to Jesus again. I choose to follow him anew. I’d be foolish not to.

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Tags follow Jesus, salvation

Bible Insights

All Things Are Possible With God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 6, 2015

Getting into Heaven is Impossible Without God

A rich man asks Jesus how to get to heaven. The man reels off a list of all he’s done, of all of God’s commands that he’s kept. He waits for Jesus to affirm him, but deep down he knows he still falls short. “What else must I do,” he asks?

Then Jesus hits him in the wallet. “Give all your money and possessions to the poor. Then follow me.”

The man walks away despondent. He’s not ready to put Jesus first in his life and follow him instead of relying on money.

Then Jesus explains to his disciples how hard it is for people who put their trust in money to make it into heaven. But it’s not just the rich people who are at risk.

Jesus adds more: getting into heaven is impossible if we try to do it on our own. The good news is that “with God, all things are possible.”

This is an indirect way to remind us that we can’t earn our salvation. It is a gift from God.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Matthew 17-19, and today’s post is on Matthew 19:26.]

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Tags follow Jesus, heaven, salvation

Christian Living

How to Work Out Your Salvation

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date August 30, 2015

Don’t Work to Earn Your Salvation

Now, back to my original thought from last week: The teaching pastor at the church I attend is good at what he does. He communicates effectively, digs deep into the biblical text, and provides new information. He prepares well, and it shows.

His passage was Philippians 2:12-13 where Paul tells the church in Philippi to “work out your salvation.” It’s a challenging text.

“You’ve got to work out what God works in,” he says by way of introduction. He talks about grace, integrity, accountability, and obedience.

As he speaks, another person comes up front and begins kneading some dough to make bread. He talks; she kneads. The dough takes shape, beginning to resemble a loaf.

“Before she started, all the ingredients were there,” he says. “But she had to work with them to make it become all that it could be.” Of course he was more elegant than my simple paraphrase in my notes.

The point is that from now on, every time I read the command to “work out your salvation,” I’ll recall the visual of my friend kneading bread, working it out to produce something good. And I will remember what that verse means.

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Tags good sermon, minister, salvation

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: True Story

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 21, 2012

True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In

By James Choung (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

Caleb is questioning God, faith, and what he has been taught. “What if we’ve settled? What if Jesus did more than we think?”

Pastor Dave is unnerved by the questions, wanting to give pat evangelical answers—or to dismiss the questions altogether.

Caleb’s friend Anna isn’t helpful either; she is skeptical and antagonistic.

So begins James Choung’s narrative story of a young follower of Jesus who yearns for more. Fortunately, he finds a willing mentor in Shalandra, one of his professors.

She patiently takes him on a spiritual journey to rediscover and reinvigorate his faith.

The good news about Jesus is much more than just about going to heaven when we die; the good news starts here and it starts now.

Shalandra helps Caleb deconstruct the incomplete gospel that he has been taught, rebuilding it on the foundation of Jesus and the whole Biblical narrative, that is, the “true story.”

Although Caleb is a willing traveler on this journey, it is at times too intense, too much for him to absorb, yet he keeps going.

Anna’s a different story. Having rejected Christianity for the hurtful things that some of Jesus’ followers have done, she doesn’t want to hear what Caleb has been learning, even though the causes she is passionate about nicely fit into the “true story.”

Will Shalandra’s tutelage succeed? Will Caleb accept this new gospel of “a Christianity worth believing in?” Can the rift between Dave and Caleb be mended? And what about Anna; will she ever be open to listen?

True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In is a cleverly woven narrative, providing insightful instruction in story form. True Story is ideal for the postmodern thinker who is seeking real answers and practical solutions to their place in this messed up world.

It also aptly serves the modern thinker who wants to understand today’s younger generations.

Either way, if you want to have a Christianity worth believing in, check out James Choung’s True Story.

[True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In, by James Choung. Published by InterVarsity Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-8303-3609, 231 pages.]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.Save

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Tags postmodern, salvation

Bible Insights

Do You Need a Doctor?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 7, 2012

Jesus said, “It is not healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus came for the sick. (Since he came to heal and to save, we may be able to comprehend this both literally and figuratively, that is, the physically sick and the spiritually sick.)

Jesus came for sinners—those who miss the mark.

Conversely, Jesus did not come for the healthy, the righteous. What exactly does that mean? Perhaps:

People who are righteous (good and law-abiding) don’t need Jesus. (Is Jesus implying their path is through the Old Testament covenant and following the Law of Moses?)
People who think they are on the right track will never know they need Jesus, so he is dismissing them.
Everyone needs Jesus, but some people delude themselves, thinking they are the exception.

None of these ideas is an adequate explanation for me of what this text means. Although the first one seems heretical, it is also the most direct understanding of Jesus’ actual words.

The other two responses require an interjection of ideas, some assumptions to be made—of basically reading the text through our own theological glasses.

Fortunately, I don’t need to understand this text completely. What I do know is I need a doctor—and his name is Jesus.

[Mark 2:17, Matthew 9:12-13, and Luke 5:31-32]

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Tags heal, Jesus, righteous, salvation, sin

Christian Living

Jesus Took the Hit For Us

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date February 20, 2011

I sat in a coffee shop with a new friend who had just begun to follow Jesus.

As we talked about what that meant and how it intersected with life, he suddenly digressed, blurting out, “I don’t really get this whole deal about Jesus dying for my sins.”

I knew the answer, but could I sufficiently strip away the religious jargon and tired rhetoric to provide a simple explanation?

I paused, searching for the right words to clarify and not confuse. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit intervened. I looked my friend in the eye and calmly said, “Jesus took the hit for you.”

I was shocked. I had never consider those words before and wasn’t even sure if I used them correctly. But it clicked with my friend. After a couple seconds of contemplation, a comprehension shown in his eyes and a smile appeared on his lips.

The smile turned to a grin, and he began to beam. “Now I get it!”

I’m glad, because I don’t think I could have said it any better.

Since that time, I’ve pondered this phrase quite a bit. Yes, Jesus took the hit for me and for you. Thank you Jesus!

Jesus took the hit for us.

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Bible Insights

How Does Salvation “Work”?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 23, 2008

How Does Salvation “Work”?

In one Paul’s letters, he says something that is quite curious and strange. He tells readers to “work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12).

Ugh? Didn’t Paul also write that we are saved through faith and not by our “works” (that is, not of our own doing or striving)? (Ephesians 2:8-9).

So, if we can’t earn our salvation, why do we need to work it out? Is Paul confused? Is he schizophrenic? Is this a paradox?

Actually, I think it’s a matter of timing.

First, we need to follow Jesus—by faith. We don’t need to do anything else to get God’s attention or earn his affection.

There is no working involved in being made right with God. That means it’s a gift—we didn’t buy it and can’t earn it; it was given.

The second part is our response. Out of sheer gratitude for the gift, we can opt to respond by behaving differently. I think this is what it means to “work out our salvation,” that is, to cultivate it or complete it.

Consider what if I gave you a million dollars. Would your attitude towards me change? I think so. You might want to find out more about me, learn why I did it, and maybe help me in my future philanthropic efforts.

In essence you might be working out my gift to you. It’s still a gift, but one that evokes a grand response.

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Tags faith, Jesus, salvation

Bible Insights

The Armor of God is For Protection

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 18, 2008

In the Bible, there is the instruction to “put on the full armor of God.”

To the casual reader, this might seem like a call to arms or a provocation for military action.

Yet I don’t see this as a militant statement, but merely a memory aid to help people remember key items needed to prevail in spiritual conflict, namely: truth, righteousness, sharing the gospel, faith, salvation, and the word of God (the only offensive tool of the group).

Paul, in Ephesians 6:11-17, seems to be painting a word picture using the soldier of the day (which readers would have been most familiar with) connecting his essential gear with these key spiritual elements.

Then, to recall Paul’s list of six items, readers needed only to envision a soldier in uniform and associate each spiritual element with its physical counterpart. For example:

Belt: truth
Breastplate: righteousness (that is, right living)
Shoes: a readiness to share the gospel of peace
Shield: faith
Helmet: salvation
Sword: the word of God (the spoken word of God)

It’s not about a physical fight (which many people have missed throughout the ages), but instead a spiritual conflict for which followers of Jesus must be prepared to engage in using: truth, righteousness, sharing the gospel, faith, salvation, and the Bible.

This is what is meant by the metaphor of the armor of God.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Ephesians 4-6 and today’s post is on Ephesians 6:11-17.]

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Tags Bible, faith, gospel, righteousness, salvation