There is a
grace-based salvation, as well as a work-based salvation.
Both are plainly
taught in the Holy Scriptures.
Both are distinct
and separate in nature.
However, sincere
men, being ignorant, pit them against one another.
There is a salvation
which Christ alone has finished for His people. This made the specific
condemned guilty sinners perfectly fitted for eternal glory.
And there is a
salvation that God's children must work out for themselves with fear and
trembling. This saves them from the present perverse generation, and teaches them
to live soberly, godly, and righteously.
The two salvation
are distinct and separate: the former is eternal salvation saving
sinners from eternal condemnation of the lake of fire, and the latter is temporal salvation saving
God's children from the temporal effects of sins in time; the intermediate state is still in time.
Rightly dividing the word of truth is the essence of sound theology.
There is a life
given to you by your parents - they brought you into being!
There is also a life
that you have to get through your own activities in obedience to your parents'
will.
The former enables
the latter.
The latter evidences
the former.
The former brought
you into BEING.
The latter ensures
your own WELL BEING and usefulness here while you live.
========
Zack Young
Amen, brother... I
wish everyone understood these truths...
Sing F Lau
"Take
heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this
thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." 1Tim 4:16.
Timothy,
obviously ALREADY a recipient of eternal salvation (justified, regenerated,
an...d fitted for eternal glory) must take heed unto himself, and unto the
doctrine, continue in them both... FOR in doing this, he shall BOTH save
himself, and the flock under his pastoral care.
The
salvation that comes from Timothy's activities is completely distinct and different
from the salvation that God has accomplished and applied to Timothy personally.
The
salvation purposed, accomplished, and applied to each elect by God's free
and sovereign grace- perfectly fitting him for eternal glory, is distinct and
different from the salvation that a child of God must work out for himself.
Isn't
that quite elementary?
The
fruits of one's salvation by God's free and sovereign grace is ALSO spoken of
as saving, only in a distinct and different sense.
A biblical distinction is the essence of sound theology.
2Ti 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Sing
F Lau
"If
my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." -2Chronicles 7:14
That's
CONDITIONAL salvation - it is a salvation that comes to God's people conditioned
on them doing something!
It
is not the salvation that makes condemned sinners God's people.
