JUSTIFICATION

JUSTIFICATION
written by paul mcgrade

At this moment, I don't feel saved. I feel far from saved. So am I saved? Well, there are 1,001 doors that I could enter. There are 1,001 verses I could observe. Let me look at one verse, forgetting the rest right now. Contained within the Bible are these words: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. There it is! A precious promise. "...you shall be saved." I would humbly submit that there are no conditions to this promise. That even the apostle Paul and Silas, who said these words, knew there were no conditions. "...you shall be saved." Who shall be saved? "...YOU shall be saved." I, Paul Johnathan Mcgrade, shall be saved. Whoever reads or hears those words "...shall be saved."

Some reply: "That's not true. There are conditions to be saved. You must believe!" To which, I'll reply. There is no condition. The verse does indeed say "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." However, that is not a condition.

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Calling upon the name of the Lord is not a condition.

"He that...is baptized shall be saved..."

Getting baptized is not a condition.

"But he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved."

Enduring until the end is not a condition.

I ask the question, what must I do to be saved? Mr. Conditioner would reply:

"You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, call upon the name of the Lord, be baptized, endure untill the end, and you shall be saved."

Again, I humbly submit, that Mr. Conditioner frustrates the grace of God. When the apostle Paul and Silas were asked, "sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They responded simply by saying, "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved..." They were not giving any conditions and they did not frustrate the grace of God.

Jesus has already come into the world. He has already been crucified. He has already risen from the dead. And after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, He sat down on the right hand of God.

Jesus has already done these things. So "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ..." What does it mean to believe? It means to trust in Him. I can depart out of this world, fully confident that Jesus has already done these things. That He has come. That He has already been crucified, died, buried. I can trust that He is risen and that He is seated at the right hand of God.

What is the sum of these things?

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus’ feet.
[Jesus Paid It All]

"...you shall be saved." Believe it! The Holy Spirit promises you that...IF...IF...

Let me stop right there. IF what? If you believe? If you repent? Get baptized? Endure until the end? If what? It says "...you shall be saved," IF you what? Our tendency seems to lean towards something on our part. It cannot just simply be that "...you shall be saved." No. You shall be saved IF you do this. IF you do that. He says "...you shall be saved," period. "...you shall be saved," not of yourselves! There are no IF's to this promise.

How do I know that I shall be saved? Or that you shall be saved? If a king were to tell you "...you shall be saved," I could understand if you were to doubt him. If he didn't have a credible record of keeping his word, you'd have even more reason to doubt him. However, a mere king isn't the one who tells us this. Rather, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, tells us this: "...you shall be saved." Believe it! How can this be true? The King of Kings says this to you because He offered one sacrifice for sins, once, for ever, when he offered up Himself. This same Jesus who was dead, God resurrected. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

There are no conditions! It is a fact, it shall never fail, "...you shall be saved." Separate that promise from Jesus and it's worthless. "...you shall be saved," why? Because of Jesus Christ. I do not need to know what the word justification means, although it's good to know. I don't need to know anything. How helpless you were when you were born. A tiny nothing you were! "...in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied you, to do any of these to you, to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out in the open field, to the lothing of your person, in the day that you were born."

Could you rely upon God to sustain you when you came out of the womb? I don't know about you but I don't remember anything when I came out of the womb! I couldn't even question whether God would sustain me or not, I didn't know anything! I was helpless. There I could not read "...you shall be saved" but now I can and I believe it. My confidence is in Jesus.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Some object that you cannot say the promise "...you shall be saved," is written for everybody that reads it or hears it because that would make the devil saved. I'll reply to this as follows. This is an absurd objection! This was not written for the devil but for the world. The Bible hasn't been preserved for 2,000 years to be given to the devil but to be given to man. The Bible and all it contains is for us, not for him. Again I say, this promise in particular is for us, not for him. He has one promise in the Bible, its in the book of Revelation.

This brings me to my next objection which says that if the promise "...you shall be saved," is written for the world, doesn't that make the whole world saved by default? To which I'll reply no, it doesn't. A great majority in the world don't even know this promise exists. How then can they believe it? How shall they hear without a preacher? Another majority, particularly in America, lull themselves to hell with the words "...you shall be saved." They read these words, they believe these words but in the end go to hell because their rock was not Christ, their ground was sinking sand. They didn't believe on Christ. They didn't trust in Him. They heard the promise "...you shall be saved" and they trusted in themselves, they trusted something else and not Jesus. They believed they would be saved IF they endured. They believed they would be saved IF they prayed. They believed they would be saved if they went to church. They believed they would be saved if they repented. They believed they would be saved IF they believed. They didn't look to Christ. They didn't trust Him. They didn't believe in Him. Their confidence was not Jesus and they found there foundation blown away from underneath them.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

They did not wholly lean on Jesus, so they found themselves in hell. May this never be the case for anybody, anymore. Look to Jesus. "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Don't trust your belief, trust Jesus. Believe the promise that is written, "...you shall be saved." Do not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief but rather be fully persuaded that, what God has promised, He is able to perform.

Cannot God save you in your unrepentant state? Cannot God turn your unbelief into belief? At a word cannot God do whatsoever He pleases? Are you afraid you haven't repented enough? Stop looking at your repentance and look to the Savior! Your repentance will not hold, it is too lousy. Are you not sure if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Stop looking at your faith! Think less about your faith, and more about Jesus. Look at Him! Look at what He's done for you already! On the cross! In the tomb! Rising again! Ascending to heaven! Look to Him! If you can't look simply trust Him and though your blind, he shall make you see! Just trust Him!

No devil in hell,
No sin you could ever do,
Nothing can wash away His blood that was shed for you.

What I've written is theology, not philosophy. Its written with the hopes of helping weary saints rest upon Christ alone.

I don't know. I do know though that it isn't a condition. Thats not my job to figure that out. My job is to simply believe the promises of God. He says I'm saved, then I believe Him and I don't need to do anything else. Praise Jesus Christ forever!

I assure you it isn't confusing. There is no condition to that promise. As many as are ordained to eternal life, God shall open their hearts and they shall believe. No conditions. Paul says this:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

If there were conditions to any of the promises of God, man could boast and say, "I fullfilled the conditions." If though there are no conditions and it is entirely a gift, like the rain falling on the just and unjust, then God alone is glorified and salvation is all of grace through faith and not of ourselves. Faith again isn't a condition. Forget conditions. Just believe the promises.

No hmmm...but that doesnt mean what Tozer said isnt true. There are no conditions to salvation. Salvation is a gift of God, it is entirely free, just as the rain is free and the sun is free and your very life itself is free! If repentance were a condition, salvation is no longer a gift.

Im not going to answer that question cause its not going to go anywhere but a long road discussing things that really don't matter and aren't going to help anything.

For those of you who now are worried you have not repented enough or believed enough, look to Christ and you'll be saved. If you can't look just stay where you are and read these words: YOU WILL BE SAVED BECAUSE OF WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR YOU.

I'm afraid the majority on here are trusting in themselves to be saved. Don't do that, repent from repenting and repent from believing. Repent from good works and repent from your holiness. Have Christ alone.

Yea...You can quote 1,001 more verses too me but even if they all said I must have 100 other things as conditions, I'm going out into eternity only knowing what Christ has done already. Only knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

I supposed I was writing to the saints.