THE BASIS OF SALVATION

By Jim Corner

            The Lord has blessed me in ways that cannot be explained.  He has given me a wonderful wife, three beautiful children, 4 marvelous grandsons, great health, financial prosperity and more.  When I look, however, at the blessings of God I see that the greatest is the salvation that I have received from Him.  Another blessing I have is that I am privileged to travel all across the United States in sharing the gospel.  In addition to that I travel three times a year to Africa to speak the good news of Jesus Christ.  I am writing this article with only one purpose in mind and that is to ask and answer the question: what is the basis of salvation?

            In reality you could look at this from many angles.  You could certainly claim that the blood of Jesus is the basis of your salvation.  You could say that the love of God is the basis of your salvation.  You could say that a life of faith to God is the basis.  The reality is that all of the above and more play a vital role in ones salvation.  Remove any of them and you will never see Heaven.  In this lesson I want to look at one of the many factors that play a role in ones salvation and that is obedience to God's commands.

            Let me say something very quickly; you will never be saved because of your ability to keep the commands of God.  Jesus was the only person to ever live a sinless life.  When I speak of obeying the Lord I am dealing with the concept of motive.  Think of a kicker in the sport of football.  Every time he lines up for a field goal he has the desire and the motive to make the kick.  If you know anything about the sport you are aware that he does not always succeed.  My point is not that any of us will ever obey in a flawless way but that we need, like the kicker, to have obedience to God as a central part of our lives.

            I want us to look at a story in the book of II Kings in chapter 5.  I want to concentrate on the first 14 verses.  We are introduced to a soldier by the name of Naaman.  He was no ordinary soldier, however.  The Bible says that he was the commander of the army of Aram.  Naaman had the disease of leprosy and his powerful position could not heal him.   He heard of a prophet of God that could heal him so he went to the man.  He was told to go and dip 7 times in the Jordan River and he would be cleansed.  He became angry and left.  He argued he had better rivers in his country and that such a command was foolish.  One of his servants, however, convinced Naaman to obey the command and he did.  When he obeyed the word of the Lord his leprosy left him.

            Now, let's ask several questions.  First, would he have been healed if he had gone to a river other than the Jordan.  The answer is no because God, through his prophet, had specified the Jordan.  Second, would he have been healed if he had dipped 5 times and once again the answer is no.  Third, was he healed by the water and that answer is no.  He was healed by God when he did what the Lord commanded him to do.

            I want us to look at the concept of salvation as we read about it in the Word of God.  There is not a single entity that will save you.  We are told to believe in Jesus to be saved in John 20:31.  We are told to repent of our sins in Acts 17:30.  We are told to confess Jesus as Lord in Matthew 10:32, 33.  We are told to be baptized (immersed in water) to be saved in Acts 22:16.  Now, which of these is the most important and the answer is that they are all equally important.  When I travel to Africa 4 things are required. 

            1) Passport

            2) Visa

            3) Yellow Fever shot

            4) Airplane ticket

            Which of those is the most important?  Once again the answer is all.  If you remove any of them I remain in the States.  You see, the foundation of salvation is obedience to the commands of God.  Even though Jesus shed His blood for all of mankind (Hebrew 2:9) only those who do the will of God will receive salvation.  I am not earning my salvation through my belief, repentance, confession or baptism.  I am saved by grace through faith and saving faith always manifests itself in obedience.   The water of baptism has no saving power but the Lord saves through the act of faithful obedience to baptism and not through the water itself. 

            Now I also want to be clear that after you have done those things that God requires to be His child, you must continue to live a faithful life.  Once again we are not talking about perfection for no one can attain that goal.  We can, however, strive to bring our lives into conformity with the will of the Lord.  If you read the Bible from front to back you will never see anyone who was ever saved apart from obeying the Word of the Lord. 

            I am praying that you have obeyed the Lord and done those things that He requires to become His child.  If you have not, please feel free to contact the webmaster of this site.  If you live in the Dallas area we can study with you directly.  If you live somewhere else we can put you in touch with someone who could study with you.  If you prefer to study through the mail let us know and we can begin sending you lessons.  Our prayer is that you will surrender your life to the Lord and do His will.

©2003 Buckingham Road Church of Christ