I recently received a tract being handed out in front of a store by a young lady who had nothing to say except “have a blessed day” and handed me the tract. Just glancing at the inside of the tract, I noticed the heading of a paragraph which said, “You cannot save yourself”. The tract ended up getting wet and stained to the point I threw it away without ever reading the entire thing. Yet, that one little heading stayed in my head. It certainly sounds like truth, does it not?. Jeremiah said, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). Solomon said, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” and later, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Many are the passages of scripture that show that salvation comes from God. Yet, is it true to say that we cannot save ourselves?
On the first day of Pentecost following the Lord’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven to sit upon the right hand of God, Peter preached words given to him by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) including a quotation from the prophet Joel which ended with, “And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). He then preached Jesus to them, as the Son of God proven by miracles and thus Lord and Christ (Acts 2:22-36). Many heard that preaching and heeded it. The text says, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do” (Acts 2:37). In essence, they were asking what they had to do to be saved as was the topic back in verse twenty-one. Peter’s answer, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:38-39). Luke’s next words were, “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40). Was the inspired writer wrong in his teaching, or is there a sense in which we do save ourselves? It has to be one or the other. Writing to those who had already become the children of God, Paul urged the Philippians, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). There are things we must do in order to have salvation and if we refuse to do them, we will be eternally lost in hell. The Hebrew writer said, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Heb. 4:11). We have work to do.
Is man saved by faith? Absolutely (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8). But, is man saved by faith “only”? Absolutely not (Matt. 7:21; Acts 2:38). There is not one verse in the entire Bible that says that man is saved by faith “only”. Man cannot save himself by himself, but man can save himself by doing what God has instructed he do to be saved. God does not save man against man’s own will!. He has provided the means of salvation in that the whole of the plan came from Him and was culminated in the sending of His Son to be the payment for the sins of man (John 3:16; I John 4:9; Rom. 5:8-9). Jesus has done His part in our salvation; He willingly paid the price for our redemption. John the Baptist had said of Him, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Pet. 1:18-19). The Holy Spirit has done His part in the revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ which reveals to us how to be saved and how to live in such a manner as to assure we have that home in heaven in the end. For instance, Paul received the word through the revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12). He taught it to others who after hearing were in a position to believe and after believing was able to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved (Rom. 1:17-18; Rom. 10:13-15; Acts 2:21). We save ourselves when we obey what God has commanded. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have done their part, the part we cannot do. So now, the ball is in our court. We can save ourselves or we can condemn ourselves to hell. Our fate is in our own hands now (II Cor. 5:10).
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