Acts 16:31 “And they said, Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31) Many quote this verse as a proof text to support their notion that believing is a condition for being saved. It is taught as a condition and a promise, the condition being ‘believing’ and the promise being ‘thou shalt be saved’ if only you believe. While this may sound palatable to natural logic, nothing could be further from the Truth. Nowhere in Scripture is salvation conditioned on anything done in us, by us, or through us, Titus 3:5. “Salvation is of the LORD.” (Jonah 2:9) The command to believe on Christ is not a condition but just that-A COMMAND! The salvation that is in the LORD Jesus and worked out by Him: by His perfect obedience unto death, is revealed to the heart of those He redeemed causing them to believe, Romans 1:16-17. Notice in the context, it wasn’t Paul and Silas asking the Philippian jailer if he wanted to know what to do to be saved. It was the jailer asking and that out of a heart already regenerated by the Spirit of God, which caused him to cry out: ‘What must I do to be saved?’ If the Spirit of God has already opened your heart, as in the case of Lydia [Acts 16:14] HE makes you, the sinner, attentive unto the Gospel and causes you to believe on Christ alone as your Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30. He makes salvation effectual, NOT us. There are many today who have made professions based on this Scripture, whose hearts the LORD has never opened, they are still ignorant of the One True Righteousness of God imputed in Christ by His shed blood. Rather than them being brought by the Spirit to cry out, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ it has been rather the preacher, or ‘evangelistic worker,’ asking ‘Wouldn’t you like to know how you can be saved?’ It is a very subtle error but nonetheless dangerous and deadly because it leaves the man, woman or child thinking that they have done something to make their salvation effectual. Christ said in John 6:44: “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” God makes His command to ‘believe’ to be effectual in the hearts of His elect ones, causing them to come to Christ and be persuaded of their redemption and justification by His Son’s shed blood and righteousness imputed alone. Notice also the verse following in Acts 16:32 that Paul did not simply say believe: “He spake unto him and his household the word of the LORD...” teaching them those things that pertain to Christ’s honor and glory and salvation fully accomplished by His death for them. It is just such a persuasion that the Spirit gives to those Christ redeemed, causing them to believe in response to the command to believe, resting in the finished work of Christ alone.

Romans 14:23 "For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin." Where it says, 'Faith,' you can simply put 'Christ.' Christ is our Faith who overcame the world when He died on the cross, "...and this is the Victory that overcometh the world, even our Faith." (1 John 5:4) "...be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Christ Jesus the LORD is the one and only Object of true, God-given Faith. Once revealed by His Holy Spirit, it is Christ and Him crucified in Whom we trust. It is Christ and His righteous death on the cross for His chosen sinners that we believe has saved us completely. Any other 'faith' is sin. The Faith that is Christ is exclusive. Therefore, anything done outside of Christ is sin and worthy of death. Sin is all we can do without the Spirit of God. We are sinners, that's why we sin. We are so by nature. We don't sin and become a sinner. We are all born with a sin nature inherited from Adam. But the Holy Spirit makes Christ known to His children at His appointed time in their lives, to know the Creator of all things Who humbled Himself, and came to this earth from His Heavenly, holy throne. He became a Servant to suffer and die an obedient death for sinners such as we are and turns the heart of those in whom He is revealed. "But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:7-8) To know Christ is to love Christ. But why do we love Him? Because, "...He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) And there is no greater love, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a Man lay down His life for His friends." (John 15:13)

2 Samuel 23:4 "And He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds..." Sun and light are crucial to life on this earth. The LORD made it so, and He uses them in many parts of Scripture to describe Christ and His work. God uses the sun, the light, and the contrasting darkness to create vivid pictures of Christ's death and resurrection. In Luke 23:44 we see at Christ's death on the cross in the middle of the day, the Father caused darkness to fall, not just over the area where He died, but over the entire earth, "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth." As foretold in Malachi, Christ triumphed over the forces of darkness by rising like the sun from His righteous death, "But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." (Malachi 4:2) The Word of God also tells us that, in the new earth, there will be no need for a physical sun or moon because Christ will be our Light, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the Glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof." (Revelation 21:23) In the spiritual darkness of this world, these pictures are a strong comfort for His children. The light from the sun or a lamp on a dark night are reminders of Him, the Word of God, our Sun of Righteousness, our Lamp, our Light of Life, "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." (John 8:12) "Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet, and a Light unto my Path." (Psalm 119:105)

1 Peter 1:24-25 "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the Word of the LORD endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." So why does Peter say that all flesh is as grass? Because as a regenerated believer, you learn that this flesh doesn't get any better or any stronger. The more you learn of Christ, the more you see the futility of any work of this wicked flesh. This flesh will perish but those that Christ redeemed on the cross at Calvary are upheld in Him, "The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down." (Psalm 145:14) The more we are taught of Christ by His Spirit, of His righteousness, of His perfection, of His finished work, in contrast to our sinfulness, the lower we bow to Christ as the Only True Glory. "And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." Our inward man is renewed by the preaching of His Word, because in Christ, the Word of God, is everlasting life, while in our flesh, there is only a withering away, a falling apart, until it perishes, "...though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16) "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, Will of God." (Romans 12:2) The good, acceptable, and perfect Will of God is His Son, our LORD Jesus Christ and His finished work on this earth. "For the LORD Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air: and so shall we ever be with the LORD. Wherefore comfort one another with these Words:" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

Revelation 5:9 "...for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" The LORD has His people throughout the world. Even though, in the Old Testament, the focus was upon the nation of Israel, yet we know in reading Paul's letter to the Romans, that not all who were of the nation of Israel were chosen in Christ, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:" (Romans 9:6). But there is a Spiritual Israel scattered throughout the world. They are those for whom Christ would come and pay their sin debt and save, "...O God of our Salvation; Who art the Confidence of all the ends of the earth," (Psalm 65:5) He is the Confidence of all His elect regardless of where He determined to place them in this world. "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." (1 John 4:14) Christ is the Savior of the world, but that doesn't mean that He came to save everybody in the world, but that He is THE Savior of His people throughout the world. So, the LORD has a people that He has redeemed from every tribe, nation and tongue. We dare not think that His elect are primarily white Caucasians. I hear people, even today, distressed because of what they call the 'browning' or the 'yellowing' of the United States. What it shows, I think, is our sin nature, our own pompous attitude about our skin color as Caucasians, especially when you consider that the majority of the world isn't white! And it's not just Caucasians. All people are ethnic idolaters. They tend to think well of themselves and their ethnic race as if it's better than another. But when it comes to this matter of Salvation, we know that, in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, and that sinners whom the LORD came to redeem are from every tribe, nation and tongue! "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but CHRIST IS ALL, and in all." (Colossians 3:11)

1 Corinthians 1:30 "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption." Can you think of anything else that we need? In Christ Jesus the LORD we are made what we are not in the flesh. In our flesh, we are all nothing, whether we know it or not. Some believe themselves to be wise and mighty, but that's only a delusion, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." (1 Corinthians 1:27-28) Those who are hated, despised by the world because they are weak, were chosen by God deliberately and given Christ Jesus the LORD, the Word of God, the Treasure, "But we have this Treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the Power may be of God, and not of us." (2 Corinthians 4:7) Those who are glorying in their titles, wealth, education, or accomplishments, will be brought low, if they are the LORD's, by the weak and despised. All the things they glory in will be taken, as the Word says, "That no flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Corinthians 1:29) The Spirit directs that we glory only in the One that deserves it, Christ alone! "That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the LORD," (1 Corinthians 1:31)

Luke 17:22 "And He said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it." Christ is talking about after His ascension when there will be persecution. John experienced it. He lay his head on our Savior's breast and yet in the book of Revelation, we find him on the isle of Patmos, exiled for the Kingdom's sake. The whole book of Revelation is about Christ, the very first verse of the first chapter says, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." It was written for the comfort of His children of the Kingdom that would perhaps be questioning like John the Baptist, "And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou He that should come?" (Luke 7:19) I'm sure the disciples were thinking back to when they had Him, when they walked with Him on this earth. He was there every day and now He was gone, but this is what He told them: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:18) So how does Christ come? By His Holy Spirit: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26) The Holy Spirit teaches the children of Christ the Word, and brings Him to their remembrance to comfort them. I would not be preaching this to you right now were it not for His Spirit. I would be still following along in the Pharisses' doctrine because I believed that for years. You would hear people preaching about a future earthly kingdom and going back to Jerusalem, that's just the Pharisaical doctrines that are still flowing today. Why on earth would I ever want to go worship again in some earthly place called Jerusalem, in some earthly temple where sacrifices are being offered again, after Christ the Perfect Righteous Sacrifice has shed His precious blood unto an obedient death that has paid the price of my sin and made me free? NO! That doctrine is just pollution, self-righteous pollution! "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." (2 Peter 2:20) "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1) Christ alone!

Titus 1:10 "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:" Some say, "Well we believe in Christ. We are just adding circumcision. That is all, what's the big deal?" The big deal IS circumcision. And you can replace circumcision with faith. You can replace circumcision with baptism. You can replace it with tithing. You can replace it with witnessing, and whatever else you want to add to it. That is what is wrong, because it is CHRIST ALONE . Its is CHRIST EXCLUSIVELY. It is Christ and His blood shed unto His obedient death that has satisfied a Holy God, that has paid the entire debt of His people. It is not Christ plus your believing or Christ plus your confessing Him in baptism or Christ plus your faith. I once read a writer who said, “your little part is your will. Just bring your little part and God will accept you. Your part plus what Christ has done equals salvation.” NO! Dear friends, salvation is not a cooperation between God and you. It is the operation of God from beginning to end. "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," (1 Corinthians 2:2) In Galatians 2:21 Paul said, "I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." To 'confuse' is what that word 'frustrate' means. So what is a law? It is a rule. It is an obligation. It is a condition. If righteousness come by any rule or obligation or condition, then Christ is dead in vain. It is just very simply that. And that is why we read, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the Truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1) There is an obedience of the Truth that is a bowing to the revelation of God concerning Christ and His earned righteousness that He alone established, He alone worked it out and God the Father imputed it to the spiritual account of every elect sinner upon completion of His death. Based on that one time Offering of the LORD Jesus Christ, God forever justified every sinner who He has chosen.

Psalm 70:4 "Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified." There are two precious states of being, in the mind and in the heart through which the LORD will bring every one of His children. The first is to be lost. You may say, "How is that a blessing?" Well, when you are going through it, it is not easy to be lost, to be exposed, to see your utter helplessness before a Holy God, as a dead body in a grave. When the Holy Spirit opens your blind eyes, you see your own sinfulness and depravity and darkness. Oh, but then comes the second state which is to be found! "I will make darkness Light before them," (Isaiah 42:16) "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isaiah 42:7) Your dead eyes are opened to see the Light. Christ is revealed by the Holy Spirit and we see, by contrast, our darkness which magnifies the Light, and we know it is Good! "For Thou art my Lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will Lighten my darkness." (2 Samuel 22:29) Lost and found are the two states which every one of the LORD's children will be brought through in their lifetime and in both cases do you know what such a one will declare? "Let God be magnified." I thank God He did not leave me to myself to continue in the darkness of self-righteousness, in the way of death that I was going. The LORD showed me who I was. He showed me that I was lost and caused me to be found by the Only Savior, to be found by the Great Shepherd of the sheep: "Now the God of Peace, that brought again from the dead our LORD Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant," (Hebrews 13:20)

Genesis 13:13 "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly." Where would we have to look if we really wanted to have a good idea of how a Holy, Just God looks upon sin? You know, there are some that would say Sodom and Gomorrah was the ultimate picture of the wrath of a Holy God against sinners, in how He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, "But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:29) Others would go back to the days of Noah, how the LORD destroyed the whole world sparing only eight people, as the ultimate indication of the wrath of God seen in 2 Peter 2:5, "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of Righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." Certainly that is a chilling picture of His wrath. But, my friends, if we want to have the most vivid picture, the clearest view of how holy and just God is and how sinful we are, we must consider that He spared not His own Son, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." (Romans 8:32) Our LORD Jesus Christ suffered beyond what any can imagine physically, "As many were astonied at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." (Isaiah 52:14) But more so spiritually, "And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44) Christ willingly sacrificed Himself in the place of His chosen ones, suffering their agony, for their sins without one complaint, "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." (Isaiah 53:7) May the Spirit keep these blessed Words in our hearts, and when we think we can't go one step further in this evil world, may He cause us to sing to Him: "Hallelujah! What a Savior!"

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.” All flesh from Adam’s seed has earned the wages of sin, which is death, because we were made sinners: ”…by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…”  (Romans 5:19). So, how could a just God make the sinners He has chosen to be righteous and live? How could they pay the price with guilty blood? There is only one way: the Substitute, Christ Jesus the Lord. “Jesus saith…, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’”  (John 14:6). ”…so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous”  (Romans 5:19). By Christ’s obedience, we are saved. He was obedient to the law—every law—always, and perfectly. We are all born sinners, so perfect obedience is not an option for us. Sinners from the womb, there is no hope in ourselves. Christ saved sinners by obeying His Father’s commands, even the one command given only to Him: to sacrifice His innocent blood unto death to pay for His children’s sin debt. “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”  (Philippians 2:8). Christ’s blood, shed unto death, finished His obedience. That is how we were made righteous. He paid our debt, bringing our account to zero. Only then could His obedience—His righteousness—be imputed to our account. Only then could sinners be made right in God’s eyes. If Christ had not been obedient up to and including His death, the Father could not have accepted His blood. It had to be innocent, righteous blood, shed completely unto death. It wasn’t simply being chosen by God in eternity or Christ’s praying for us that saved us; it was His perfect obedience that bought life for His sinners. We could never be perfectly obedient. We could never pay the price for our sin. But Christ was commanded to do so, and He obeyed perfectly. “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”  (Romans 5:8). ”…He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”  (Philippians 2:8).

Ruth 2:10 "Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?" In this passage of Scripture, Ruth is talking to her kinsman redeemer, Boaz. Boaz is a type of Christ, THE Kinsman Redeemer of all His children. Christ is a Kinsman, related to His children by way of His body of flesh, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Hebrews 2:14) All of Christ's children were given to Him in eternity, before they were born on this earth, "Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." (Hebrews 2:13) But none of these were saved from the "power of death," until Christ came to this earth to redeem them by His own death. Ruth sees herself as a stranger, unworthy of this man taking knowledge of her. She is an example of the redeemed of Christ, in awe that such a One could care for them. But we are never strangers to Christ, no matter how it may seem to us, "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an Everlasting Love: therefore with Lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jeremiah 31:3) We are drawn by Lovingkindness, with Lovingkindness and to Lovingkindness, which is Christ Jesus our LORD