Satan

Thought for Today
Feb. 10

SATAN'S FAVORITE SCRIPTURES - NO. 3, EPHESIANS 2:8-9

There are verses from the Bible that are especially used by Satan's ministers to promote the religion he invented, the false religion which calls itself after the name of the true Lord: Christianity. Those verses are prized because they can easily be "twisted" to promote that religion. Ephesians 2:8-9 is a portion of Scripture that clearly belongs in the category of "Satan's favorite Scriptures".

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "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." These wonderful words are regularly misinterpreted by Christian ministers to mean that (1) those who believe in Christ are already saved, (2) the way that believers live their lives will not determine whether they will be saved in the end from the wrath of God, and (3) our salvation will be accomplished by God's grace alone.

None of these things are true.

First, salvation is a process which begins the moment God convicts a sinner of his sin and will end only at the Day of Judgment when Jesus says, "Come, ye blessed of my Father! Enter into the joys of thy Lord." Salvation will be realized only when we receive the glorified bodies that Jesus has promised to those who love him. It is our future hope. Ponder on this: None of God's men in the New Testament spoke of "the day I got saved", as millions of Christians now do. They looked forward to salvation, not backwards to it. Those men of God understood that, yes, they were on the road of salvation, but that it was possible that they could wander off the right path, fall again into worldliness, and be damned in the Final Judgment. To deny that possibility is foolhardy.

"Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1Pet. 1:13).

Second, it is unwise for children of God to claim to already have salvation because we will all be judged in the end on the basis of our deeds in this life, and we have not yet finished living. The "works" to which Paul refers in Ephesians 2:8-9 as being worthless for obtaining salvation are the "works of the law" of Moses. Those ceremonial works of Moses were necessary until Jesus came, but now, those ceremonial works have nothing whatsoever to do with our salvation. Satan's ministers have taken Paul's phrase, "not of works" and twisted it to mean that no works of any kind will be taken into account on the Day of Judgment. That is foolishness.

Jesus said (Jn. 5:28-29), "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man and shall come forth; they that have DONE GOOD, unto the Resurrection of Life, and they that have DONE EVIL, unto the Resurrection of Damnation." Trust those words, my friend, and ignore the many voices that are saying otherwise. If you are still alive on earth, you are not saved yet. And you never will be saved if on the Day of Judgment your deeds in this life are judged to have been evil.

The only people who are being saved by the grace of God are those who are living by faith, according to the will of God. Paul wrote (Tit. 2:11-12), "the grace of God that bringeth salvation" teaches us to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts" and to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."

Lastly, there is no such thing as "salvation by grace alone". Nor is there any such thing as "salvation by faith alone", as millions are taught today. We need both grace and faith, and many other holy things if we are ever to receive the promised salvation of God. Paul's exact words in Ephesians are, "by grace are ye saved through faith". Faith is our response to the grace of God, and without a response on our part, God's grace does not save us. Without God's grace, man is utterly hopeless because there is nothing for man to respond to. Grace is opportunity; it is God's calling. Faith is our answering Him, our coming out of darkness in response to His call. It will require both the wonderful grace of God and a faithful response to Him for salvation to be obtained. Stay away from the men who would tell you that God's part alone is enough. That is not what God said. God requires man to respond.

Satan's ministers love Ephesians 2:8-9 only because they do not understand its meaning, and they would hate Paul now if he were to rise up from the grave and explain it to them. "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness . . . ye are all the children of light"; then, let us walk in the light while we have it, and let us not be ashamed to confess the truth that by the grace of God we have been given.