Articles
Making It Easy
"MAKING IT EASY"
“WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH
GETTING TO HEAVEN...TITUS 3:5
BAPTISM AND HOLDING OUT FAITHFUL TO
THE END ARE WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
AND THEREFORE HAVE
NOTHING TO DO WITH GETTING SAVED
DON'T BE DECEIVED, YOU DON'T HAVE TO
WAIT TILL YOU DIE TO KNOW THAT
YOU'RE GOING TO HEAVEN
You Can Be 100% Sure Of Heaven Right Now!!"
DICKENSON STAR Newspaper, Jan. 21,1998
Yes, everybody is interested in having things made easy and it is no different in religious matters.This advertisement, printed in a local newspaper when I lived in Virginia, is proof. You will note that the only passage of scripture given as proof was Titus 3:5. Before we can come to a conclusion of truth from one verse, we must be sure that verse has been kept in context. How many times have you had someone to take a word or sentence of something you said out of context and make it mean something that you did not intend? This can be true of verses and words that are used from the Bible. We must always keep them in context.
Titus 3:5 is a verse found in the midst of teaching by the apostle Paul which actually began back in verse 3 and continues through verse 8. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." (Verse 3). The apostle is showing the sinful state of mankind. Truly, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, also Galatians 3:22). "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared," (Verse 4). Yes, God so loved the world, He gave His Son (John 3:16) and "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Therefore, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" (Verse 5). Mankind was in sin, separated from God by their own choosing. The context clearly shows man was not responsible for the plan of salvation; the plan was a show of mercy and grace (verse 7) on the part of God. God never owed us salvation! We were the SINNERS! We did nothing to deserve what God has done for us. However, this ad would have us to believe that God has given us nothing to do concerning this plan He has made. This ad would have us to believe that God has make it easy because there's nothing for us to do! That is not the context!
Don't get me wrong. God has made it easy but not in the way this ad would have us believe. God has made possible something that otherwise would have been impossible: SALVATION!
The ad states: "Works of righteousness have nothing to do with going to heaven". Another simple rule of Bible study which must always be observed is: Don't draw a conclusion from one verse that clearly contradicts another verse. The Scriptures harmonize; they do not contradict. If the statement of this ad is correct, these verses are definitely contradicted:
- Acts 10:34,35 "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth Him, and WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS, is accepted with Him.”
- 1 John 2:29 "If we know that He (Christ) is righteous, ye know that every one that DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS is born of Him."
- 1 John 3:10 "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: WHOSOEVER DOETH NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, neither he that loveth not his brother."
The ad also states "Baptism and holding out faithful to the end are works of righteousness and therefore have nothing to do with getting saved". I wonder if the one placing this ad would say a person must BELIEVE to be saved? If so, what will he do with Romans 10:10 "For with the heart man BELIEVETH UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS;...". If all works are excluded in our being saved, what is he going to do with John 6:28,29 and 2 Thessalonians 1:11 which say that BELIEVING IS A WORK?
There are certain works of righteousness which will not save. In Romans 10:1-4, Paul spoke of his fellow Jews who were lost and needed to be saved. Yet to be saved, they were going to have to submit to the righteousness of God and stop going about establishing their own righteousness. This is exactly what denominations are doing today. They are establishing their own righteousness by devising their own systems of religion, their own plan of salvation, their own churches, their own worship, etc., etc. Book, chapter, and verse cannot be given for what they believe and practice while rightly dividing God's word at the same time.
The ad is right on one point: “You don't have to wait before you die to know if you are going to heaven. You can be 100% sure of heaven”. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE: FOR IF YE DO THESE THINGS, YE SHALL NEVER FALL: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:4-11).
It is unavoidable: We must work the righteousness of God in order to be saved and go to heaven.
—E.R. Hall, Jr.
