I hope I have made it clear that I do not believe in salvation by works - AT ALL. Any type of a works-based salvation is an insult to Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. If I can be made righteous, be kept righteous, or be more righteous because of any work of my own, then Jesus suffered, bled, and died in vain. It is the blood and the blood alone that cleanses from sin. After I get through writing about salvation by grace, my intentions are to write about works. Works do have a place in the Christian walk. That place is not in salvation. I will show as plainly as I can where works fit in the Christian walk.
But for now, I am still stirred concerning the simplicity of salvation. There are those in Holiness churches who wish to make salvation hard. It is the spirit of religion that wants to do this. There is a vast difference between "God's plan of salvation" and "religion." Religion always has a long list of things to do in order to be saved. God's plan of salvation, however, is different. Yes, God the Father has a long list of demands as well. Just read Genesis through Deuteronomy if you don't believe me. The Father hates sin and demands righteousness and holiness. The law of Moses proved that man could not keep the demands of God the Father. The Bible says that the law was given "that the whole world might become guilty before God." The law shows us just how lost we are. Even though God the Father has very high demands, when man couldn't fulfil them, He sent His Son Jesus Christ, and Jesus fulfilled every demand of the Father. Now, to be saved, all that is necessary on our part, is to place our faith in Christ. This is God's plan of salvation - that the Father has high demands of holiness, and Jesus fulfilled every one of them to perfection. We just trust Christ to be saved. This is different than religion. Religion pulls out a list of rules, gives them to you, and expects you live every last one of them without fault in order to be saved. The religious man chokes at the thought of Christ fulfilling every law of God, and consequently, we just trust Him to be saved.
However, there are religious, Holiness folks who are ready to chain you up with demands, rules, and standards. Then, they make those standards the plan of salvation. Those who believe in a "hard" salvation that can only be attained by the skin of our teeth use a few scriptures to show how "hard" salvation is. One of those scriptures is found in I Peter 4:18 - "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" I have heard this preached this way - "If those who are righteous (i.e. keep a very long list of holiness standards) are just BARELY saved, where does that put those who don't keep all those standards?" The thrust of the message was this: If you live by every commandment in the Bible, you're just barely saved. I don't want to be critical, but there's a lot wrong with that.
First off, I am not saved by keeping any standards; I am saved by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ! Secondly, the word, "scarcely" does not mean "barely." It means, according to Noah Webster, "with difficulty." When you exchange the word, "scarcely" for "barely," you do a serious injustice to the passage, as well as to the blood of Jesus Christ. If the blood saves me (and it does, according to I John 1:7), and I'm just "barely" saved, then the blood just "barely works." The One doing the cleansing, Jesus Christ, did a shoddy job, if I'm just barely saved. To be "barely saved" means that the work that Jesus did on the cross just "barely" pleased the Father. Is that what the Bible teaches? Absolutely not! In Matthew 3:17, the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am WELL PLEASED!" Dear friend, when I trust in the cross of Christ to save me, there's no way I can be "barely saved." The Father is extremely pleased with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. By the blood of Christ, I am extremely saved! By His grace, I am saved through and through. I can say this because I am not trusting in my works to save me. As for people who use this verse to say that they're "barely" saved, someone needs to let them know - if you're trusting in your standards to "barely" save you, you're not "barely saved" either - you're not saved at all! Standards, rules, and works can't lift a finger to save you!
So, what does this verse mean? To understand it, you need to throw the word, "barely" out of the picture. Let's look at the verse piece by piece - "If the righteous..." Now, that does not mean, "If those who keep a bunch of standards." Standards do not make righteous; the blood of Jesus does. "The righteous" in this verse are those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
"...scarcely be saved..." The word scarcely means, "with difficulty." When someone is confronted with the message of the gospel, there are always difficulties present. You may say, "Wait a minute! I thought you said salvation was easy!" Yes, you're right. Thanks for paying close attention. The difficulties do not lie in the plan of salvation; they lie within the one hearing the message of salvation. When the gospel is preached, those who hear it will always think of many reasons to put it off. Circumstances in their life may make it easier (in their thinking) to stay lost. They may think, "I work around a lot of filth," or children may think, "No one in my house is saved and I may not be received at home if I get saved," and so forth. Others may let the crowd they hang around keep them from getting saved. These are the difficulties one must overcome to make up their mind to serve the Lord. "If the righteous scarcely be saved..." Those who have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ had to overcome these difficulties to be saved.
The rest of the verse states, "...where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Now, the point of the verse is this: The ungodly and sinner will present their inconvenient circumstances as excuses on the Day of Judgment. However, they will not be excused. Those who are saved had to overcome the same difficulties. When a man stands before God and says, "Lord, I would've served you, but I worked around so many people who were sinners," a man from the same workplace may rise and testify against him, and say, "Lord, I worked at the same place, but I served you." The man offering his circumstance as an excuse will be inexcusable. Whatever reason you give for not being saved - you've had a hard life, you've been mistreated, you've been sexually assaulted as a child, you were raised in a non-Christian home, etc. - do you really think these circumstances will serve as valid reasons when you stand before God? These circumstances are all horrible, and I'm not minimizing any of them. But, dear friend, do you think you're the only one that's ever went through these things? You're absolutely not the only one! As a matter of fact, every saved person in the world who has ever been saved had to overcome difficulties just like these to be saved. "If the righteous scarcely be saved," where does that put those who let these circumstances keep them from getting saved? LOST for ETERNITY!
But for now, I am still stirred concerning the simplicity of salvation. There are those in Holiness churches who wish to make salvation hard. It is the spirit of religion that wants to do this. There is a vast difference between "God's plan of salvation" and "religion." Religion always has a long list of things to do in order to be saved. God's plan of salvation, however, is different. Yes, God the Father has a long list of demands as well. Just read Genesis through Deuteronomy if you don't believe me. The Father hates sin and demands righteousness and holiness. The law of Moses proved that man could not keep the demands of God the Father. The Bible says that the law was given "that the whole world might become guilty before God." The law shows us just how lost we are. Even though God the Father has very high demands, when man couldn't fulfil them, He sent His Son Jesus Christ, and Jesus fulfilled every demand of the Father. Now, to be saved, all that is necessary on our part, is to place our faith in Christ. This is God's plan of salvation - that the Father has high demands of holiness, and Jesus fulfilled every one of them to perfection. We just trust Christ to be saved. This is different than religion. Religion pulls out a list of rules, gives them to you, and expects you live every last one of them without fault in order to be saved. The religious man chokes at the thought of Christ fulfilling every law of God, and consequently, we just trust Him to be saved.
However, there are religious, Holiness folks who are ready to chain you up with demands, rules, and standards. Then, they make those standards the plan of salvation. Those who believe in a "hard" salvation that can only be attained by the skin of our teeth use a few scriptures to show how "hard" salvation is. One of those scriptures is found in I Peter 4:18 - "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" I have heard this preached this way - "If those who are righteous (i.e. keep a very long list of holiness standards) are just BARELY saved, where does that put those who don't keep all those standards?" The thrust of the message was this: If you live by every commandment in the Bible, you're just barely saved. I don't want to be critical, but there's a lot wrong with that.
First off, I am not saved by keeping any standards; I am saved by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ! Secondly, the word, "scarcely" does not mean "barely." It means, according to Noah Webster, "with difficulty." When you exchange the word, "scarcely" for "barely," you do a serious injustice to the passage, as well as to the blood of Jesus Christ. If the blood saves me (and it does, according to I John 1:7), and I'm just "barely" saved, then the blood just "barely works." The One doing the cleansing, Jesus Christ, did a shoddy job, if I'm just barely saved. To be "barely saved" means that the work that Jesus did on the cross just "barely" pleased the Father. Is that what the Bible teaches? Absolutely not! In Matthew 3:17, the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am WELL PLEASED!" Dear friend, when I trust in the cross of Christ to save me, there's no way I can be "barely saved." The Father is extremely pleased with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. By the blood of Christ, I am extremely saved! By His grace, I am saved through and through. I can say this because I am not trusting in my works to save me. As for people who use this verse to say that they're "barely" saved, someone needs to let them know - if you're trusting in your standards to "barely" save you, you're not "barely saved" either - you're not saved at all! Standards, rules, and works can't lift a finger to save you!
So, what does this verse mean? To understand it, you need to throw the word, "barely" out of the picture. Let's look at the verse piece by piece - "If the righteous..." Now, that does not mean, "If those who keep a bunch of standards." Standards do not make righteous; the blood of Jesus does. "The righteous" in this verse are those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
"...scarcely be saved..." The word scarcely means, "with difficulty." When someone is confronted with the message of the gospel, there are always difficulties present. You may say, "Wait a minute! I thought you said salvation was easy!" Yes, you're right. Thanks for paying close attention. The difficulties do not lie in the plan of salvation; they lie within the one hearing the message of salvation. When the gospel is preached, those who hear it will always think of many reasons to put it off. Circumstances in their life may make it easier (in their thinking) to stay lost. They may think, "I work around a lot of filth," or children may think, "No one in my house is saved and I may not be received at home if I get saved," and so forth. Others may let the crowd they hang around keep them from getting saved. These are the difficulties one must overcome to make up their mind to serve the Lord. "If the righteous scarcely be saved..." Those who have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ had to overcome these difficulties to be saved.
The rest of the verse states, "...where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Now, the point of the verse is this: The ungodly and sinner will present their inconvenient circumstances as excuses on the Day of Judgment. However, they will not be excused. Those who are saved had to overcome the same difficulties. When a man stands before God and says, "Lord, I would've served you, but I worked around so many people who were sinners," a man from the same workplace may rise and testify against him, and say, "Lord, I worked at the same place, but I served you." The man offering his circumstance as an excuse will be inexcusable. Whatever reason you give for not being saved - you've had a hard life, you've been mistreated, you've been sexually assaulted as a child, you were raised in a non-Christian home, etc. - do you really think these circumstances will serve as valid reasons when you stand before God? These circumstances are all horrible, and I'm not minimizing any of them. But, dear friend, do you think you're the only one that's ever went through these things? You're absolutely not the only one! As a matter of fact, every saved person in the world who has ever been saved had to overcome difficulties just like these to be saved. "If the righteous scarcely be saved," where does that put those who let these circumstances keep them from getting saved? LOST for ETERNITY!
