Baptism and Salvation - the Difference?

 

Question: 

What is the difference between baptism and salvation? Is salvation the sealing of the Holy Spirit and baptism the anointing of the Holy Spirit?

 

Answer:

The word baptism, is from a Greek language word, in which the New Testament section of God’s Word the Bible was originally written, “baptizo” which literally means to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge, to overwhelm or make fully wet.

 The word salvation is from the Greek word soteria, and it means deliverance, preservation, safety, i.e. to be saved from some harm or something harmful.

 In context of the Christian faith, salvation means to be saved from the consequences of sin, because of the Lord Jesus Christ having taken them upon Himself and borne them for us - the entire mankind. Since now the sins have been paid for, their consequence borne, therefore no one needs to do anything of their own to be delivered from suffering the consequences of their sins. Now, all that anyone needs to do is believe on what the Lord Jesus has done, admit being a sinner to the Lord and pray for His forgiveness for them, submit their life to Him, and accept Him as their Lord and Savior. On doing this, through the grace of God, because of the faith placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, person is delivered, or preserved, or made safe from the eternal death or irreversible harm he was destined to; i.e. he is 'saved', or has attained salvation from harm. This is not by virtue of any works of any kind done by the person (Ephesians 2:5, 8), but by a single prayer made voluntarily from a sincere heart in simple faith, without the mediation or intervention of any other person. This saved person now irrevocably becomes a child of God forever (John 1:12-13).

 Those who are saved, i.e., have attained salvation, only they have been asked by the Lord Jesus, in Matthew 28:19, to witness about their being saved through taking baptism. Salvation is not by baptism; rather, those who have been saved have been asked to get baptized. Notice the sequence of the Lord’s instructions in this verse: first a person has to become the Lord's disciple or follower, and then the disciple should be baptized.

Hence it is quite apparent that baptism and salvation are two different things. Baptism does not qualify anyone for salvation, but those who have received salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus, are expected to witness about it through taking baptism.

The moment a person is saved, he becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, who comes to reside in him (Ephesians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 3: 16; 6:19) in His fullness – Holy Spirit is a Divine Person – He is cannot be given out in parts, and is not given out in parts (John 3:34). Nobody needs to do anything extra or special to receive the Holy Spirit, other than to believe in the Lord Jesus, accept Him as his personal Savior, and submit their lives to Him (see: http://englishsampark.blogspot.com/2020/04/receiving-holy-spirit-1-introduction.html ). Coming to faith in the Lord Jesus also brings the Holy Spirit into their lives, and this is expressed through different words, like being sealed (Ephesians 1:14) or being baptized by the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:15-17). To be 'sealed' means being given a mark of ownership - the presence of the Holy Spirit within a Christian Believer is a mark of the Believer being the possession of the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). Similarly, being 'baptized' by the Holy Spirit means being 'fully wet' or being 'overwhelmed' or being 'dipped' - under the cover of the Holy Spirit. These are all various ways of stating the same thing, i.e., being possessed by the Holy Spirit.

Salvation and Deliverance from Sins – What and How?

Salvation, or to be saved means to be saved or to be rescued from the deleterious effect of sin – eternal death, i.e. to be rescued from being separated from God forever, and, after this earthly life, from being cast away into hell fire forever, from where none can ever come back, “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us” (Luke 16:26). To be saved means to be justified before God and for eternity to be reconciled with God through the Lord Jesus “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”; and “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”” (Romans 5:1, 10). The added benefits of salvation or being saved are that we become God’s children “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13), and a co-heir with Christ Jesus “and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).

Every person is born unrighteous with a natural tendency to sin, “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?” (Job 15:14); and “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalms 51:5).  Unrighteousness and sinfulness is our in-born hereditary tendency because of the effects of the sin of our fore-parents, Adam and Eve, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Just as a drowning person cannot lift himself out of the water by catching hold of his hair and trying to pull himself out of water, similarly a person made unholy and defiled by sin cannot make himself holy and pure by any self-efforts of being righteous, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Just as that drowning man needs help from someone outside, similarly a person drowning in sin needs the help of someone to be delivered from the sin, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7).

The Holy and Sinless God can never compromise or keep company with sin – this is contrary to His nature and character, “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood “; “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear”; “Then they will cry to the Lord, But He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, Because they have been evil in their deeds” (Isaiah 1:15; 59:2; Micah 3:4). But He also loves His best creation, man, very much and wants to have fellowship with him – even though man has now fallen in sin. Not only is God a loving God, but He is also a just God. He cannot simply condone sin, God's justice demands that the sinner receive and bear the just and God determined punishment for his sin – death, i.e. to be separated from Him, “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die”; “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). If man were to undergo this punishment then he would never be able to return to fellowship with God; but God, in His great love for us, does want to have fellowship with man.

It was God who provided the way out of this seemingly impossible imbroglio, so that His justice could be met, as well as He could have fellowship with men. God was born as a man on this earth, incarnated as the Lord Jesus Christ, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”  (John 1:1, 14), and lived a sinless and spotless even though living as a common man, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”; “For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26); “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22); “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). The Lord Jesus never committed any sin; all through His life, He knew no sin. Yet the Lord Jesus took upon Himself all the sins of everyone in the whole world, and by taking up the sins of every person of earth, on the Cross of Calvary He became sin for all the people of the world, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and He then bore the punishment for sin for the entire mankind, He suffered death, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) and separation from God in place of man. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" ” (Matthew  27:46). He knowingly and voluntarily sacrificed Himself on the cross, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (John 10:17-18). He died, He was buried, and by resurrecting from the dead on the third day He proved His divinity, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”; “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 2:23-24; 17:31).

Since it is only the Lord Jesus who has provided an everlasting and appropriate solution for the sin of mankind, therefore salvation for mankind is only through the Lord Jesus, no one else, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Now, the way of salvation by the work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross of Calvary is open for every person of the world, and is freely available for everyone, “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:15-18).

Now to receive forgiveness from sins and salvation all that any person needs to do is to believe on the Lord Jesus, ask for His forgiveness for their sins from Him and surrender their life to Him; and nothing more, “So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household" ” (Acts 16:31). For everyone, irrespective of their religion (including those born in families professing the christian religion), caste, place, color, education, worldly status, or any other criteria, Salvation is only possible by repentance, i.e. by coming to a heartfelt realization of their sinful status and it's eternal consequences, by acknowledging their sins and voluntarily asking the forgiveness for them from the Lord Jesus and submitting their lives to Him, with a sincere heart, “Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38), otherwise not. To be saved is also known as to be Born Again – i.e. to be born out of the perishing worldly life into eternal spiritual life; and nobody can even see, let alone enter heaven, without being Born Again, “Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3-5); “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." ” (1 Corinthians 15:50,53-54). This salvation or being Born Again or being saved is not something that is neither through living according to any religion, nor is it familial, neither is it inherited nor is it hereditary; nor is it possible by any kind of works oe efforts, nor through fulfilling any rituals, nor by observing and following any traditions or custom and manners, it is purely by the grace of God through faith and faith alone in Christ Jesus “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:5-9).

Every person has to be personally Born Again for their own sins. Whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus voluntarily and sincerely, and asks forgiveness for their own sin from Him, surrenders their life to Him, becomes His disciple, and commits to living a life of obedience to Him, only such a person receives forgiveness from sins and is saved from the eternal deleterious consequences of their sin, i.e. is saved, and receives the honor of being a child of God, and of living with Him in heaven for eternity “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23)।

This is salvation, or being saved – being delivered from sin and from death i.e. from the terrible and unimaginable pain of eternally suffering in hell, being separated from God forever, simply by believing on the Lord Jesus and thereby entering the eternal life of bliss with God.

So to be saved, do not rely on any thing or anyone else, except the one true, infallible, inerrant, and irrevocable Word of God - the Bible, and take that step of faith outlined above to secure your eternal destiny. By doing so, you have nothing to loose except your sins and eternity in hell, rather, you have everything to gain, for all eternity in heaven. You can do it right now, at this very moment; you do not need the presence or help of any other person to do this. All you need to do to be saved or Born Again is to pray with a sincere heart a simple, honest, and straightforward prayer, something like: "Lord Jesus I believe in you and that you have paid for my sins on the Cross of Calvary. Please forgive my sins, and accept me. I wholly surrender my life to you. Please help me to live a life committed to you and according to your Word - the Bible." That is all, no rituals, no works of any kind, no obligation to any person in any manner, but just entering into a sincere and heartfelt relationship with the Lord Jesus, through simple faith.

Will Back-Sliders go to Heaven?

Question:

Once a person is saved, if he back-slides, then will he go to heaven?

Answer:

Whosoever has been saved, i.e., voluntarily and with a true heart, has repented of his sins, accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior, has asked for forgiveness of his sins from Him, and has submitted his life to Him, only that person will go to heaven by the grace of God – but only God knows the actual spiritual condition of man, therefore it is only God who can decide on who will go to heaven, and who will not.

According to God’s Word, the Bible, it is very clear and firmly established that salvation is forever, i.e. is eternal. The writer of the epistle to Hebrews, writing about the Lord Jesus Christ’s work to provide salvation to mankind writes, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,” (Hebrews 5:8-9). The Lord Jesus also said that He will give eternal life to all who believe in Him (i.e. an endless and indestructible life for all eternity, eternal life) and at the same time also assured that no one will be able to take the saved ones out of the Lord’s, or God’s hands (John 10:27-29) – this statement of the Lord has very serious and extremely important implications. On the basis of this promise from the Lord, to lose one’s salvation implies that, somehow Satan has been able to snatch away the saved persons from the Lord’s, or God’s hands, and taken possession of them again. If at all somehow this were to be possible, it would mean that three impossibilities have become possible – first, that Satan is more powerful than God; second, that the Lord Jesus spoke a lie, He gave a false assurance that no one will be able to take away a saved person from the hand of the Lord or of God; and third, that the Lord does not know about Satan’s power or His own power, or God’s power; He is just saying things without any basis! Since any and all of this is an absolute impossibility and can never happen, therefore it is evident that any person who has been saved, on the basis of John 10:27-29 can never ever lose his salvation. And since those who are saved are no longer under any condemnation (Romans 8:1), therefore those who are actually saved, will most certainly enter heaven, whatever be their state of maturity in faith and standing in spirituality.

But it is only the Lord God who knows, who is an actual Christian Believer and who is not. For example, take Judas Iscariot; he was called to be a disciple by the Lord, he stayed in fellowship with the Lord, he learnt from the Lord, he too went for preaching in the power and instructions from the Lord, along with the other disciples, and along with the disciples he too preached the gospel, he too did miracles, but in the end he was called ‘the son of perdition’ and ‘the only one lost’ (John 17:12), and went into eternal destruction. The Lord Jesus towards the end of His Sermon on the Mount had said that not everyone who calls Him ‘Lord’ will enter into heaven, even though they may have abundantly preached, worked miracles and done other remarkable works in the Lord’s name – the Lord called all such works as ‘iniquity’ – and made it clear that only they will enter heaven who are obedient to God and work according to the will of God (Matthew 7:21-23). Therefore on the basis of the evident behavior, preaching, and works of any person we can never say for sure that all those who claim to believe in the Lord and everyone who preaches or works in His name, is actually a saved person! Paul also cautioned and exhorted that Satan and his angels come as angels of light and apostles of Christ to deceive people (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15). Therefore it is only God who knows the fact of a person’s being saved, and only He can decide, and does decide, about a person’s being saved or not.

The Bible also says that there will be Christian Believers who truly repented and came to the Lord with a true heart, they were really saved, but they did not do anything that could be considered worthy of being rewarded by the Lord. At the time of judgement when their works are evaluated, they will surely enter heaven because they are saved, but will enter empty handed, without any rewards, and remain so forever for all eternity (1 Corinthians 3:9-15). Like for everyone else in the world, even the Christian Believers will face judgment on the basis of their works, rather, the beginning of judgement will be with the Christian Believers (1 Peter 4:17-18), but the judgement of the Christian Believers will not be for their salvation, but for giving them eternal rewards based on the evaluation of their works – salvation is not based upon works, but rewards are based on works. Salvation is only by the grace of God through repentance from sins and coming to faith in the Lord Jesus; not through any works of any kind, nor by fulfilling any traditions, or rituals, or carrying out religious observances of any kind (Ephesians 2:1-9).

There are many such people who after coming into the Christian Faith, for some reason or the other, back-slid or fell away from the Faith, but the Lord in accordance with His promise (Hebrews 13:5) did not leave or forsake them. Sooner or later, through some way, Lord brought them back into the Faith, and subsequently they were used mightily for the Lord, and through their witness and example of returning back into the Faith they became a source of encouragement and courage to others who were weak in, or had fallen away from the Faith. If we look at it from our current context, then the time when the Lord Jesus had taken the penalty of the world’s sins upon Himself, at that time we had no physical existence. Also, nowhere is it written in the Bible that the Lord took upon Himself and suffered the penalty of only those sins of the people which they had committed before coming to the Lord – i.e., the sins they had committed before being saved; and the Lord has left the remedy of their sins committed after their being saved in their own hands, by virtue of their works – this is an impossibility – how can a part of salvation be dependent upon the grace of God, and the remaining part be based on the works of a person? 

The Lord has paid in full, the penalty for all the sins of all the people committed in their entire life-time, at whatever time in the history of the world they have existed. He has made available not a just partial but the complete way out from the deadly consequences of every person's entire sin burden of their entire life-time; now there is nothing left for any person to accomplish by his own efforts to live a saved life. When the Lord has taken upon Himself all the sins of every person, from their birth to their death, has paid in full for them, then which sin is left that will hinder the person from entering heaven? Is his sin of back-sliding or falling away from the Faith not a part of the sins of his lifetime, the price for which has already been paid in full by the Lord? 

And if, supposing, having been cleansed on being saved, a person is able to maintain his life pure and sinless by his own efforts, works, and abilities, then he could have done the same before being saved as well – then the Lord's coming has been in vain; rather, the sinful, mortal man, actually has become greater than the Lord God! Since if this were possible, then man merely by his works, can accomplish that for which the Lord had to leave heaven and come down as a man to earth, suffer ignominy and torture, and had to sacrifice His life – this is an absolutely inconsistent and impossible contention! Moreover, which saved person can in all honesty say that since salvation, he has never – physically, mentally, or in thoughts, ever committed any sin? The Apostle John says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8, 10) – take note that though he was a saved person and an Apostle, yet, through the use of the word "we" he is including himself amongst the sinners referred to in this verse. Therefore what difference if any is left between those who have back-slid or fallen away from the Faith, and those who haven't? The one falling away has also sinned, and those who are still in the Faith, they too have sinned or do sin – and since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), therefore both of them are in a similar situation, and both are justified before God not by their works of any kind, but solely by the grace, forgiveness, and love of God, and both are made acceptable for entry into heaven through the grace and forgiveness of God.

Therefore for those who have back-slid or fallen away from faith, instead of criticizing and condemning them, we should pray for them; and we should leave their returning back into the Faith and being useful for the Lord in the hands of the Lord, to be accomplished according to the time and plan of God.

What is Salvation according to the Bible, and how can it be obtained?

Take a look at some verses from the Bible related to the spiritual condition of man, its consequences and the way out of the situation, taken from the letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian Believers in Rome:

Romans 3:20-30 :-

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Romans 3:22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Romans 3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

Romans 3:26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

Romans 3:29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,

Romans 3:30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

According to the Bible man is a sinner by nature i.e. he sins because of his inherent sin nature and not that because of sinning he becomes a sinner. In other words man is under the control of an inherent tendency to sin, because of which man is separated from the fellowship and life of God – because sin separates man from God: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2). This separation from God is death, i.e. the eternal separation from God in hell. Just as a person drowning in water is incapable of pulling himself out of the water by pulling on his head or hairs, and he needs someones help; similarly a person in his sins is incapable of either saving himself from the deleterious consequences or attaining to the standards of God’s righteousness and holiness. All of man’s righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6), and because of their spiritually unclean state nobody is capable of bringing out anything clean from themselves “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!” (Job 14:4); “Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"?” (Proverbs 20:9). Therefore, “How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4)।

The work of deliverance from their sins that man is incapable of doing, has been accomplished for mankind by God. God was born as man - the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite living as a man in the world the Lord Jesus lived a sinless and pure life “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). The Lord took upon Himself all the sins of the entire world, He who knew no sin became sin by taking upon Himself the entire sins of the whole world “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree")” (Galatians 3:13), “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24); and then in that state of having become sin, the Lord bore for them the death that mankind had to bear – i.e. He took upon Himself and suffered the full punishment for all the sins of entire mankind. The Lord sacrificed Himself and died on the Cross, He was buried, and to prove His Deity and being victorious over death, He rose up from the dead on the third day in His physical body – “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The life, death and resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus are not mere beliefs or concocted stories, rather they are irrefutable historical facts whom no one till date has been able to disprove despite innumerable efforts to do so, and there are sufficient proofs for these facts outside God’s Word the Bible, in the writings of people from those days.

Because the Lord Jesus has, for each and every person of the world, whosoever he may be – of any time period, place, race or nation, religion etc. paid in full for their sins, therefore no man needs to seek a solution for their sins through their own efforts. Now whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus and, asks Him for forgiveness of their sins, and voluntarily with a honest heart accepts the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross, His death, burial and resurrection from the dead on the third day, and submits his life to the Lord Jesus, he receives the pardon for his sins from the Lord, and gets reconciled with God “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2); and this person then becomes a child of God, a member of His family – “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13)।

This is Salvation or Being Saved or being Born Again – being delivered from the perishable worldly state and eternal damnation of hell i.e. “death”, by the grace of God through coming to faith in the Lord Jesus becoming a child of God and receiving the life of eternal blessings and God’s fellowship and protection for eternity – being delivered from the state of death and coming into the state of eternal life; not through any works but solely by the Grace of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus.

Ephesians 2:1-9 :-

Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

Ephesians 2:3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

On the basis of Matthew 25:31-46, is Salvation by works i.e. by doing good deeds?

Without any doubt or ambiguity, salvation is by grace and grace alone. It can in no way be ‘earned’ by any good deeds, but is a gift given by God, freely made available to mankind through the accomplished work of Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary, and no human works of any kind have any role whatsoever in the salvation of any person (Ephesians 2:1-9, Romans 3:27-28).

Once saved by God’s grace, we are saved for eternity (John 10:28-29), and the saved ones will be with the Lord God for ever (John 14:3). God has prepared plans, of works to be done by every one of His saved children (Ephesians 2:10), and God expects His children to accomplish them well; and to live in a manner that exhibits and witnesses for the salvation they have received from God, and glorifies Him (Romans 6:11-14; 12:1-2; 14:7-8; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15).

These God appointed works entrusted to the Believers, are to be done on the basis of God's Word, and God’s instructions. Every Christian Believer's works will eventually be minutely scrutinized for the enduring quality of his works (1 Corinthians 3:11-15); and based on the enduring quality of their works the Believer will receive their rewards for eternity. Some will find that none of their works could pass the scrutiny, all their works were rejected and thrown away, leaving them empty-handed; but their salvation was not rejected; they are still 'saved', are still in heaven with the Lord, but have nothing for their eternity (v.15). At the time of judgment of the Believers (1 Peter 4:17), their judgement will not be for determining or conferring salvation – that has already been decided and settled once and for all at the very moment of their repenting from their sins and accepting Lord Jesus as Saviour, while they lived on earth. Their judgment according to their works i.e. according to the quality of their commitment and obedience to God and to His Word will be to determine the rewards the Believers will receive for their eternity. From the parable of the Owner of the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) we see that even those who, though worked for lesser time than the others, but did it as per the master’s instructions, still received the same rewards as everybody else. Our making the most of the opportunities sent our way by God and the manner in which we have utilized those opportunities, the enduring quality of our commitment to God and His Word is what counts for our eternal rewards.

Matthew 25:31-46 is referring to this judgment of the Believers – whether or not they have been obedient to God and His Word, and done the things expected of them as children of God. We see in this parable that in v.33 segregation is done – between the sheep and the goats – here notice that they neither qualified nor failed to become one or the other; but they already were “sheep” and “goats.”In vs.34 and 37 the Lord calls the sheep “blessed of my father” and “righteous” – all of these titles are in the past tense i.e. denote a status already accomplished and granted, before their being presented to the King (v.31-32). Nowhere in the parable is the Lord saying or indicating to the sheep that “in recognition of your good deeds done in my name, I am now conferring upon you the status of being my sheep, of obtaining salvation, of being considered righteous, and of being called the blessed of God.” It were the sheep, the righteous, the blessed of God, who by virtue of the heavenly nature imbued in them because of their salvation and being Born Again into the family of God, that did works that demonstrated their heavenly nature and set them apart from the “goats” who despite having similar opportunities had no inclination or desire to exhibit anything heavenly. The “sheep” acted in accordance with their inherent nature due to being saved by faith and regenerated, while the “goats” acted in accordance with their inherent nature due to their unsaved and unregenerate state. Their deeds did not make them “sheep” or “goats”, rather their already being “sheep” and “goats” caused them to live out what already was within them.

Their works did not grant them salvation, but their being saved and Born Again, being regenerated, caused them to behave in heavenly manner. The same applies to all other references and situations in the Bible pertaining to the relationship between works and salvation.