Renewal of Your Mind

Salvation Requires Obedience to the Word of God

August 5, 2010 at 12:27 PM Leave a comment

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By Deryl S. Lampkin

When God created man, He gave Adam authority over all the earth. This is not something Adam worked for or was awarded due to his greatness. We see also in scripture when God selected one man (Abram) and from him created a nation that he made a special covenant with. God eventually gave this people the “promise land”.

What I want you to notice in both of these situations is that God gave both recipients a free gift. However in both situations, the recipients lost possession of the gift. They both lost their possession due to irresponsible behavior. They allowed an antagonist or the enemy to influence them to do something contrary to what God had commanded of them. When we receive something of God, God will not take it back. However, He gives us the responsibility to keep and maintain it. He also gives us instructions on what we must and must not do in order to keep and maintain what He has given us. If we fail to obey and follow those instructions, we are subject to lose our gift or possession.

What always is the cause for us losing what God has given us is when we allow the enemy to influence our thoughts with contrary information or suggestions. When we accept the suggestions of the enemy or lean towards our own understanding, that is contrary to what God instructed, we by default, give up our right to the privilege God granted us. God always tie a condition of obedience to whatever gift or privilege he grants.

Going back to Adam, God gave him authority over all the earth to govern and rule it. But God also gave him one stipulation for maintaining this position. He could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This symbolic tree represented man leaning toward his own understanding rather than trusting and obeying what God said. Whenever we choose to disobey what God has clearly commanded or required, we in effect violate the conditional part of what God said. Therefore, whatever God promises or grants us through His word, we must look for the conditional part of what He promised and be certain to comply with the condition, otherwise, the promise will become null and void. Meeting the condition is what validates the promise.

Salvation is a gift of God. It is not something that we deserve or can earn by being good or producing great works or accomplishments. Though it is a free gift, it is a privilege and not a right. A right is a legal entitlement, whereas a privilege is a granted conditional right. God grants this privilege to whosoever meets the prerequisites (the admittance requirements) and follow through in complying with the requisites (the things necessary for the achievement and validation of the specified promise.

The prerequisites of salvation are to:

1. repent of your sins,
2. confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,
3. believe in your heart that Jesus died and paid the required penalty for your sins with his shed blood, and that
4. God raised him from the dead.

After having done that, you are saved and being saved by grace through believing in God’s word. Believing in God and in the word without actually doing what the word tells you to do, will not save you or result in salvation. Your failure to act in obedience to the word will cause you to lose your privilege to experience eternal life. Like Adam and the children of Israel, because you did not obey God and meet His conditional requirements, it will result in the loss of the granted privilege.

Related Articles

• Basis of Salvation and Faith (anointedplace.wordpress.com)

Entry filed under: Article. Tags: Christianity, Deryl S. Lampkin, Evangelism, God, Immortality, Israel, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality, Salvation.