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by Graham Pockett
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Each of us are somewhere along that line because none of us are perfect (we are sinners and fall short of the glory of God).
Part of the Law of the Old Testament was to mark a point on that line, a divider, and say "to the left of that point you will go to Hell, and to the right of that point you will go to Heaven".
If we know where that point on the line was we would do so much and no more – we would have a "works based" faith that simply required us to achieve a certain standard to be saved (in simplified form, to religiously obey all of the Ten Commandments).
To be saved you didn't have to believe in anything, you didn't need to love God, and you didn't need a relationship with Him.
That, unfortunately, does not work for the vast majority of people because we have at our core "legalism", a need to know the rules so we can bend the spirit of them without (hopefully) actually breaking them. Lawyers do this in courts across the world every day.
The New Covenant of Christ is about Grace, and part of Grace is the willingness to do something out of love, not out of law (works). What God did with the New Testament was to introduce a cloud around that middle marker, effectively dividing the line into three (see illustration below). The extreme left is still for Satan, the extreme right is still for God, but there is a big question mark in the middle – a fog that hides the dividing point between saved and unsaved.
Christians now have a quandary. If they try and believe by works (legalism) they have trouble because there is no clear divider between saved and unsaved so they are encouraged to discover God's will for them and to have a relationship with Him. Because there is no clearly defined point between saved and unsaved they must strive to be in that right-hand third of the line to ensure their Salvation.
Christianity is all about grace, and grace is all about love. Because God loved us so much He allowed Jesus to be the sacrificial lamb and to die for our sins. Because we love God so much we constantly strive to please Him – as Micah 6:8 says, to humbly walk with Him.
If we live by Law (legalism) we need constant reassurance because we can never be sure of the dividing point on that line between saved and unsaved. If we live by Grace we will strive to please God and will be saved.
God judges us on our heart, not on our doctrines (otherwise Heaven would be populated only by God – even the angels wouldn't be able to stay there!).
If your heart is genuinely for God then you will forget about legalism because you will be too busy powering on for God. You will also enjoy the peace that passes all understanding – and that peace is the assurance of Salvation!
If you are ready to commit to the Lord do it here and now!
I pray you have found this article interesting and I would be pleased to read any comments you may have. However, my workload is such that I may not be able to respond to all mail. Address any comments to Graham Pockett.
Get a copy of this article in ASCII text format either zipped (cc_salvation.zip – 2kB) or as a normal text document (cc_salvation.txt – 4kB). Please note that this article is copyright and may not be reproduced without written permission (given freely for Christian purposes). Often it is better to simply link directly to this page!
All of Graham’s Christian writings (see below) can be download as a set of archived text files GrahamsWriting.zip (you will need an unzipping tool – like the free Stuffit Expander – to extract the separate documents from this archive).
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[Psalms 23:6 KJV]
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Last Updated: Wednesday, May 06, 2009