Truth Magazine

By Phillip A. Owens

Two of the most common beliefs of many are that eternal salvation of our souls is predicated on either “faith only” or “grace only.” Some say we are saved by “faith alone,” excluding anything we might do. Others say there is nothing we can do (including belief or having faith), but that our salvation is totally dependent upon “grace alone.” The truth of the matter is that there is no one thing by which we are saved and that one thing alone. The Bible teaches we are saved by God’s love (Jn. 3:16), mercy (Tit. 3:5), the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1,2; Rom. 1:16), faith (Rom. 5:1), Christ’s blood (Rom. 5:8), His death (Rom. 5: 10), belief (Acts 16:31), repentance (Acts 3:19), and baptism (1 Pet. 3:21). While there are others, these should be sufficient to convince the honest reader that one certainly should not say we are saved by any one thing “alone.”

Ephesians 2:8-10

A comprehensive and yet very concise statement is found in the second chapter of Ephesians which concerns how we are saved. Paul said: “For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them” (vv. 8-10). Two factors concerning our salvation are readily observed: (1) Salvation is “the gift of God,” and (2) It is “not of works.” But does “not of works” mean we do nothing? No, for the works that will not concern our salvation are those works which have their origin with men or have been devised by men as acts of works we must accomplish in order for salvation. These are works in which man “should glory” if salvation were thereby obtained. Are there works then which affect our salvation? Yes. What works are those? The works “which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” Christ worked the works of Him that sent Him by doing the will of the Father (Jn. 9:4; 6:38). We work the works “which God afore prepared that we should walk” when we do the will of the Father.

Since we are not saved by works of our own devising but by the grace of God, how are we then saved by grace through faith? Grace is the gift God “tends to man. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Hence, God grants our salvation as a gift – “For by grace have ye been saved.” But how does God save us “through faith”? The same way every individual listed in Hebrews 11 was saved through faith. When an individual believes all God says, to the extent he is willing to do all God says, God extends His grace to such an individual and he is thereby saved through faith. James expressed it this way: “Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith” (James 2:17,18). Was James discussing works of man’s devising which cannot save? No, for in the same context he later said, “Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith” (v. 24). Therefore, the faith that saves is the faith that works the works “which God afore prepared.” A faith without obedience is an incomplete faith (James 2:22) and one that is not “unto the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39).

While the goodness and graciousness of God is manifested through the sending of Christ, making man’s salvation possible, salvation will be procured only when man turns to God in simple obedient faith. Faith pleasing to God comes by hearing what God says, not some “better felt than told experience” (Rom. 10:17). By believing what we read, turning to God in repentance, being baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:36-38), and living faithfully throughout life, we will be saved by grace through faith.

Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 11, p. 333
June 7, 1984

By Lewis Willis

When you stop to think about it, these words engender fear, if not abject terror! Can you imagine standing at the judgment and hearing a sentence of condemnation because we have left our first love? No, thanks! If such a charge can be waged against me, I prefer to hear it now.

“Balance” in our thinking is rather difficult to acquire. Most of us spend our time on one end or the other of every ,spectra. We are either totally positive or totally negative; up or down; high or low. Spiritually, we tend to be hot or cold. When our fervor for the Lord is at its height, we certainly do not want someone coming in and throwing cold water on the flame. Candidly, I don’t particularly like to throw water on flames. And, I definitely encourage a confident attitude in our relationship with God. However, if there is something I am overlooking in my duty to Him, and I still feel confident, that feeling of confidence is unfounded. Wisdom, then, demands that I give a balanced assessment of my obligation to Him and the manner in which I am discharging it.

When the Lord addressed the church at Ephesus, He observed many commendable attributes regarding it. They were working in patience, abhorred evil, tested their teachers for the truth, had borne hardships and they had not fainted in these good things. All this notwithstanding, He said He had something against them because, “Thou hast left thy first love” (Rev. 2:1-4).

This seems somewhat difficult to imagine. How could all of these good things be said of them, followed so quickly by a rebuke? There was, obviously, something rather seriously wrong at Ephesus. It is estimated that this church was more than forty years old at the time this was written. From its beginning, it had manifested a spirit of enthusiasm, activity and devotion to Christ and the gospel. And, there is no evidence that their activity had greatly diminished. However, an all-knowing Savior perceived a decay or deterioration in their love!

A wife may be very faithful to her husband, fulfilling all responsibilities pertaining to him, even though the 4dromance” is slipping out of the marriage – her love for him is fading. Unless she is mindful of this situation, and acts to remedy the problem, the relationship is in jeopardy. Similarly, a Christian may attend the worship, sing, give, study, visit, etc., even though his love for, and devotion to the Lord is waning. Unless he identifies the problem and remedies it, his relationship with the Lord is in jeopardy. “Going through the motions” may extend a marriage relationship, but it will not sustain our “marriage relationship” to Christ (Rom. 7:1-4).

What are the tell-tale signs? Perhaps going to worship because I “have to” instead of because I “want to.” Or, I would be more comfortable somewhere else. Or, serving God is not exciting anymore. Or, I get no real delight out of being a Christian -it is all duty, obligation, responsibility, etc. Such attitudes should alarm us! It is foolhardy to ignore them.

I don’t like the psychological expression, but that which is characterized above is an “attitude problem.” Far too many things are identified as attitude problems. However, a decaying love for Christ is an attitude problem. It will degenerate into a practice or procedural problem unless the attitude problem is dealt with. In other words, one who no longer enjoys worshipping God, is but a short step away from an abandonment of the worship of the church. He can give up in frustration; he can quit doing God’s will. Or, he can look for another solution to his attitude problem. And there is one!

Here it is: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. . . ” (Rev. 2:5). It is something like the approach we make in fulfilling our obligation to love our brethren. We begin by loving them because God said so. We soon discover there are many reasons for loving our brethren. In correcting a love problem toward the Lord, we begin by repenting because He said to. Now, remember, repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of one’s life. Therefore, when we repent, assess what we were, realize what we are and contemplate the reward of faithfulness in the future, our attention is refocused in the proper channel. The “first works” have meaning to us again and our attitude problem is solved! I was just thinkin’ . . . a bunch of us Christians should be alerted by these thoughts!

Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 11, p. 331
June 7, 1984

By Donald Willis

Tuesday, my wife drug me to a Writer’s Seminar on Romance. Most knowledgeable persons understand that romance is not the interest of the pen of a preacher . . . though all people are interested in Romance! God made us that way, and there is nothing wrong with loving and being loved.

A New York City publishing house had sent its representative into the Houston market looking for new Journalists. There were six different categories in which one might write. One of these was Romance with an Inspirational thrust. They were especially desirous of having one write from this viewpoint.

A question was asked from the floor as to how far a writer might take the subject of sex. The company representative said that “. . . no Christian will engage in premarital sex nor after marriage will they talk openly concerning their sexual involvement.” This caused a stir among the audience, and some people got up and left (in their defense, may I add they had been seated for almost two hours).

I thought it interesting that a publishing company representative that is interested in Romantic Novels would conclude, “. . . no Christian will engage in premarital sex”! She must have been reading the same book that I read. What a wonderful testimony for Christ!

If “. . . no Christian would engage in premarital sex,” there would be no borrow of guilt emotion over the violation of the morals of Christ. There would be no teen-age pregnancy, there would be no abortion and the aftermath of inner fear of having murdered the child.

How protective of the emotions of His children God is in establishing the moral standard whereby, “. . . no Christian will engage in premarital sex. Let us all profit by this evaluation.

Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 11, p. 330
June 7, 1984

By Edward O. Bragwell. Sr.

“I hear that there are divisions among you and in part I believe it.” – 1 Corinthians 11:18

In our family discussions (your family has arguments, ours has discussions) someone may be heard to say, “Shh! The neighbors might hear us.”

This is a wise admonition, because the issues of our discussions are mostly trivial; in a few years they will not matter. Besides neighbors are so wrapped up in their own problems that they don’t need to be bothered with ours anyway.

I hear brethren express the same sentiment about problems among brethren. They are saying, in effect, “Shh! The neighbors might hear us.” My brother, that is a horse of a different color. First, our neighbors already know a lot more about “our problems” than many brethren do. Secondly, a people primarily interested in truth loses nothing by dealing openly and frankly with its own short-comings. The Kingdom of God is strong enough to survive and thrive without glossing over what every really informed person already knows – Christians sometimes argue, sin, and backslide. Christians suffer all the woes common to humanity and many other things as result of their faith. We have nothing to lose by the negative being right up front with the positive.

“Our neighbors” are sometimes wiser than many of “us” in this respect. In an article, in Pulpit Helps, a writer said it well:

“The positive ‘gospel’ is erroneous in two respects. The first of these is in its origin, or the cause which gave it rise. That origin is nothing less than pure sales psychology. You have a ‘product’ to sell. In order to sell it, you must be at pains to present nothing in your sales ‘pitch’ but what will contribute to the sale. Above all, you must not in any way antagonize the prospect, discourage him, or say anything that would militate against your objective, which is the sale that you seek. That is the fundamental idea and purpose back of “the positive approach.” It is the objective of selling, with its requirement to bend every effort and direct every consideration to that end. It is to be especially noted that the primary interest is not to present truth, but to achieve the pre-determined objective.

“. . . The simple fact of the matter is, in God’s kingdom, we are not in the ‘selling’ business. Oh, how the modern church needs to learn that basic reality! It is not our job to ‘sell’ Christ or the Gospel to this generation; hence, man’s sales psychology is wholly inapplicable to our assignment. The sooner we learn that, the quicker we can begin to-get back to the purity of apostolic religion and tactics. Our mission is to preach the Word of God (2 Tim. 4:2), including all the great mass of ‘negative’ doctrine in it, and earnestly call upon men to heed and obey it while time and opportunity are theirs. The Bible plainly says it is God’s prerogative to give “the increase” (1 Cor. 3:7). Let us not become so engrossed with the divine part of the enterprise – the increase – that we fatally water down or mutilate the message by deleting from it all that men in their self love and ambition, have designated as ‘negative.”‘ (“Are You Selling or Proclaiming the Gospel?” by Fred D. Blakely)

We would do well to give some thought to this bit of wisdom from one not a member of the church of Christ. Concerned, honest, and sincere Christians are heard to say that they are afraid for friends, neighbors or new converts to read many papers published by brethren – not because of any error taught, but because they deal openly with problems among brethren. Or that they are afraid to bring them to some of our classes because they would be exposed to 44our internal problems.” They want them to have only a “positive” image of “us.” It might cause them to not want to become “one of us.” We have been chided for dealing with problems among brethren, in this paper, since it goes to some outsiders. Should we just present “positive Christianity” to the world and keep our problems more behind the scenes. Sounds good! But, is it the approach that the Lord would have us take?

Think brethren! If one wants to keep reading material that tells of and deals with problems among brethren from falling into the “wrong hands,” then let him get the Bibles that he passes out bound up in selected sections – so that he can give only certain sections to strong brethren and withhold from outsiders and weak brethren sections that frankly deal with “brotherhood problems.”

Be careful with 1 Corinthians. It tells of a fornicating brother and the church’s negligence in dealing with him. It openly reveals that there were shameful law-suits against other brethren, jealousy and confusion over spiritual gifts, and revellings connected with the Lord’s Supper. What if a non-Christian or weak brother were to get hold of that would it not so discourage and disgust him that he would quit?

Keep Galatians in your briefcase and give it only to those whom you are sure are seasoned veterans of the cross. It lets the cat out of the bag that there are “false brethren.” It tells about Peter’s (a rather “big name” preacher in the church) playing the hypocrite – all laid out there for anyone to read.

One might consider blacking out certain other portions. Those parts that tell that one of Jesus’ hand-picked apostles betrayed Him, another shamefully denied Him on the night of His betrayal. Maybe the 15th chapter of Acts ought not to fall into the hands of anyone but the strongest of Christians. It tells of a big debate, involving some leading men of the brotherhood, over a doctrinal matter within the church! It also reports that two of our leading brethren got into such a heated exchange that they finally wound up going separate ways into Asia Minor. And, by all means, keep the book of Revelation away from such people. Besides it being so deep and hard to understand, it lays right out for all to see the awful conditions in some churches of Christ in Asia.

Maybe someone will put out a new revised version – kind of like the Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible – that will accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative, so that brethren who are so worried about “our image” will have one to hand out.

Of course, much I have said so far has been tongue-in-cheek, to make us think. We need to think. Are we not in some way professing ourselves too wise becoming fools? Are we professing ourselves to be wiser than the Apostles and the Holy Spirit in our tactics? Do we think they did not know that those writings – even those that put brethren in a bad light – would be for general distribution? I am afraid that we are fast developing and attitude among brethren that is more concerned with “enhancing our image” before the world and creating a more positive approach in order to attract and keep more folks to count as members than we are in really converting people to Christ. Converting people to Christ is more than creating in them a favorable opinion of brethren, it is teaching people the truth and urging them to obey it and stand for it at all cost. It is helping them understand that not all brethren are genuine and that many who profess Christ have human failings and sins, but they can and must be faithful in spite of that. It is helping them understand that their faith must stand in the Christ and not in human beings and their behavior, even if those human beings are brethren. It is helping them understand that, instead of Christianity solving all their problems in this life, that it may create some new ones for them (cf. Luke 9:57-62; 14:25-35). They need to be made aware of all of this, then they will be less likely to be thrown into a tail spin when they encounter such in the real world of being a Christian. Tell them that by obeying the gospel and serving Christ they will be able to cope with these problems and go to heaven when they die.

Christians are primarily interested in truth. They are not afraid of truth, even unpleasant truth. If we get so afraid that our neighbors will hear us that we suppress truth and open efforts to seek and proclaim it, even unpleasant truth about ourselves, then we will become just another sect interested only in putting its best foot forward and protecting its image and recruiting its members by a positive sales psychology, rather than being a people that believe that truth is strong enough to withstand close investigation and that true Christianity can afford to be open and frank before the whole world. With this approach the early church grew stronger in spirit and numbers and purified itself. I believe that truth still has that power if we will quit being so timid and apologetic about it.

Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 11, pp. 327-328
June 7, 1984