Episode 96 - Salvation Part 3

[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hi and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, along with Ajay and Mark. We are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the unveiling. We're so excited to be together with you today as we continue to dive deeply into the one true gospel, the message of God's grace, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Today, I'm here with my brothers Ajay and Tim, and we are going into part three on salvation. And I guess we're probably going to spend the rest of our lives really appreciating and savoring and desiring and yearning to understand it more, to have greater revelation with the end goal of knowing Christ more. So let's. I'm going to kick it off with Ajay here since he kind of had the leading for us to do this series. I'll let him get us started and then Tim and I will come in as we feel led. [00:01:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks as always. Good to see both. So, yeah, Mark and Tim, we have been talking about salvation. Right. You know, we started this series as foundations. You know, we've been talking about grace and we've been talking about our Lord Jesus Christ and Christ and him crucified. We wanted to take a break and talk about the foundations because sometimes, you know, it helps, especially unbelievers, to understand what the gospel is all about and how to become a believer and how to be saved. And specifically, we have been talking about what is the gospel. Right. And what are the conditions of the gospel. And we told multiple times that there are no conditions. The only thing that you need to do is believe in the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and receive the forgiveness of sins that is offered in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. We said that. But, you know, given our human nature and given all the teachings that they hear from their childhood in Christian or non Christian circles. Right. They form some strongholds and it's very hard to break those strongholds. For example, all your life you heard that you have to confess in order to be saved. Yeah. We can tell them multiple times, hey, you know, there are no conditions. But they still need to specifically hear that and understand biblically from the scriptures why confession is not necessary. Because they might say, hey, the Bible says you have to confess in order to be forgiven. But until you dive deeper and understand, dive deeper and prove from the Scriptures that it is not, so they won't be convinced. So we Wanted to get into a few things, few of those things that are common among many people. And we basically wanted to, you know, like debunk or dismantle some of the lies that become a hindrance for salvation, of sincerely seeking, for souls that are sincerely seeking salvation. [00:03:35] Speaker B: Ajay, before we dive in. Go ahead, Tim. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Go ahead, Mark. [00:03:39] Speaker B: Okay, I was just gonna preface it by saying, you know, many times in scripture and from the Lord Jesus himself, he warned men, he cautioned them against teaching men's rules, traditions. And it seems to me like it's become a modern day tradition, this adding of things to the gospel, this first of all, getting rid of sin in your life. How many times have we heard Christian mantra, repent of your sin and turn to God for forgiveness? No, that's not part of the gospel, but it's become a modern day tradition. And to me it's like the very reason why we are doing this podcast on salvation is because people have come to think that that is true Christianity, this modern day tradition of adding things to the gospel. And the Apostle Paul spent great amount of time and scripture and passion refuting this lie, this false teaching. In fact, he opposed Peter and Barnabas. He went and he opposed the council in Jerusalem. He said that he did not hesitate to oppose it so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for us. And that's what we are humbly coming forth to aid Paul in his pursuit. So back to you, Tim. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Oh, no, I just wanted to say, especially in this first topic, before I say anything, I agree, Ajay, 100%. There is nothing we can add in which we can assist with our salvation. I think we had this one come up a couple of weeks ago in one of our podcasts where someone said, all we can bring is our sin. We don't even do that, man. We don't, we can't do anything. God, God comes to us, he meets us, he fixes things for us. But let's at least give those people who are teaching it a break to enough to say, yeah, these probably came from a flesh mindset of, you know, I've got to do something to earn this. And if, you know, like we said, one of the teachings is you really have to, you have to get, you have to list all your sins to get forgiveness. Well, that's a bunch of junk. But I think where that came from originally is, you know, what's going to drive our salvation if we have any [00:06:03] Speaker B: part in it at all. [00:06:03] Speaker A: And excitement accepting Jesus is we're going to know we're sinners. And need that grace and we're going to need that salvation. So someone just took it to the next strongest illogical conclusion. Said so. Yeah, you got to list them all or, you know, repent of them all or ask forgiveness for all of them. [00:06:20] Speaker B: I ain't gonna. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Nobody got time for that. [00:06:23] Speaker B: Plus it's impossible to do because you don't know all the sins you did every day. You know you're gonna miss some of them. Does that mean you're going to hell? [00:06:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:34] Speaker B: Christ died once. All sin, all people, all time. [00:06:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree with you, Mark and Tim. You know, some of these are coming from traditions, right? People making up. But some of them are also from misinterpreted scriptures. And to be honest though, you know, some of the scriptures are really hard to interpret. There are some difficult scriptures in the Bible. It is important to acknowledge that. And that's why I think a proper interpretation of the scripture in the context and not only just going by that scripture. Right. You want to examine that scripture in the light of all other scriptures where there is a more clearer revelation. And sometimes it's easier to explain the difficult scriptures by using the scriptures that are plain and simple. Right. So one of those things is obviously the repent is there, right. You know, Bible says repent. John the Baptist, he started with the proclamation of repentance, right? Repent, the kingdom of God is near. But many people interpret repent as, okay, you have to stop sinning or everybody has their own interpretation. But that interpretation is in relation to sin. You have to do something about your sin. That's what they interpret repentance as. I think that's why it's important to actually dig into the scriptures and debunk each of these so that people who are sincerely wanting to be saved or sincerely wanting to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ, these don't become stumbling stones for them. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah. One of the things we. One of the terms we use here on the availing is the crucible. And I've explained it before, but when it's when you put a substance into. Into a porcelain jar and you heat it up to remove. To remove all the impurities. And really to me that's like the pursuit of the Christian life with the gospel and with scripture is to get out everything that is not truly part of the gospel. And how do we do that? Well, there are many ways we can do it, but primarily it's through scripture, through sou. Interpretation, not just of a single. Of a single scripture, but as a said context, context. Context. Sometimes you Got to read a couple lines before, a couple lines after the chapter, before the chapter, after the entire book, the entire New Testament, the entire Bible to, you know, because the whole thing is just a beautiful tapestry that works together. It doesn't contradict itself unless we misinterpret it. So I just love that idea of the crucible of putting everything and everything we've heard, because our whole lives we've heard things on tv, in books we've read from how many different pastors we've experienced, and not everything they said was gospel truth, to coin a phrase. [00:09:46] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I would like to get into a few specific conditions that we hear and look at them in the light of the gospel. [00:09:56] Speaker A: So, Ajay, these are specific things that people teach about how we can be saved or how we have to participate or whatever word they want to use, Cooperate, participate, work for to be able to be saved. [00:10:12] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Or in fact, fulfill a condition. Right. Unless you do that, Jesus will not give you salvation. In simple terms, right. So one of those, the most common ones is repent, right. You know, we just talked about, and the default common interpretation is you have to repent of your sins. And repent of your sins means, again, several things, right. Some people think repentance from sins is okay, you have to make a promise to God, you have to make a commitment, or you have to decide that you are never going to sin, or at least you are going to try hard not to sin. And some people think, you know, you have to stop all sinning. But the thing is, if we really examine and search the Scriptures in the New Testament, I think Mark, you also pointed it out. In fact, you searched it, right? Repent of your sin doesn't even come in the New Testament. Am I right on that? [00:11:13] Speaker B: Not even once. Or the Old Testament. [00:11:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So then what is the repentance that Bible is talking about? Right. If there are two specific things when New Testament talks about repentance in Hebrews, chapter six, verse, verse one, right. Therefore, leaving the discussion of elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. So the repentance that the New Testament is calling for is repentance from dead works. And the dead works are basically the works of the law, right? The works that you do to make yourself righteous. You know, that's what we need to repent of. Any thoughts on that before we go to the next one? [00:12:09] Speaker B: Well, when you really think about it, there's nothing wrong with. Even though the Bible never says it Anywhere. It never says repent of your sin for forgiveness, but it does say over and over and over again, Old Testament and New, repent for forgiveness of sin. But let's just take that premise. The problem with repentance of sin is what they're defining it as. Repentance means. It's the word metanoia, which means to rethink a change of mind, a change of heart. And yes, we do need to rethink our sin, that, yes, we are sinners first of all, and that we need a savior. So in actuality, repent of your sin is correct. But that's not what they mean. What they mean is you clean up your act and then you come to Jesus. And if we could do that, we. We wouldn't need Jesus in the first place if a human being had the ability to stop sinning. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Well, you know, growing up in the church like I was, no one ever explained some of these terms to begin with, so I always took repentance. For the longest time, I took repentance as you got to feel really bad about your sin. [00:13:23] Speaker B: It really didn't even have anything to [00:13:24] Speaker A: do with getting all the way to the point that you were forgiven for it. You just had to feel really, really bad. [00:13:31] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:13:32] Speaker B: And that is at the heart of it, Tim. That is at the heart of it. You go ahead, Ajay. I'd like to give a little. A little bit of a background of that after you go, Ajay. [00:13:42] Speaker C: No, I was just going to say, you know, just between the three of us, we thought repentance was something, right? Tim thought it was. You need to feel really bad. And I thought, you have to stop all sinning. I don't know, Mark, what you thought before you came to the actual understanding. [00:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I was beating myself up with both of them. [00:14:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:03] Speaker C: So, yeah, go ahead, Mark. You were saying something. [00:14:05] Speaker B: Well, I've mentioned this before on the podcast, but I think it bears repeating in this conversation, and that is that for a thousand years, from the first church up until the great Reformation, the Bible was called the Vulgate. It was in Latin, and it was a very poor translation. And a generation before the great Reformation came a top Bible scholar in the world, a guy named Erasmus, did a completely new translation where on the left side of the page, he had that old Vulgate translation. And then he did a more correct translation on the right side of the page. And this Bible, I believe it was called the New Instrument. They had a Latin name for it, but it's what influenced Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli and a lot of the great first generation of reformers. But in that original Vulgate, which was a poor translation, they translated the word repentance as pentitia. Now pentitia means exactly what Timon Ajay, how they defined it. It means feeling really bad about your sin and then doing something about it. They called it acts of contrit. But what Erasmus found out when he did the correct interpretation from the original Greek was that that word means metanoia, which has a completely different meaning. It means to rethink, literally rethink, meta, re noia meaning think, rethink, change of mind, change of heart. And to me that's my personal theory of how this happened is that it's the leftover of that thousand year dark ages time when we had the incorrect interpretation of the word repentance. And it still follows us. And it still follows us to this day. [00:16:03] Speaker C: Yeah, Mark. So most people interpret repentance as doing something about your sin, right? Either you feel sorry for your sins and you feel really bad and then you do some penance, right? If you stole something, go give it back, do as much as you can, right? Or you beat yourself up. In fact, you know, Martin Luther and you studied him a lot, you know, he would go and confess all kinds of thoughts to the priest to the point that priest got frustrated. Hey, you know, they are not even sins what you are confessing, you know, when you have a real sin come back to me. And it seems he also used to beat himself up on the back, right? You know, as a penance, right? You are paying something back. So that's the idea of repentance that many people preach. But as we are debunking it, right, you know, we want to look at the true meaning of repentance in the context of the New Testament. We already looked at the first one, right? It is repentance from dead works in Hebrews chapter six, verse one. And the second one where repentance comes in the New Testament in context is in Acts 20:21, I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God. Actually, I think I will use a different translation which is better in this case. Yeah. In King James Bible, Acts 20:21, testifying both to Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. So the repentance of the New Testament is repentance towards God, basically changing your mind towards God. Throughout the Old Testament, the people saw God through the law. They thought that, you know, if you Keep the law, then God will be pleased. So they had a very wrong idea of God and they only had fear. Right? You know, they thought, you know, God is going to punish me for all my sins. They never saw God as a loving God. They never saw God as a forgiving God. So the repentance that is required is you change your mind towards God. That is, in the New Testament context, that is the repentance that you need. [00:18:30] Speaker B: Yeah, good point. You know, since we were just talking about Luther a moment ago and the definition of the word repentance, I've been reading for the last year Martin Luther's commentary on the book of Galatians, which he considered his most important work of his entire life. And I'd like to read this quote from Martin Luther. He said it should make any person afraid to hear Paul say that those who seek to be justified by the law not only deny Christ, but also crucify him anew. No wonder Paul employs such sharp language in his effort to recall the Galatians from the doctrine of the false apostles. He says to them, don't you realize what you've done? You've crucified Christ anew because you seek salvation by the law. True, Christ can no longer be crucified in person, but he is crucified in us when we reject grace, faith, and the free remissions of sins, and endeavor to be justified by our own works or by the works of the law. The apostle is incensed at the presumptuousness of any person who thinks he can perform the law of God to his own salvation. He charges that person with the atrocity of crucifying anew the Son of God. So what I love about this saying is just how serious this is. And he's just talking about the apostle Paul's view that it's not just, oh, oh, they're adding a little bit of works, that's okay. It's just an insurance policy, you know. And the plain truth is it's hard to find a Christian church where the pastor's up front telling you that you have to do, like giving voice to saying you need to add works to the Gospel. They're going to say it's all grace. And then the minute they leave that subject, they're going to go off to adding things. All the rules in the church you have to do. Some say you have to be baptized, you have to give 10%, you have to read this much of your Bible, you have to pray this much every week. [00:20:47] Speaker C: You have to. [00:20:47] Speaker B: You can't dance you can't play cards, you can't drink, you can't watch R rated movies. And yet they say, oh, it's by grace alone, through faith alone we're saved. But then they just go out and pretend like they don't remember that. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Let's just make sure we say two things about what Paul also said about activities like that. He says all things are allowable, but not all things are profitable. In other words, in grace we can go out and screw up. This is why people think we have a license to sin or something. We can go out and screw up. God won't hold it against us, but it also isn't going to do anything good for us. We can go do works trying to please God, but it's not going to profit us anything. [00:21:33] Speaker B: I think that's a good disclaimer that it's necessary to repeat fairly often, which we do. Of course we're not saying condoning sin or saying sin is a good thing. In fact, when the Catholic Church attacked John Calvin during the Reformation, he said, this argument is so frivolous I hesitate to even give an answer. And then he did, and he said, of course we're not making little of good works. Of course we're not making little of sin, you know, because that's not what the gospel leads to. That's not the fruit of grace alone. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Christ does not promote sin. In fact, it's our only hope of sin not having mastery over us. [00:22:26] Speaker C: Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I think to your point, Mark, the whole, what you read about Luther, you know, the whole idea there is justifying, trying to be justified by your own works, right? That's exactly what the Bible calls dead works. And instead of trying to do them, you need to repent of them, right? Basically you need to do the opposite. You should stop trying to justify yourself and come to Christ based on what he did for us. I have one third scripture, right? That is the ultimate. What we really need to repent of is our unbelief in our Lord Jesus Christ, right? So when we talk about Lord Jesus Christ, most of the time people think that, okay, Jesus is God, Jesus is a good man or whatever, right? You know, Jesus, God who became man. But most of them don't believe that Jesus finished the work and there's absolutely nothing for them to do. The only thing they need to believe, the only thing they need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So many people are like, you know, they don't deny the work of Christ, but They add to the work of Christ. They need to repent of adding to the work of Christ and simply believing that what Jesus did is enough. So I wanted to read from one scripture, right, that clearly, clearly says, you know, that repentance in the New Testament is actually repenting of our unbelief. In Matthew 21:32, the Lord Himself is saying this right. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you believed him not. But the publicans and harlots believed him. And you, when you had seen it, repented not afterward that you might believe him. See here he is clearly saying you did not repent of your unbelief. Right, they believed in John, but you did not repent so that you might believe in him. So the repentance that the New Testament requires of us is repenting of our unbelief, unbelief in who Lord Jesus Christ is and the work he did. And not only just believing who Christ is and that he died for us and rose again, but also believing that what he did is enough, that I don't need to add anything to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:24:58] Speaker B: And you know, that's hard for a human being because everything we see in this life, you know the old saying, there's no free lunch. No, but there is free salvation. Not free to us. It was very costly to Jesus. And the critics of this gospel, the death, burial and resurrection and ascension of Christ, as I mentioned, their criticism is that it makes little. You're trying to make sin a little thing. You're trying to say that good works, you know, you're making little of good works. What they're really doing though, is making little of what the cross did and the work of the cross. They're underestimating just how thorough and powerful the sacrifice of God, of the Son of God who had no sin on our behalf, who perfectly fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law and everything he did and said and even thought they're making little of that. So I'll just take that criticism, put it back to them and say, hey, you know what? You're the one who's got the bigger problem. [00:26:05] Speaker C: Yep. [00:26:06] Speaker B: So I'll add this scripture, as I just mentioned, it's hard for a human being because everything we see and do in this life is about earning, deserving. It's a merit based system, as I think it should be in society. But Proverbs 14:12 says this. There's a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in the way of death. And that way is you working for your own salvation. Yes, it seems right. Doesn't it just seem right that we need to do all the right things and not do all the wrong things and we need to earn our standing before God. We need to be better than that guy over there. Better than that guy over there. That seems right. I've heard so many people preach that scripture and say, he's talking about sin. Sin does not seem right to a man. It may feel good to a man or a woman, but it doesn't seem right. What seems right is us being moral and good and giving to the poor and doing this and doing that, and those are all good things. But we. Last week I used an analogy of baby birds in a nest. Absolutely completely helpless, completely dependent on their parent for everything. And I just. I just like that, that that's how we are. That's how helpless we are. Absolutely helpless. We have nothing to add or give. [00:27:32] Speaker A: Once again we say, if I could have done all that before I got saved, I wouldn't have need to got saved in the first place. [00:27:39] Speaker B: That's right. Absolutely. [00:27:40] Speaker C: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:27:42] Speaker B: Simple logic. I think a little kid could understand that. [00:27:44] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah, I have a few more things, but I don't think we can get to all of them. So maybe we can tackle one more. The second one is confession. Right. That is also a thing that we hear in the church. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Let's be very careful. I would prefer that you start this one off with a definition of what you mean by confession because it does say that if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth somewhere else. I want to know what you mean by confession. [00:28:16] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Yeah. So when. Yeah, we are going to get into that. Right. You know, everything, you know, all the conditions that they put somehow come back to doing something about our sins. So they say, no confession of your sins. Right. It's not only for salvation. I think they also make that a condition. It is very, very prevalent doctrine. Right. So in the morning I wake up and then I do prayer and I make some decisions about how my day should go. And in the evening I recount and confess all my sins so that I can be forgiven of them. That is a typical Christian, you know, talking about how they live their Christian life. But even before, I think right now we are talking about conditions of salvation. Right. Not necessarily Christian life. So confession of sin is also not a condition of salvation. You know, what really is needed is, you know, it actually ties to what we just talked about. Right. God is not asking us to confess all Our sins and making that a condition of our salvation. You know, people interpret this as, okay, I confess everything that I remember, right? All the sins that I did since I was a kid and whatever I could remember, you know, the ones that I won't remember or I can't remember, God will give me a pass. But I have to confess. I have to list all the sins that I confess or that I did as a condition of salvation. So that is not at all a condition of salvation. Even when Bible says if you confess your sins in 1 John 1:9, what it is saying is that, you know, some people, some Gnostics, they started saying that, you know, there is no sin in us. Things like that. Right. You know, you really are not a sinner and sin is only in this physical body, but within you, you know, your spirit is pure or whatever it is. Right. They are basically saying, you don't. You're not a sinner. So what John is saying is that, you know, or either people are thinking that they're not sinners or people are thinking that, you know, they can justify themselves by the works of the law. Right. So the confession required is, hey, you know, I need. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. That is a confession you need, but it's not about confessing each and every sin that you did in your life. [00:30:48] Speaker B: Yeah. It just kind of makes sense that for you to come to the Savior, you're admitting you need one. [00:30:55] Speaker C: Yes. Yes. Yeah. [00:30:56] Speaker B: And Tim's point. Oh, go ahead, Tim. [00:30:59] Speaker A: No, I was. I was agreeing with you. [00:31:01] Speaker B: Oh, okay. So Tim said it does say to confess with your mouth, but it doesn't say other than First John chapter one, which is the only place it talks about confessing of sin. And we've explained that in a previous episode in our debunking series, so I'm not going to go into detail, but it says that we are to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. It said, one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, and that Jesus Christ is Lord. And there's so much more power and life and freedom in confessing your Savior than there is in confessing your sin. And who are you confessing it to? Because God's already said, I will remember their sins and lawless acts no more. So you start confessing to him. He's going to say, what are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about this sin you're confessing. I've remembered it no more. It's shooting as far as the east is from the west. And even if it was here now in front of me, it's been washed whiter than snow, as white as wool. So it just makes no sense to confess sin to one who has already paid a huge price to remember it no more. [00:32:19] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, you know, in Second Corinthians, chapter five, it says, you know, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. It's not talking about believers, it's actually talking about unbelievers there. Right. Lord is not counting their sins against them. If God is not counting your sins against you, why would he ask you to confess your sins? Right. It doesn't make sense. Yeah. The confession that is required. The confession of sins is not at all required by the gospel as a condition. And that's what we wanted to tell to our listeners. If someone is thinking that, oh, I have to confess, I have to cry, I have to be sorrowful for my sins before I can be saved, you know, all those are not at all a condition of salvation. [00:33:13] Speaker A: So the confession you're talking about is the confession of absolution. And that's not required. But later on we will be, you know, if we're still living and still saying things, we will be telling people that we believe in Jesus. And that's another form of confession, is confessing the truth to one another. [00:33:31] Speaker C: Yeah, yes, yes, yes. The true confession. Right. You know, it's not a condition, but what happens during salvation is like Mark said, it's a confession of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans, chapter 10, verse 9, it says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth is confession. With the mouth, the confession is made unto salvation. So when you are confessing our Lord Jesus again, I think I want to make this clear. Right. You know, some people read this scripture as if you confess Jesus as your Lord and they bring in this concept of lordship salvation, where you know, you have to submit to Lord Jesus Christ all areas of your life. You have to submit and surrender all areas of your life to Lord Jesus Christ before you can be saved. But that's not what this verse is saying. This verse is saying if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. What you're saying is the meaning of Lord Jesus Christ is salvation, Right? Jehovah is my salvation. You're basically saying, God, I cannot save myself. Lord Jesus, you are my salvation. That's what you're saying. And you only do that, right. You know, when you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. So when you believe who Lord Jesus Christ is, when you see who he is, you will confess with your mouth that he is your salvation. And in fact, that's what verse 10 says, right? With the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. So with the mouth, you are confessing that Jesus is my salvation. That's what this verse is talking about. It's not talking about, oh, now you have to make Jesus your Lord of your life, you know, until you submit every area of your life. You know, some people go to the extent of, you must be willing to lay down your life, you know, you must be willing to die for him. Because if you do not deny yourself, if you don't take up the cross, right, you cannot be my disciple. They quote that out of context and they say that unless you make Jesus the Lord of your life, you cannot be saved. But the verse here is, it's saying simply, you confess Jesus as your salvation. Amen. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Shall we summarize? Would you like to summarize now or would you like to give us one more? [00:36:03] Speaker C: Ajay, we can probably give one more and then we'll stay quick. Okay, let's see. Yeah. So the other one, I heard it's also prevalent among Christians is water baptism. Yeah. You may not believe, but there are many who actually argue that just believing in the Lord Jesus is not enough. You have to be baptized. Because they base it again on what Lord Jesus Christ said towards the end, the Great Commission. Go make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. So they say, just believing is not enough. You have to be water baptized. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Did I miss those verses in the Bible where the thief on the cross managed to get down, get baptized, and get back up again. Sounds a little bit like a song. [00:36:56] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:36:57] Speaker B: And there are so many examples of people that were saved without being baptized. Now, we're not saying being baptized isn't a good thing. We're not saying that. We're saying it's not a condition. [00:37:09] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. In fact, you know, Paul said, I don't know, maybe we can go into this in depth later when it's appropriate. But I will say Paul said, you know, God sent me not to baptize, right. To preach the gospel. Paul himself said, you know, in fact, I did not baptize so and so. Right. He gave Some names. He did not baptize many people. He only baptized a few people. If Paul thought that being baptized is crucial to salvation, would he leave people without baptizing? [00:37:41] Speaker B: Right. He would have baptized every one of them. That's the first time I've ever heard that pointed out. And that is a great point, too, Paul. Paul was the primary preacher of the gospel in history, and he didn't hardly ever baptize. So you're right. If that was a condition of salvation and his prime goal in life was that as many as possible might be saved. And if you could be saved without baptism, he would have been walking around with a bucket of water everywhere he went. [00:38:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the baptism also means it's not always water baptism. It is being baptized into Christ or, you know, being baptized by the Holy Spirit. You know, when the Spirit comes to us. In fact, you know, on the day of Pentecost, right? There were 3,000 people that were baptized. It may not necessarily mean water baptism. It could be just talking about being baptized into Jesus. It doesn't give the details, but the point is you don't really have to be water baptized to be saved. And when in Acts, right, when the jailer asks Paul, what must I do to be saved? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, clearly you and your family, household will be saved, right? If you believe, the only thing that they need to do is believe. And Paul is so clear so many times, right? Even in Romans, unto him that does not work, but believe on him, that justifies the ungodly. If you have to go and be baptized, it is a work again, right? You are going, you are dunking in the water. You are doing whatever. It is still some form of a ritual that is not needed. You only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And what is baptism? What is water baptism? It basically a testimony, right? You are just telling people, hey, now I'm a believer. I'm identifying myself in the death, burial, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But baptism does not save you. Only faith in our Lord Jesus Christ saves us. [00:39:53] Speaker B: Awesome, Ajay. Well, guys, good job today. I really like where the conversation and the Spirit of God hopefully was leading us. So now I'll give you each an opportunity to kind of summarize what's on your heart after this conversation and then we'll close up. Tim, would you like to go first? [00:40:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I would. For a change. I want to say this. This could have been the shortest episode we ever had, ever, because it could have Been. Hey, everybody. There are no conditions that God or man can put on you that you will be made better or right in the eyes of God for salvation. God knows who you are, where you are, when you are, how you are, and he still wants you. So he's willing to meet you right there. And there's nothing you can do, there's nothing you should do except say, I accept it. I accept it, Lord. That's it. I believe. And that's how you get, get salvation. No man or, or person or Bible misquoted Bible verse can help that. [00:41:00] Speaker B: Ajay. [00:41:01] Speaker C: Yeah, one second. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Caught you flat footed. Let's go. [00:41:07] Speaker C: I'm looking up a scripture again. [00:41:13] Speaker B: We thought you had the whole Bible memorized. Come on, man. [00:41:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I want to close this. Yeah, I want to close this with this one. Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So here it clearly says, right, you are saved by grace through faith and not of yourselves. You know, if I have to do something, it would be by myself or it would be of myself. But it clearly says, not of yourselves and not of works. So these are the two, if I were to say conditions, right? The condition of salvation is not working, but believing. So all you need to do is simply believe and you will be saved. Absolutely. [00:42:07] Speaker B: Great. And I'm going to finish up here and kind of wrap it up by saying, okay, we've clearly established that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. The key word, well, that runs through there is alone. There's nothing we do, nothing we can or as Tim said or should do, other than to believe in Jesus Christ and his perfect work. But I want to add this to it too. I want to read Romans 1:17 says, for in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith, faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. So we're not only saved by the gospel, we live by the gospel. We don't hike up our bootstraps and tighten our belt and start to work. After we receive this free salvation, we live by the same gospel that saved us. Galatians 1:6. The apostle Paul says to the Galatians who were starting to try to add things, he said, I'm astonished that you were so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. So Paul is saying here that there's one gospel, it's the gospel you're saved by. And it's got the gospel we live by. And that is the grace of Christ. So we just like to ask all our listeners to really meditate on the things we talked about today. We encourage you to go to scripture yourself to pray about it. Ask Jesus to reveal himself to you and his perfect gospel. And our desire is just for all to walk in freedom and in the Holy Spirit and enjoying Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's why he came. Not to give us another religion, but to give us himself. So once again, we want to thank all you for being here this week and we look forward to seeing you again next week. And once again, we will see you the next time. [00:44:26] Speaker A: Thanks for listening today. We hope you were encouraged and uplifted. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. You can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. Well, that's it for us today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.