Does a Sinner Need to DO Anything to Get Saved?

[BNR32FAN]

Not always, no. Faith is faith, not a work. Faith is what justifies us before God, but works are what justify us before men. A man cannot tell another man is saved unless he bear the fruit of his faith, however, it doesn't mean he is not saved if he does not bear fruit; God judges the heart, not the outward appearance.

It is possible for a man to be saved but still live carnally.

The idea that salvation doesn’t require any level of obedience make a rather wide gateway to heaven.

 

[Ron Gurley]

OP Answer: YES!

Spiritually ACCEPT the Calling / Drawing of God!.

God "wants"/"DESIRES" all Mankind to be saved.
If anyone truly and spiritually seeks God, Jesus the God-Man will be revealed to him.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,
not wishing for any to perish (spiritually separated) but for all to come to repentance.(turn to God)

1 Timothy 2:
3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

CALL/DRAW/KNOCK

John 6:44
No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me
(spiritually) DRAWS him;
and I will raise him up on the last day.

Matthew 9:13
But go and learn what this means:
‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’
for I did not come to CALL the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 22:14
For many are CALLED, but few are chosen.” (by ACCEPTING!)

Ephesians 2:5
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
MADE us (spiritually) ALIVE together with Christ
(by grace (through spirit-led FAITH/BELIEF) you HAVE BEEN saved),

Matthew 7:8
For everyone who asks receives,
and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

CHOOSE / CHOICE / "FREE WILL"

Man SPIRITUALLY CHOOSES whether he want to be a "child of God" (saved believer)...or...NOT.

God spiritually calls/draws/knocks to ALL.
EACH Man's spirit must accept or reject.

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So CHOOSE LIFE in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

1 Chronicles 28:9...KING David to wise son Solomon
“As for you, my son Solomon,
know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind;
for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.
If you seek Him, He will let you find Him;
BUT
if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

John 3:36...John the Baptizer on Jesus: CHOOSE
1. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; (BELIEVER)
BUT
2.he who does not obey (TO BELIEVE IN!) the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him.” (UN-BELIEVER)

John 1
11 He came to that which was His own, but His own did NOT receive Him.
12 Yet to all who DID receive him,
to those who BELIEVED in his name, he gave the right to become "children of God"
— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but "born of God"

DWELL

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that (believers) you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God DWELLS in you?

2 Timothy 1: 8-14 (NASB)
... for the gospel according to the power of God,
who has saved us and CALLED us with a holy calling,
not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace
which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, (hidden)
BUT now has been REVEALED by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
...Guard, through the Holy Spirit who DWELLS in us,
the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

Romans 8:9
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
he does not belong to Him.

 

[dreadnought]

I said, "And Jesus says that the sinner must first repent to obtain forgiveness without which you cannot be born again". This is for an unsaved sinner, but can extent to the saved as well. There are some who teach falsely, that only "faith" is required to be saved, and no "repentance"

I don't think we enter heaven till we repent of our sin. I believe Matthew 4:17 is the clue.

 

[bcbsr]

A "work," as Paul describes it in Romans, is an action taken with intent to obligate God to salvation, as under the scriptures:

Good point. Better reference Rom 4:4-6 "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works"

"Repentance" is the Greek literally means to change one's mind. As such faith in Christ (the sole condition for salvation) may involved changing your mind about a number of things. But concerning changing one's behavior, that's after one has been saved. They change their behavior because they believe.

 

[Greg J.]

... It is very clear to those ...

A phrase used by those still working out the Truth (which I want to use sometimes but try hard not to).

In the account of the Rich Young Ruler, we read,

“And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I DO that I may obtain eternal life?”” (Matthew 19:16)

If what this person said to Jesus was "theologically wrong", as some suppose, do you not think that Jesus would have corrected him? Surely He would have said, there is nothing that you need to DO. But, this is not the case!

What Jesus told the rich young ruler was to make him face his real problem. The rich young ruler wanted to understand what he needed to DO to be saved. But his real problem was that he did not trust God properly. That is, in his heart, he wanted to hold onto his wealth more than God. For him to be able to give away his riches he would have to fight to overcome that problem. If he succeeded then he would have been saved and his new heart would have been able to give his wealth away. But giving his wealth away was not necessary. What was necessary was his change of heart. We see a great "visual" example of this with Abraham going to kill his son. God stopped him, because Abraham had gotten to the point where he was going to obey God's command. In other words, God commanded him to kill his son, but killing his son was not actually what God wanted for Abraham. He wanted Abraham to have (or reveal to Abraham) the kind of heart that would obey God no matter what. This is the finished work of truly yielding to God's lordship.

On Judgment Day, in regard to salvation, God is going to judge each person's heart. One way to describe this is to ask: in that person's life (when salvation by faith was available) did that person truly (in his heart) believe in God and had that person yielded himself to Jesus' lordship? I am describing the two kinds of faith James refers to in James 2:14-26: Faith in one's heart such that good deeds result (saving faith) vs. faith in one's heart that does not produce good deeds (dead faith).

A genuinely saved person has saving faith and good deeds in obedience to God result. But it is not deeds that save us, it is what happens to us, in our hearts, when the process completes of becoming able to do those deeds in response to God's commands. Understanding this reconciles all the apparent contradictions of faith vs. deeds for salvation in Scripture.

 

[Ron Gurley]

The moral / truth in the story of the rich young ruler:

Matthew 19 (NASB(
“Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them (disciples), "With people (works) this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Faith and Works go hand-in-hand!

James 2:22 (NASB)
22 You see that (Abraham's) FAITH was working with his WORKS, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; (MATURED)

 

[Greg J.]

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, 1984 NIV)

If you have something to boast about (anything you have said or done), it isn't a part of what saved you. Salvation occurs when God grants a person to believe in him in their hearts ("saving faith").

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13, 1984 NIV)

Calling on the name of the Lord is not sufficient for salvation, but then, salvation is from God alone, and not ourselves. If we had to depend on anything from ourselves, it would be tainted with sin.

Perfected faith is something that happens inside us when we experience that which we had faith in (or if God granted us the equivalent of it.) Having faith you can climb to the top of Mt. Everest is an entirely different thing inside you than having actually climbed to the top of Mt. Everest.

 

[RDKirk]

Faith and Works go hand-in-hand!

James 2:22 (NASB)
22 You see that (Abraham's) FAITH was working with his WORKS, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; (MATURED)

Faith leads works by the hand.

That Greek word for "perfected" is a term that means "having reached its intended ends and purposes." A "perfected" acorn is an oak tree.

 

[sdowney717]

We are not perfected in the flesh of this life. The body is dead because of sin, but our spirits are perfected and redeemed first, then the flesh which is the body and the mind. Until the resurrection this body is mortal, we are still dust, we can think sinful thoughts, we bear the nature of Adam in our flesh. But we also bear the image of the heavenly man who is Christ since we are new creations in Christ spiritually. We are both the old man and the new man for now. The old man, the outer man perishes, but the inner man is renewed by God day by day.

When Christ returns we will be changed, we shall get glorified bodies like He has right now. Then we will be complete with a new spirit and a new body. And the old man will be gone forever. God sees us now today as a spiritual man as Romans 8 says, we are not in the flesh, but the Spirit since He dwells in us. And because we belong to Him our salvation is certain, guaranteed.

 

[sdowney717]

Salvation is for keeps, it is eternal, it is the blood of the everlasting covenant that you are part of.
If He made you a part of the New Covenant in His blood, they you are His and are His child, and if so, then you are heirs of eternal life.

15 For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: 17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified with [him].

If your as God describes in the first part of Ephesians 1, you are sealed by God Himself after you believe for eternal life. And God does not change His mind, He owns you, you are purchased with His blood.

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

 

[EmSw]

Faith leads works by the hand.

That Greek word for "perfected" is a term that means "having reached its intended ends and purposes." A "perfected" acorn is an oak tree.

And works give life to faith. Without works, faith is dead.