Pharisaical Works Salvation?
by Terry Wane Benton
One fellow said the following:
"Terry Wane Benton, why must you be so wrapped up in your salvation by works just like the Pharisees? Jesus despised the Pharisees for this very mentality that you are showing. Grace and grace alone allow you to enter into heaven."
Grace is the only thing that moves God to offer us salvation, but grace stipulates the conditions we must meet, and that puts responsibility on us before we can receive His gracious salvation.
First, I am not “wrapped up” in “salvation by works” but rather concerned that whatever God says for me to do to be saved is carried out as He requires. If I were all about “salvation by works,” I would feel that God owes me because I worked flawlessly in all of His laws, but the fact that I constantly seek “remission of sins” is a clue that I am ashamed of my “works” is so tainted with failure. Anyone who seeks “remission of sins” is aware of failure to work as the law requires. The Pharisee mentioned no flaw, asked for no mercy, and felt proud of his performance before God. So, there is no comparison between the Pharisees and me in that regard, and the 3000 of Acts 2:37-41 showed a marked contrast with the Pharisees. The 3000 were seeking “remission of sins” and knew that they had no basis for a works-merited right standing with God. They knew they needed mercy, repented, and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. The rest of the Jews, with their leading Pharisees, did not humble themselves like the 3000. They depended on their works to earn their right standing with God but were blind and deceived about their true condition before God.
The Pharisees did not put any trust in Jesus. I do, and so did the 3000 that repented and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:37-41). Grace offered remission of sins and the terms for receiving remission of sins. The 3000 received what grace offered and promised. Grace allows us to enter into remission of sins and later into heaven, but we must meet the conditions that grace demands. Since the 3000 “gladly received his word and were baptized” (Acts 2:41), they had reason to celebrate, and the Lord added to the church daily such as were being saved (Acts 2:47). They were saved by grace through faith when they obeyed the terms through faith. They were not “wrapped up in any salvation by works” of merit. When you are seeking “remission of sins,” that is open confession and admission that you have not worked to earn any merit with God. How could repentance and baptism for the remission of sins be works of merit whereby we figure God owes us? These are actions of faith, not works of merit.
The realization of failure to work brings on repentance. It is not an effort to earn anything. It is a turnaround because we realize failure to earn God’s favor. It is an appeal for mercy. Baptism is “for remission of sins.” It, too, is a confession of failure to earn God’s favor. It is an appeal for mercy, too. We call upon God for “the remission of sins” (God’s mercy extended to give us what we have not earned). It is not a work of merit that forces God to owe us. We do this only because God’s grace offers us remission of sins on these conditions or terms of grace.
Grace teaches us to deny worldly lusts (Titus 2:11). Doing what grace teaches is not earning nor an attitude of earning. It is an appeal for the mercy of remission of sins on His stated and believed conditions. Those who want His mercy and grace will do what Grace teaches. The 3000 did precisely what grace called for them to do, and they received the gift offered. The gift was not earned, and God did not owe them. It was offered and given freely from His own goodness.
If I offer a gift of $5000, and tell you that you cannot earn it, but you can have the gift if you will turn around twice and dunk yourself in water, if you did those two things, did you earn it? No! Earning would be doing work that put me under obligation to owe you. You did no such work, and I owe you nothing. But of my own goodness, I offered you a gift of $5000 if you do two very undeserving things. If you believe me, you will accept the terms for receiving the free gift. If you don’t believe me enough to do those two undeserving things, you miss out on the free gift. That is what we are talking about. That is not Pharisaical “works salvation.” It was the Pharisees who rejected God and His terms of pardon. That is worth a lot of self-reflective thought!
