A preacher friend and gracEmail subscriber writes: "Edward, From your commercial message for the Billy Graham Crusade I see that you once again are hinting that baptism has nothing much to do with salvation. Am I correct? Yes or no?" * * * No. I am not hinting that water baptism has nothing much to do with salvation. It has very much "to do with" salvation, although it is no part of the work which sets us right with God. That was the perfect doing and dying of Jesus Christ our representative. It is the very news of Christ's saving work to which a believer responds by being baptized. What … [Read more...]
GRACE’S RESPONSE & FAITH’S FRUIT
"A gracEmail subscriber asks: "How do verses such as 1 Peter 1:22 (you purify your souls through obeying the truth); 2 Peter 1:10 (make your calling and election sure); Acts 2:40 (save yourselves from this perverse generation) and Matthew 7:13, 21 (not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" to Jesus will be saved but those who do the Father's will) fit in with salvation by grace through faith?" * * * The key to these verses and others like them is to remember that grace calls for a response, and that God empowers those who are truly saved to make such a response as the fruit of … [Read more...]