What Does the Bible Say About Being Justified by Grace #3?

In this final episode about being justified by grace, Arnie, Eric, Fred and Glenn look at man's condition before God established His grace. Sin was common to the human race. We note the disastrous consequences of sin and what those are. We discuss Bible passages that explain how God's grace saves. One passage mentions the washing of regeneration. We look at what this is and note that Jesus discussed this with Nicodemus at one point in His ministry. We look at baptism again using several passages that clearly explain what Bible baptism is and note many religious bodies don't follow what the Bible says about it. We look at what Peter, by the Holy Spirit, specifically says about baptism. We note that baptism is a burial as described by Paul to the Christians in Rome. Consequently, we point out what baptism does. We tie all of this together and how it relates to being justified by grace and what that means. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:02

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Arnie Granke at a, g, r, a, n, k, e, 440718@twc.com or to Glenn Landrum at s,c,b,a,m,a,b,o,y,2003@yahoo.com or to Eric McClam at e,r,i,c,m, c, c, l, a m, 50@outlook.com or to Fred Gosnell at f, g, o.s,n,e,l,l@ftc-i.net.

Arnie: 0:55

Good afternoon. This is what does the Bible say? I'm Arnie Granke with the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina. Woodland is located about two miles east of Shaw, Air Force Base, main gate here in in Sumter. If you happen to be at Shaw, or if you're traveling through this area of South Carolina, doing some sightseeing or maybe going to the beach or whatever. Why we, we encourage you to stop by on the Lord's Day and and worship with us, where you can come to a Bible class with us, either on the Lord's Day or or on Wednesday evening. We've been talking about Bible things with regard to God's grace and and how to be justified by grace. We defined what Grace was, and then we talked a little bit in in a couple of sessions about some of the doctrinal errors concerning grace that seem to be pretty, pretty popular in the religious world, and certainly we discussed man's sad position, sad condition, in fact, with before Grace was was available, because sin was something that was calm, was common to the human race. So which one of you gentlemen would like to jump in and and tell us where we're going to go from there?

Fred Gosnell: 2:38

Well, I'll start with Romans 6, 23, and Paul there says that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ, Jesus, our Lord. So as you said, sin is something that's common to man. And of course, the sin is when we transgress, we violate God's will. And Isaiah tells us that tells us, you know why that's so that's so bad for us. Uh Isaiah 59 one and two, says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not short and that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that he will not hear. So from from, from our standpoint, we sin, we violate God's will. So consequently, it separates us from God. He won't hear us. And without God doing something about that for us, we would remain separated from him. And of course, that's when his grace is we we talk about. But, but our condition being sinful people and violating God's will is that we are separated from God until we do the things that God has told us we need to do in order to please Him. So that's why to know about sin and to know what it is, and what we need to do about it is, is very important.

Glenn: 4:12

Well, you read Romans 6, 23, and Romans 3, 23, tells who who is, who is subject to that. Romans, 3, 23, 23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So everyone is subject to sin. So everyone owes those wages of sin. And then, as Fred read, I think we read that last week as well, that that the the wage, the cost for us for sin is, is death. And so we are very fortunate that that Christ died and has offered that grace to us, that gift that we we can be freed from sin. Now also, along with this disastrous consequences of sin, it'd be good to read Second Thessalonians, one, seven through nine. It says, And to you that are afflicted rest with us at the revelation of John, Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power and in flaming fire, a rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might. I don't know about you, but that that verse, to me, is, or those two verses are very sobering, and it's no uncertain terms. We learn from that passage that if we do not obey the gospel, and if we do not know God, then there's, there's no salvation for us. So we have to, we have to believe in and know God, and we have to obey His gospel,

Eric: 6:19

And going along with that, because Jesus loved us so much for all the sins and was willing to suffer and die on the cross for us all you know, in John, going back to John 3, 16 I'm going back to John 3, 16 and 17, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. The world is to be saved through Christ. His love for us was dying on that cross for us all. And another passage that go along with that and in Titus, chapter three, verses four and six, four to six, it said, But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love towards man appeared, not by works done in done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That washing of regeneration, this the mercy that he had for us, that He saved us, and we should be thankful for what Christ has done for us all, and that was given, that was given his life for us all.

Arnie: 7:54

You know, it's a scary, scary thing, as you pointed out, that man's condition is so serious that it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And yet, most of the religious world thinks that they're all okay, and and they have not obeyed the gospel in In the first place. And, and how can they possibly continue to do things contrary to what the Bible teaches that we need to do in order to to have the salvation that Jesus died to make available to us. And and yet not change our our behavior, and by no means follow any of these passages that that that Fred and Glenn and and Eric have just, have just read. It's a scary thing. Whichever one of you it was that said that that's indeed the truth and and most of the world seems to ignore that just passes it by. And whatever their pastor tells them is, is okay, is okay, as far as they're concerned. And, and even their pastors very often are are so different from what the Bible says, and people don't realize it because they haven't read, I think, and aren't familiar with what the Bible says.

Fred Gosnell: 9:29

Yeah. And, you know, some people seem to think that since, since God has provided this grace, that that there's nothing that they need to do, then everything's fine. Of course, we are responsible for our actions. Uh, God holds us accountable. He's our Creator, and he holds us accountable for what we do and what what Eric read there, he says that he according to his mercy, He saved us. Then It says, Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus, Christ, our Savior. The phrase washing of regeneration has to do, do with washing, first of all, and regeneration generate again. Well, when to generate again would be to be born again,

Arnie: 10:21

Be born again.

Fred Gosnell: 10:23

And that ought to key us to a passage in John three, four through six, when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus. And Jesus had had told Nicodemus that he had to be born again. And so Nicodemus in John three, four said, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And of course, when we look at the context there, and we understand this, born of water, to be born again, of water relates to our baptism. And of course, there's a lot that goes on behind that. You know why? Well, because Jesus said so. And to born again, to be born again. It is to be regenerated again, to become pure again, like a newborn baby. And but that, that begins when we are baptized. And of course, there's a number of pastors there. But, but, but we have to, we have to understand that we can access the grace of God only when we then do what he says. He has conditions for us to accept his grace.

Glenn: 11:52

You know these passages we're reading now. We covered these earlier in this study when we talk about the conditions that that God required for us to accept His grace. And another one of those passages is Hebrews 10, 21, and 22 it says, And having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water. It's not just a a statement of something that's that's a similitude. This is talking about what it actually is. We mentioned before about what baptism is. We definde baptism. We defined baptism as being immersion in water, and that's what the word means. When Peter, in Acts 2, 38 told the people who were asking what they needed to do. He said, Repent and be baptized. He was telling them to repent of their sins and be immersed in in water for for the forgiveness of their sins, in the name of or by the authority of Jesus. So these, these are important passages for us, and we can't skip over those. Arnie mentioned a few moments ago that that many in this world today that claim to be following Christ, they they omit baptism, and they substitute other things for baptism, such as sprinkling or pouring. That, but that's not what the Bible teaches us. And though, so we're reading those scriptures that pertain to the what it what we're talking about,

Arnie: 13:53

if I might put in here, you know, you're exactly right on on that and and what people when they're sprinkled or or, you know, just washed by some sort of dabbing of water on their head, or something along that line, what they're missing is, is exactly what you read about in in Hebrews chapter 10, whichever one of us want to was it read that in verse 21 speaking about washing, being washed with pure water. Well, the the Greek word that's used there is is luo and and it denotes to wash the entire body, so it's not a sprinkling on the head or a dabbing of of water, moistening the hair or something along that that line, it is washing the entire body, which is exactly what baptizo means, the the Greek word for baptism. I butted in on somebody there.

Eric: 15:02

And along that line, if y'all, if we would take a look at in the days of Noah during the flood. First, Peter, three verses 20 to 22 it says, When the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved through water, which, also after true likeness, does now save you, even baptism, not putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of the good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him. That like figure is, is the same figure that we go, that we that we deal when we go through baptism, because in Galatians, chapter three, verse 27 it says, For as many as was baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, and that's what baptism that's what the baptism is. It's putting on Christ, understanding what His death, burial and resurrection is, and it's for the remission of sins, not not to be joining a member of becoming a member of a of a church, or whatever the case may be.

Arnie: 16:29

Not an initiation type of thing.

Eric: 16:31

It's for the remission of sins and people, and people missed the mark on that.

Fred Gosnell: 16:35

Yeah, and Peter says that baptism saves us, not the putting away of the filter of the flesh. It's not it's not physical. Even though we're baptized immersed in water, it's not like washing dirt off your body. This is a spiritual thing, because he says that it's the answer or the interrogation of a good conscience toward God and well, why are we doing this well, through the resurrection of Jesus, Christ. So what we're doing we're being immersed in water. We're being buried like Christ was buried, and then we when we are raised up out of the water, we are resurrected when we're immersed in the water, we're dead in sins before we're immersed when we're raised up again, our sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ, and now we walk in newness of life, and we are resurrected like Christ was. So this is a spiritual thing. It's not physical, even though we're physically immersed in water, as as Peter explains,

Glenn: 17:38

I guess we're coming to me, and I want to respond to what you just said, and what, what you talked about in first, Peter 3, 20, 20 through 22. That, and I think this is what trip trips a lot of people up, is the wording here that, that it's says not to put, not not the putting away of the filth of flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, meaning, will take that and say, an answer of good conscience is, is a spiritual thing, therefore it's not a physical thing. That's why we have to take the the entire Bible, or the entire New Testament, because when we read other passages, we actually learn that this baptism is a physical thing, and it's not just something that's a spiritual or something in our mind saying that we believe. And we've talked A good bit about this thing about us just saying we believe and just in our mind believe. But there are some physical things that that that are required. This burial, Eric spoke about this in Romans, six, three through five, that that it's actually a reenactment of Christ's death, burial and resurrection. And it reads, We who were baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore with Him through baptism into death, the like, like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we also might walk in newness of life, for we have become a united with Him in the likeness of His death. We shall be aI also in the likeness of His resurrection. So this baptism is a day as a death. We're putting to death our old man. If we read the the following verses after that, Paul tells that we're putting away that old person, that old sin, some sinful person, I can't get it out, that old sinful person. And putting on a new person that is trying, trying to do God's will. And then we're raised up out of the water, just just as Christ was raised. We're raised to walk that new life.

Arnie: 20:15

I was expecting you to speak there, Eric. So well, that's exactly right and and the the danger is, when we attribute to people who promote themselves as being religious authorities, we really might fall in danger, because what they're teaching may not be what the Bible says. Why do we have hundreds, literally hundreds, and probably even more than that, of different religions just here in in America itself and and worldwide, I have no clue how many there would there would be, and they all differ on different points. They can't all be right, but they're, they're priests or their pastors, or whatever, whatever they might happen to call the individuals who are their principal teachers are teaching things that are contrary to what everybody else is is saying, or what the others are saying. And, and that's a dangerous thing. He gives you a passage or two of Scripture and, and that's supposed to be all that we need to know? We we've already looked at half a dozen of passages of Scripture, just as just this afternoon, and over the course of several weeks of discussing this a little bit at a time, many, many more passages than that. Why don't these pastors give you more passages of Scripture? There might be a good reason why they don't want you to read those other passages of Scripture. Look at every, you can go through a concordance and and look at the word baptism. You can find a concordance that will give you every passage in the New Testament that uses that word or on any other subject as well that you might want to study and and go look those passages up, read the context a verse or two surrounding the the verse that you're doing research on and and you'll see, if you do that, that very often the things that were being taught by by people that we honor as being religious individuals, authorities that we can put confidence In very different from from what the Bible is teaching. Don't be deceived.

Fred Gosnell: 23:05

Yeah, well, it's what does the Bible say about that? So Glenn, Glenn read Romans six, and that explains our condition before we were baptized, and then after we are baptized, we're raised to walk in newness of life. And Titus says something about the grace of God. Notice, notice what he says in Titus 2, 11, and 12, he says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath to appear to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. So sometimes people think the grace of God is just something. God's grace. He says, I'm saved. I'm saved. Everything's fine. I believe. But, but the grace of God teaches us certain things and and Titus tells us what some of those things are. Well, we've got to deny ungodliness. We need to live soberly, live righteously and godly in this present world. And then, of course, the reason we're doing that is because we've repented of our old life, our old doing things our way to now doing things God's way. And we want to access, quote, unquote, I guess, his grace that He has extended to us, but and he did that when we were lost and helpless sinners. He didn't do that because of something that we did that was good. We were unfaithful to him, and he did that when he sent Jesus to die for us. But then, now on the other side of that is our responsibility is now that we are obedient to Him, is to now live righteously and and we can only do that if we find out what He requires and then do it.

Eric: 24:55

You know one of one of Glenn's favorite passage that he normally uses. And I like that passage. I like that passage too. Seven words that Jesus said in John, 14, 15, If you love Me, keep My commandments. Everything we talked about is keeping Jesus' commandments to include, to including the grace and everything. But what I'm about to read here what what is, what is grace, or grace is the basis for, grace is the basis for? And one thing I realized that grace is basis for is is our standing before God. In Romans, chapter one, verses one and two, it said, Therefore, having been justified by faith, that we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also, we have access by faith into his grace in which we stand And rejoice in hope of the glory of God. You know, grace is the basis for our lives. In Titus, chapter two, verses 11 and 12, says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. And Fred, you just finished reading that. But you know grace is the basis for our strength of living. In second. Timothy two, verse one, You therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is Jesus Christ. And for heart strengthening in Hebrews 13. Chapter Eight, I mean excuse Hebrews 13. Verses eight says, Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever be not be carried away to various with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with food which have not profit those who have been occupied with them. And also concerning grace, is the what our grace is based for is our hope beyond, beyond death. As we look in Romans, five verses, 20 and 21 it says, Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, much more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life, to Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Glenn: 27:31

Well, I think we're coming to the close here. We've we've covered just about everything we we have written for us to to read, as far as scriptures. But we can can be justified by God's grace. We can be made righteous. We can be acquitted that of our sins, our, we can be absolved of our guilt, declared not guilty. God does it freely, but only within the system of redemption that he is furnished. Why frustrate God's grace by trying to obtain justification by human standards? Instead partake of it by obeying God's will. Yes, we are truly saved by God's grace, His precious gift to any who will submit to His standards, his conditions, his will. Second Peter three, verse nine, says that God desires, or he wants everyone to be saved. He doesn't want anyone to perish. But the fact is, many do not accept God's grace, either at the beginning, or they do not continue to accept his grace. Of those who do, many sometimes fail to continue to follow God's instructions, to live like Christ, to worship Him, and to refrain from sin. Those are the things that we we are required to do. And there are some some passages specifically that talk about not remaining in in God's grace. Galatians five, verse four says, Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, Ye are fallen from grace. Now keep in mind, who is Paul's talking to. Paul's talking to fellow Christians, those who, who are in Christ. First, Corinthians. 10, verse 12 says, Wherefore, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed. Lest he fall. The word grace is not mentioned here, but what Paul is talking about is that people can fall from their saved condition, and he tells them to be careful, take heed lest you fall. And finally, in Hebrews four, I first mentioned verses four through six, but I'm only going to read verse 11. You get the idea. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. The writers here in Hebrews probably it was Paul, we're not sure, but same as the other passage that I just read, there's a there's an opportunity for us once we've accepted that grace that God has granted us, once we've accepted that gift, we don't, if we don't continue to follow, we don't continue to do what he wants us to do, we can fall.

Arnie: 31:13

And that's a dangerous thing, dangerous situation to be in, indeed. We hope none of you are in that situation, as we, as you, listen to our discussion of these things. We hope that you'll be with us next Lord's day, and then we'll be able also to to talk about another Bible subject. Uh, we hope all works well for you during the course of the week, and we'll look forward to being with you again next Lord's Day. Have a good week.