By Gary Ray Branscome
As Christians we need to continually be on guard because our
“adversary the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone”
he can destroy (1Peter 5:8). And, his attack on the doctrine of
sanctification is twofold. On one hand he promotes the idea that one can live
in sin and still be saved, while on the other hand promoting the idea that
salvation depends on works. This has led to a confused debate over the question
of whether good works are necessary for salvation. So let us look at what the
Bible says.
First of all, the Bible plainly tells us that a person can
be saved without works. We not only have the example of the thief on the cross,
to whom Christ said, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke
The words, “Among you one hears of sexual immorality… And you are still puffed up. Shouldn’t you
rather have been filled with sorrow? and have put out of
your fellowship the man who did this?” tell us of a man who claimed to be
saved, yet was unrepentant and living in sin (1Corinthians 5:1-2). The fact
that the Holy Spirit instructed the congregation to deliver him “to Satan”
tells us that he was not saved (1Cor. 5:5). And, the words, “Don’t you know
that the unrighteous will not inherit the
When the Bible says, “If we sin
willfully or deliberately after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no
sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment
and raging fire, that will devour the enemies of God. Anyone who
despised Moses’ law died without mercy on the testimony of two or three
witnesses: How much more severely, do you think a man deserves to be punished,
who has trampled the Son of God under foot, treated the blood of the covenant,
by which he was sanctified, as an unholy thing, and insulted the Spirit of
grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says
the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God,” those words are a warning to anyone
who would trample Christ “under foot” by twisting the forgiveness He offers
into an excuse to sin (Hebrews
The words, “He [Christ] is the one whom God has exalted
to His own right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give to Israel
repentance, and forgiveness of sins,” tell us that “repentance and
forgiveness” go hand in hand (Acts 5:31). Now while it is possible for someone
who is sorry for a particular sin to rationalize that sin rather than seeking
forgiveness, because our faith is a “gift of God” it is impossible for someone
who is unrepentant to truly have faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8). It is
impossible because the idea that a person can live in sin and still be saved
is a false gospel, and God does not give anyone faith in a false gospel.
Because one who is truly repentant will have, “A heart
that is humbled and sorry for sin,” he will not want to sin (Psalm 51:17).
And, his desire to lead a sin-free life will produce works. However, those
works come after he repents, and thus after he is saved. For that reason
those works are a fruit or by-product of repentance and salvation, not what
saves us. They are necessary only in the sense that true repentance will always
produce an improvement, but that improvement is not what makes us righteous,
and it is not what saves us.
Furthermore, because works cannot save us, they cannot keep
us saved. On the contrary, the words, “Kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation,” tell us that we are kept by the power of God (1Peter
1:5). For even though the improvement in our behavior after we are saved is
pleasing to God, the words, “All of our righteousnesses
are like filthy rags,” tell us that it is only because the “The blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us of all sin,” that the improvement in our
behavior is acceptable to God, without that forgiveness it is worthless (Isaiah
64:6, 1John 1:7).
The following passages tell us that just as God has saved
us by His grace, He will keep us by His grace. “He who hears my word, and
believes on Him who sent me, has everlasting life, and will not come
into condemnation; but has passed from death to life” (John