“Is the answer 5?” Daphne asked.
“No. Try again,” I said.
“7?”
“No. Just look at those two numbers, what are they?”
“3 and another 3,” she said.
“And when you add them, what do you get?”
“I dunno. Why can’t it be 7?”
“Because there’s only one answer!”
Daphne will be starting kindergarten this September. We’ve been going through a Math-U-See book. At first, Daphne was a little frustrated with the addition. But then she started using some counting blocks and it helped her visualize what it means to add one number to another. She’s learning there’s only one right answer to these questions. When you add 3+3, you get 6. Not 5. Not 4. The only answer is 6.
In my experience, people also have a hard time understanding that eternal life only has one answer.
Every week, if not every day, someone calls or writes to challenge us on the one condition of salvation. (Sometimes the challenges come from within Free Grace circles!) What is the one condition to be saved? There’s only one right answer: believe.
“Well, you obviously have to be a good person to be saved,” they’ll say. “Faith plus works.”
“No, it’s just by faith,” I’ll answer.
“Sure, you must believe. But you also have to be sorry for sinning.”
“No, you don’t. It’s by faith alone. Not by faith plus feeling sorry. You might happen to feel sorry, or you might feel happy or relieved at hearing the saving message. Whatever you happen to feel, the only condition to be born-again is to believe.”
“But you have to want to change your life, if you’re going to be saved. Otherwise, why believe?”
“You might want to change. That might be the thing that leads you to faith in Christ. But that isn’t the reason why you’re born again. You are born again by faith apart from anything else.”
“But you also need—
“No, you don’t!”
Is GES fanatical about the one condition of salvation? Do we overemphasize it? Are we too strict about it? Shouldn’t we have looser standards?
Well, is a math teacher fanatical for insisting that 3+3=6 and does not equal 5, or 7, or 6.5?
Of course not.
If there’s only one right answer, there’s only one right answer. The fanaticism is in constantly denying the right answer!
When it comes to the saving message, accept no additions!
Tim
Shawn ,Thanks so much for all that you do to make the saving message clear and simple. Great illustration with the math analogy. I appreciate so much all that Ges does and the resources it provides. My family and I sometimes feel all alone in the Area we live in and we had to leave the church we attended for over 20 years because of its strong Lordship Salvation position. Ges has been a great source of encouragement to us and we appreciate all that everyone there does.
Pam
Right on, Shawn. Thank you for this.
When I first read the article on my small phone screen, my eye saw, “Shouldn’t we have loser standards?” A split second later, I read it correctly. But adding to the simple message really is a loser standard, isn’t it. Great work. Keep it up.
Rick Deacon
Yes this article to me was so clear and concise. It stood out. Thanks Shawn and GES.
Ken Tamashiro
Thank You Shawn,
Jesus made it so simple to receive Eternal Life, but the Christian Pharisees’ see it differently.
They make turning from sins a necessary requirement for entrance into eternal life, when in reality Jesus nor the Apostle Paul made those requirements at all.
What if a person knew that they don’t have to turn from sin to enter into Eternal Life and found out that is incorrect Theology,… they would rejoice and say God is Good and Gracious and will accept me as I am.
Now they would have a Guilt-Free Salvation and the Freedom to Receive Christs’ Free offer of Eternal Life. …..I’m sure the Woman at the Well understood Jesus clearly about the Grace of God by receiving the Living Waters offered by Jesus Himself.
Grace and Peace,
Ken Tamashiro
Brady Mayo
Great Message Shawn.
Timothy
Good article, Sir.
Alvin
And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:13-14)
Vince Deegan
Alvin,
But, this Prophet never said to do that. He just said to believe, not wash.
Leo Z
Thanks Pastor Shawn and yes, the most important question every man, woman and child should be asking, “what must I do to be saved?” has only 1 right answer. God provided it and it is recorded in His living Word. “believe in the Lord Jesus…” Why do some people have a hard time accepting its simplicity and power? Minds that are blinded by the enemy of people’s souls and ruler of this age. If He does not snatch the word away lest people will believe and be saved, he works his scheme in a subtle way. He keeps faith in the loop of the supposed saving message and does not deny it but he adds on something to it that is not inherently bad like, repentance, surrender, obedience etc. Now, how can a blue blooded moralist argue with that. These add one are noble and good things. However, it has done its job which is to subtly distort the true saving message into a falsity. Unfortunately this struggle will go on day in and day out until the Lord’s return.
Continually praying for you and GES.
Diane
EXCELLENT ILLUSTRATION~!!! Thank you Shawn~!!! 🙂
Alvin
I had a Pastor tell me that a person could believe John 3:16 and not know they had eternal life.
Believing is drinking in John 4:13-14; 6:35 and He who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Before a person can believe they have to know. With the woman at the Well she needed to know what the gift of God was, and who it was that had asked her for a drink. It wasn’t until she knew those things that it could be said that she had drank.
In John 3:16 it can’t be said that the one who believes Jesus in John 3:16 has drank, unless they know they will never perish and have everlasting life.
So, to believe is to drink, and to drink you have to know~!
Alvin
Vince Deggan, my point was people say to just believe is too simple.
Alvin
Actually the one who has simply believed Jesus promise of eternal life in the Gospel of John has been washed by the word (John 13:10;15:3). It’s that simple~!
Jesus said:
“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”