Of the numerous fallacies Satan has persuaded the church world to embrace, today’s subject is at the top of a long list.  This church “truth” is that justification and salvation are one in the same.  The belief is that when God justifies (forgives all past sins of) the believer, the believer is automatically saved and born again.  THIS IS A LIE.  Justification is the BEGINNING of the process that ENDS in salvation, IF the justified one maintains his holiness until death which he accomplishes by obeying God’s Law which was not nailed to Christ’s cross.

In his letter to the church at Rome the Apostle Paul mentions justification in some form 22 times.  He mentions salvation in some form 12 times.  In each instance in which “salvation” is used, it is in the context of what one does AFTER justification that will LEAD TO salvation.  Romans 5:21 and 6:22 are prime examples.  That salvation comes long after justification is proclaimed in Romans 13:11 where he notes that “we are closer to salvation now than when we (first) believed.”  Justification follows belief (faith).  JUSTIFICATION DOES NOT SAVE THE BELIEVER, but rather places him in a spiritual position to be converted from Law-breaker to Law-keeper.  IF the justified, converted one continues to obey God’s Law he will be saved and born again upon the return of Jesus Christ to earth (Mat. 10:22).  Read Hope and Salvation. and Born Again.  Key words–Hope and Born respectively.  As Paul says, the crown of victory comes at the END OF THE RACE, not at the beginning.  And the race must be run according to the rules.  Otherwise, the running was all in vain. (1 Cor. 9:24,26/ Gal. 2:2).  As he said, all salvation seekers run the race, but only those who run according to the rules wins the crown of life laid up for us in heaven (2 Tim. 4:8).  As Jesus said, only a few will receive the crown of life –salvation (Mat. 7:13,14).  He warns us not to let men take our crown by leading us away from Him.  Law-rejecting false prophets have led and are leading masses of people into Satan’s Catholic/Protestant abyss.  This group constitutes “the many” who will stand before Jesus at judgment “knowing” that they are about to be given the key to their heavenly mansion (Mat. 7:21-23).  Notice His response.

With that foundation firmly established, let us return briefly to chapter three where Paul is dealing with people in the church who believe that justification could be earned by obeying the Law.  As noted in the previous discussions, this is not the case; justification is received strictly through one’s faith as a result of God’s grace.  However, as he wrote in 3:31, this Truth does not mean that, following justification, one is not required to obey the Law following conversion.  Paul’s response to that belief: GOD FORBID!  God forbids us to even think about such heresy.  The Truth is that the believer’s faith “ESTABLISHES THE LAW” IN HIS HEART (MIND).  In other words, one’s faith enables him to believe if he obeys the Law, salvation will be his reward.  He knows it is true because GOD SAYS IT, which is the ultimate expression of faith.

In 4:1-14 Paul explains how Abraham received justification (was made righteous) by his faith due to God’s grace.  The same thing happens when one is truly justified–he is made righteous, sinless, pure, without fault, blame, etc.  One becomes as righteous as was Jesus Christ while He walked the earth as a man.  Then comes verse 15 which is where church people are led by their hirelings to stop reading.  People get what they demand.  People demand that which makes them feel good.  Verse 15 says that the Law is the source of God’s wrath.  The people “know” that God is not wrathful toward the church, therefore the Law is not part of the Christian walk.  The ministry is not there to talk about God’s wrath, but rather about that which is positive and uplifting.  Right?  Wrong.

Making people feel good is not the purpose of ministry.  The sole purpose of ministry is to tell the people the TRUTH.  With the exception of the few who are at one with God, ministry does not make church people feel good.  Those that preach the Truth are not welcomed by the Institutional Church.  This theological error must be corrected for salvation to be a part of one’s future.  The problem is that no one wants to hear God’s corrective “fine print.”  No one wants to hear about the IF that follows the following “headline”: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”  Notice the words: “shall be.”  That is where Satan takes over the believer and ushers him into his Catholic/Protestant church system where God’s “fine print” is outlawed.

Rejection of God’s Law among those known as God’s people is not new.  In Isaiah 30 beginning with verse eight God is talking to Isaiah about His (God’s) people.  He tells the prophet to write in a book (scroll) what He is about to tell him.  Note that this message will apply to those who would be called His people “FOR THE TIME TO COME, FOR EVER AND EVER.”  That includes the church now at the end of the age.  As you read God’s Words you will see that He perfectly describes the collective attitude of “the church” toward His Holy Bible and those who teach it today.  God tells Isaiah that His people are “rebellious liars” who refuse to hear His LAW.  They tell God’s messenger to stop studying the Tora (Law) He gave to Moses and to stop telling them what is written there.  The people tell Isaiah to stop prophesying the right things of God; they want him to tell them smooth things, to deliberately deceive them with lies.  The people tell him (Isaiah) to get out of their way, to get off of God’s path, to stop holding the Holy One up before them as their example to follow.  This statement could be the lead-in for a newspaper article about the Laodicean (Catholic/Protestant) Church today.  Nothing has changed.  The people do not want to be held to a God-established standard of behavior.  Why?  Because that would be a LAW, which would entail LEGALISM, which would involve WORKS, all of which were supposedly “nailed to the cross.”

The Lord makes another statement in this regard which is found in Jeremiah 5:20-30 where He is warning His people of their wretched spiritual condition.  Then in verse 31 He tells them why they are in that condition.  The people were being led by prophets who taught them lies and priests who rule them by their own rules (“smooth things”).  God’s response: “… AND MY PEOPLE LOVE TO HAVE IT SO.”  The prophets and priests were leading the people to reject God’s Law while offering them smooth, feel-food, self-satisfying perverted Gospel Paul warned the church about in Galatians 1:6-9.  Sound familiar?  It should, for that is what I see taking place constantly throughout “the church.”  It is not a sin to feel good about oneself IF ONE’S GOOD FEELINGS ARE THE RESULT OF OBEYING GOD.  In that the church has nullified the Law, Satan has a substitute feel-good religion which is much more self-satisfying.  His religion is also convenient, meaning that he has something for everyone.  He has hundreds of religious flavors (denominations, faiths, etc.) to choose from.  And if one does not find a flavor to his liking, he can create one, attach God’s name to it and declare it a church.  Sound familiar?  It should.  Today the convoluted, conflicting, contradicting, competing conglomeration is called “Christianity.”  And Satan laughs, knowing he has some three billion Bible owners believing that they are serving the Biblical God.

Satan is the king of falsity.  He creates false truth, false joy, false peace, etc. in the hearts of religious people to keep them in his church system.  In the distant past I received those same “warm fuzzies” from going to church, reading the Bible, etc.  But when the Truth of God came, I, like Paul, realized that I had been duped.  Paul testifies that he was on top of the religious world (“alive”) at one time.  Then God revealed His Law to him, showing him that he was a Law-breaker (sinner).  Paul’s response: “and I died.”  I am familiar with that feeling.

There is no joy, no peace that can match the joy and peace that comes from obeying God.  Any joy and peace that is accrued outside of such obedience is false and is the product of the god of falsity.  L.J.