We Don't Owe God Anything For Salvation

Romans 10:1-4, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Many of the lyrics in the beloved hymns that we sing at church are unbiblical...

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Do we really “OWE” Jesus anything? No where in the Scriptures are we told that we owe the Lord anything for the gift of eternal life. I say that humbly, because I feel like I owe Him everything, and then some, and then some more. How could I ever repay all that the blessed Savior has done for me, to shed His precious holy blood for a worm such as I? But that is the whole point dear reader—I CANNOT REPAY JESUS!!! And neither can you. And neither does He expect us to! You and I don't OWE God anything! I don't say that glibly, with a spirit of ingratitude or of being unthankful, God forbid. But rather, I say all this because “SALVATION IS OF THE LORD” (Jonah 2:9b). By the way, Jonah 2:9 further evidences that people were NOT saved by works in the Old Testament. God pity the messed up preacher, like Dr. Peter S. Ruckman (1921-2016), who teaches such junk theology, saying that people were saved by faith PLUS WORKS in the Old Testament! No! Dr. Ruckman is utterly mistaken. SALVATION IS OF THE LORD!!!

What saith the Scripture? 1st Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” The Bible teaches that salvation came at a great cost. 1st Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” The PRICE for salvation was Jesus' precious blood. And the PLACE where payment was made is on the heavenly Mercy Seat (Hebrews 9:12-22-24; 12:24). JESUS PAID IT ALL, I owe Him nothing!

But since I have been bought at such a great price, the Bible says it is our “REASONABLE SERVICE” to serve Christ. Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Please notice that it is not our COMPULSORY nor MANDATORY SERVICE, but our REASONABLE SERVICE. It is the proper thing to do, but judicially, we owe Christ NOTHING for His wonderful free gift. That is why eternal life is called a “gift” in Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 6:23.

Please notice that the following Scripture is still in the Old Testament. John 4:10, “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” Hebrews 9:17, “For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” The New Testament did not go into force until after Jesus died on the cross. Yet, here we clearly see that Jesus told the Samaritan woman eternal life is “the gift of God.”

Kindly said, it is not okay that Bryan Denlinger, Dr. Peter S. Ruckman, Dr. William P. Grady, Chett Hensley and Pastor Gene Kim are teaching the Satanic lie that people were saved by faith plus works in the Old Testament. They were ALL saved by faith, and faith alone (Habakkuk 2:4; Isaiah 45:22; Romans 4:1-6; Genesis 15:6). The Jews were required to observe strict ceremonial laws, which foreshadowed future events (Hebrews 10:1), but salvation was still by grace through faith in Christ (Acts 10:43). Kindly said, Pastor Ruckman created this mess. He has a diehard group of cult followers who believe whatever he believed and taught. Just because Dr. Ruckman was right on many things, doesn't make Him right on everything.

My friend, you and I don't owe Christ anything for His gift of eternal life. Why did I write this article? I wrote it simply to emphasize the freeness of the wondrous gift of eternal life. I wrote this article because of dangerous false teachers like Pastor John MacArthur, Dr. Steve Pettit (president of Bob Jones University), and Evangelist Ray Comfort, who falsely teach that you must live a lifestyle to get to Heaven. They've perverted God's grace into something else. All the while they are in denial, still insisting that salvation is by grace. It is common to hear the heretical Lordship Salvation crowd use such terms as “cost,” “trade,” “exchange” and “turn from your sin,” when talking about salvation. JESUS PAID IT ALL, NOTHING TO HIM I OWE!