Do you have a Higher Standard than God?

Acts 2:21-41

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

         “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

        

(Acts 2:21-24 ESV)

John, my dear friend has often said you can’t have it both ways; you’ve got to teach it round or square, because round will not fit into square.  Never has that been more the case than when it comes to the doctrine of Salvation, and the problem comes when religious men have said grace, through faith, plus some act on your part.  And my premise is that the “Plus Grace folks” are putting a round peg in a square slot, and it is not in keeping with what Jesus has said in Scripture.

If we look at the Scripture, “that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” is that in keeping with what Jesus taught in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  If you have not spent time in the book of Numbers of late, you may be asking how does Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness fit into your premise?  It’s a small but important part of the story of the children of Israel exodus from Egypt.  When they got to Mount Hor they set out by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom.  You will never believe that these people became impatient on the way and blamed both God and Moses.  This is the account in Numbers 21:5-6, “And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”  It is amazing what a little dying will do for an attitude adjustment, do you recall the few weeks after 9-11, the USA looked to God, but it was short lived?  But the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”  (Numbers 21:7-9 ESV)  It is important that we understand that they had to believe, they had to put their trust in what Moses said, the serpents were still biting them, but if they believed in the promise of God and looked upon the bronze serpent they were saved. 

We need to return to John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”  Jesus is very clear that Salvation is based on Grace by faith only, and He had the Holy Spirit speak through the apostle Paul with this insight: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)  So my dear reader, if anyone has placed conditions on you entering into a relationship with Jesus other than confession of your sins with a repentant heart, and it is God who looks on the heart not man, then they have a higher standard than God.

Note: It would be very wise to dust off your Bible and read Acts 2:21-41.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice