How Are We Saved?

In Acts chapter 15 the leaders of the church were called upon to test the spirits and deal with a critical issue that had serious ramifications. This issue is still a problem in the church today. In fact, some would say that it is THE issue by which the church stands or falls. We are talking about how a person is saved from sin and obtains eternal life. Acts 15:1 says that “certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’” Paul and Barnabas had finished the first missionary tour and had returned to their home church, the sending church, at Antioch. Some converted Jews who were from Judea traveled to Antioch and began to teach something that Paul and Barnabas had not taught. They said that unless a Gentile was circumcised, he could not be saved.

Circumcision was the sign of the covenant in the Old Testament. God Himself had ordered Abraham to be circumcised and to also apply that sign to his household. From that point on, all males were to be circumcised from birth as a sign of salvation. Paul in Romans 4:11 tells us what circumcision signified – he said that for Abraham it was “a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.” For Abraham, circumcision was a sign pointing to something he already possessed – righteousness before God. Abraham did not obtain this righteousness by the rite of circumcision, but through faith only. Circumcision did not add anything to his standing before God. Yet Acts 15:1 tells us that these false teachers were saying that circumcision was absolutely necessary for salvation. There are some today who teach that baptism, or church membership, or some other outward ceremony is necessary to salvation. Or they say that you have to perform good works or you must join their church in order to be saved. The truth of course is that eternal life is a free gift. That gift is wrapped in a person, the Lord Jesus. Therefore a person is saved by Christ alone. That salvation is received by faith alone. Any time anyone seeks to add something to Christ or to faith as being necessary for salvation, he or she is striking at the very heart of the Christian faith and is in fact preaching another gospel altogether.

The Lutheran commentator, R.C.H. Lenski, said that “To add anything to Christ as being necessary for salvation, say circumcision or any human work of any kind, is to deny that Christ is the complete Savior, is to put something human on a par with Him, yea to make it the crowning point. That is fatal.” Imagine you have a bridge that is 10 miles long and one section of it, which is one mile long, is made of defective material which is known to collapse with a small amount of weight on it. Would you trust that bridge to hold you up and take you to your destination? If you are trusting in anything other than the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again, for your eternal destiny, you are putting your faith in defective material that will collapse on the Day of Judgment. Many people try to add something to Jesus for salvation, but this will not work. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." What are you trusting in for your eternal destiny? Jesus Christ is the only bridge to eternity with God.