Many are confused on this point! Let's see what some truly good Bible scholars have to say with this regard: William R. Newell: "To preach full surrender to an unsaved man as the way of salvation will just make a hateful Pharisee out of him."
"When anyone comes promising salvation to those 'who make full surrender' of all that they have to God, and who 'pay the price of full salvation' he is preaching another gospel, for the price was paid on Calvary's cross and the work that saves is finished. It was Christ Jesus who made the full surrender when He yielded His life on Calvary that saves us, not our surrender in any way to Him."
"Surely we must recognize WHO HE IS, or we will die in our sins (John 8:24). But this is vastly different from making Him your Lord in your life, in other words, promising to obey the rest of your life. This latter is preaching "works." His mercies, with all His graciousness to us, WILL LEAD us to making Him Lord, and that out of a heart of love and appreciation of Him. We feel that those who propose this way of salvation change the obvious meaning of Romans 10:9 to justify this. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. This CANNOT be made to say, "make Him Lord of your life." Believing on Christ is distinctly not "turning the direction of your life over to Him." It is looking in faith to our Saviour crucified for our sins on Calvary! It is not of works, devotion or full surrender. It is His work and His death that avails." "The self-reliant man feels that he must add something to Calvary in order to be accepted by God. He must be either self-denying, quite sorry for his sins, determined to live differently, or "do something" to fix up all his past. However, we find in Scripture that salvation is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy," (Titus 3:5), "not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:9). We cannot add a thing to Calvary as our hope... Therefore, we must not frustrate the grace of God by adding works to grace." |
