Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
A Different View on Whether We are Saved by Grace or by Law
There are many articles that give good scripture on why we are no longer bound to Law but are not saved by Grace, through Faith. So I am not going to spend a lot of time listing all the verses again. If you want them, try these links...
https://www.gotquestions.org/not-under-the-law.html
https://www.gci.org/articles/should-christians-keep-the-law-of-moses-what-about-the-ten-commandments/
There is a specific point I have made in the past when debating with people who focus on following the Law. Recently I put this point to a test. In Facebook, there is a Christian group where I keep seeing both sides debating this issue. So I created two separate posts.
In the first post, I asked for only those who believe that the Sabbath should be on Saturday to respond and nobody else. Those who push the Sabbath are strong believers that we are bound to the Law and not saved by Grace alone. I asked them to give me their greatest personal experience of their lives between them and the Lord. In the second post, I made the same request of those who believe Sunday Worship is okay. Those who worship on Sundays usually believe that we are saved by Grace and not bound to the Law.
As I had expected, after three days, not one person who lives by the Law responded with a single testimony of a real experience with the Lord. Not one! Every response was to just give me their beliefs, but none about personal experiences. The closest I got to one was where someone said that the most important experience is in following God, or something like that. Not a single one had a real personal experience with the Lord to share.
Those who worship on Sundays however, surprised me. I did not get as many as I had expected. In the first day someone gave me their experience. A second person did not tell any story of an experience, but simply listed off a bunch of experiences. On the second day I got a couple more experiences.
I am a Sunday Worship believer. Not that I think we must observe Sabbath on Sunday, but I believe the particular day is not important but what matters is that we only work six days and then rest on the seventh, whatever day that may be. Now I can go into arguing how the Bible never says it has to be Saturday and how the days of the week are created by men and not God. For the Biblical argument, you will need to read "Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?". For this article I will focus on the simple fact that those who push a Saturday Sabbath never seem to have real personal experiences with the Lord. Why not?
Myself, I was saved back in 1982. I have had two awesome experiences. One of them I had twice. Once I was healed from sharp pains in my lower back. I was actually slain in the Spirit. You know that stuff everyone says is fake on TV, where the preacher lays hands on someone and they fall backwards and are healed? Most of that stuff is fake, but not all of it. I experienced it for myself. To this day, my back still never has that kind of pain anymore.
My second experience was once when I was in church worshiping the Lord. Suddenly I felt God embrace me with His presence. A feeling of love that was so powerful that I fell to my knees weeping like a child. It was a feeling even more powerful than the healing. So powerful that I would die before ever denying God was real after that. That has happened twice in my life.
The embrace I got from God? That is not an experience God is going to give to just anyone. Yet I am not the only one I know who has experienced it before. I have known many who have had similar experiences. In that second post I got a few replies from people with personal experiences from the Lord. Why didn't even one person who pushes the Saturday Sabbath reply with an experience?
Think about that for a moment. One group seems to get these amazing personal experiences from the Lord. The other group doesn't. Which group would you say has it right?
Can you truly believe that those who push a Saturday Sabbath and never have personal experiences with the Lord have it right, while those who worship on Sundays and often have personal experiences with the Lord have it wrong? Is that really logical?
Before you try to claim that our experiences are of the devil and not God, be very careful of that. It is when the Pharisees claimed Jesus cast out demons by the ruler of demons that Jesus pointed out Blasphemy of the Holy SPirit will not be forgiven. To claim the work of the Holy Spirit is of the devil is the true Blaphemy of the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus started speaking in parables from then on when they were around. Be very careful of claiming that our experiences are of the devil.
Jesus also says that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Satan cannot stand against himself. He also says that someone cannot perform a miracle in His name and be against Him for long. It is simple logic. These personal experiences only serve to give us faith in God. Satan would have nothing to gain in giving us these experiences. That is how you know they are truly of God.
The reason those who push a Saturday Sabbath do not have these experiences, is not because they push a Saturday Sabbath. It is because of the reason "why" they push a Saturday Sabbath. They push Saturday because they believe in living by the Law and not by Grace.
They believe that Paul teaches a different gospel than Jesus. They believe that Paul contradicts Jesus. In believing this, they are forced to believe that God's Word has contradictions. They are forced to believe that God's Word is not to be fully trusted. They also ignore that Jesus actually teaches salvation by grace more than Paul does.
If you don't know what a Primary Verse is, please read this article... Power of Primary Verses.
In the Bible, there are a total of 18 primary scriptures that tell us "how" we are saved.
Paul teaches it 6 times.
Luke teaches it 2 times.
The Apostle Peter teaches it 1 time.
Primary Salvation Verses by the Writers.
Jesus teaches it nine times. As many as all of the others put together.
Primary Salvation Verse by Jesus.
The only difference in the teaching of Jesus and Paul is that Paul spends more time explaining it in detail. Jesus does speak of obeying Him, but that is about our relationship with Him. Not our salvation.
Now, you don't have to believe it if you don't want to. Go ahead and believe that we are bound by the Law if you wish. Go ahead and believe that the Christians who have the personal experiences with the Lord are the ones who are wrong. Keep ignoring the primary verses from Jesus Himself saying we are saved by believing in Him and never mentioning obeying the Law in those verses. Why? Because you want to take a couple scripture you do nothing more than interpret wrong to believe Jesus says we must obey the Law to be saved. It doesn't make any sense to me why you would choose that, but you go ahead and do that. We all will live and die (physically and Spiritually) by our own choices.
My advice is to not just assume the Saved by Grace is false because you have been shown a few scriptures that seem to be interpreted to mean as much. If you want God's truth and not man's interpretation, you need to focus on the primary verses that can only be interpreted to mean what they actually say, and have an open mind ready to follow what God's Word actually says. Even if it means changing what you believe. Trust me, in my studies I have changed what I believed several times.
https://www.gotquestions.org/not-under-the-law.html
https://www.gci.org/articles/should-christians-keep-the-law-of-moses-what-about-the-ten-commandments/
There is a specific point I have made in the past when debating with people who focus on following the Law. Recently I put this point to a test. In Facebook, there is a Christian group where I keep seeing both sides debating this issue. So I created two separate posts.
In the first post, I asked for only those who believe that the Sabbath should be on Saturday to respond and nobody else. Those who push the Sabbath are strong believers that we are bound to the Law and not saved by Grace alone. I asked them to give me their greatest personal experience of their lives between them and the Lord. In the second post, I made the same request of those who believe Sunday Worship is okay. Those who worship on Sundays usually believe that we are saved by Grace and not bound to the Law.
As I had expected, after three days, not one person who lives by the Law responded with a single testimony of a real experience with the Lord. Not one! Every response was to just give me their beliefs, but none about personal experiences. The closest I got to one was where someone said that the most important experience is in following God, or something like that. Not a single one had a real personal experience with the Lord to share.
Those who worship on Sundays however, surprised me. I did not get as many as I had expected. In the first day someone gave me their experience. A second person did not tell any story of an experience, but simply listed off a bunch of experiences. On the second day I got a couple more experiences.
I am a Sunday Worship believer. Not that I think we must observe Sabbath on Sunday, but I believe the particular day is not important but what matters is that we only work six days and then rest on the seventh, whatever day that may be. Now I can go into arguing how the Bible never says it has to be Saturday and how the days of the week are created by men and not God. For the Biblical argument, you will need to read "Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?". For this article I will focus on the simple fact that those who push a Saturday Sabbath never seem to have real personal experiences with the Lord. Why not?
Myself, I was saved back in 1982. I have had two awesome experiences. One of them I had twice. Once I was healed from sharp pains in my lower back. I was actually slain in the Spirit. You know that stuff everyone says is fake on TV, where the preacher lays hands on someone and they fall backwards and are healed? Most of that stuff is fake, but not all of it. I experienced it for myself. To this day, my back still never has that kind of pain anymore.
My second experience was once when I was in church worshiping the Lord. Suddenly I felt God embrace me with His presence. A feeling of love that was so powerful that I fell to my knees weeping like a child. It was a feeling even more powerful than the healing. So powerful that I would die before ever denying God was real after that. That has happened twice in my life.
The embrace I got from God? That is not an experience God is going to give to just anyone. Yet I am not the only one I know who has experienced it before. I have known many who have had similar experiences. In that second post I got a few replies from people with personal experiences from the Lord. Why didn't even one person who pushes the Saturday Sabbath reply with an experience?
Think about that for a moment. One group seems to get these amazing personal experiences from the Lord. The other group doesn't. Which group would you say has it right?
Can you truly believe that those who push a Saturday Sabbath and never have personal experiences with the Lord have it right, while those who worship on Sundays and often have personal experiences with the Lord have it wrong? Is that really logical?
Before you try to claim that our experiences are of the devil and not God, be very careful of that. It is when the Pharisees claimed Jesus cast out demons by the ruler of demons that Jesus pointed out Blasphemy of the Holy SPirit will not be forgiven. To claim the work of the Holy Spirit is of the devil is the true Blaphemy of the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus started speaking in parables from then on when they were around. Be very careful of claiming that our experiences are of the devil.
Jesus also says that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Satan cannot stand against himself. He also says that someone cannot perform a miracle in His name and be against Him for long. It is simple logic. These personal experiences only serve to give us faith in God. Satan would have nothing to gain in giving us these experiences. That is how you know they are truly of God.
The reason those who push a Saturday Sabbath do not have these experiences, is not because they push a Saturday Sabbath. It is because of the reason "why" they push a Saturday Sabbath. They push Saturday because they believe in living by the Law and not by Grace.
They believe that Paul teaches a different gospel than Jesus. They believe that Paul contradicts Jesus. In believing this, they are forced to believe that God's Word has contradictions. They are forced to believe that God's Word is not to be fully trusted. They also ignore that Jesus actually teaches salvation by grace more than Paul does.
If you don't know what a Primary Verse is, please read this article... Power of Primary Verses.
In the Bible, there are a total of 18 primary scriptures that tell us "how" we are saved.
Paul teaches it 6 times.
Luke teaches it 2 times.
The Apostle Peter teaches it 1 time.
Primary Salvation Verses by the Writers.
Jesus teaches it nine times. As many as all of the others put together.
Primary Salvation Verse by Jesus.
The only difference in the teaching of Jesus and Paul is that Paul spends more time explaining it in detail. Jesus does speak of obeying Him, but that is about our relationship with Him. Not our salvation.
Now, you don't have to believe it if you don't want to. Go ahead and believe that we are bound by the Law if you wish. Go ahead and believe that the Christians who have the personal experiences with the Lord are the ones who are wrong. Keep ignoring the primary verses from Jesus Himself saying we are saved by believing in Him and never mentioning obeying the Law in those verses. Why? Because you want to take a couple scripture you do nothing more than interpret wrong to believe Jesus says we must obey the Law to be saved. It doesn't make any sense to me why you would choose that, but you go ahead and do that. We all will live and die (physically and Spiritually) by our own choices.
My advice is to not just assume the Saved by Grace is false because you have been shown a few scriptures that seem to be interpreted to mean as much. If you want God's truth and not man's interpretation, you need to focus on the primary verses that can only be interpreted to mean what they actually say, and have an open mind ready to follow what God's Word actually says. Even if it means changing what you believe. Trust me, in my studies I have changed what I believed several times.