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Study Section 22: Salvation and its Security

22.1 Connect.

Many people claim that they will enter the kiddom of God because they are good. Is that what
the Bible teaches? This section gets right to the heart of the questions that keep many pastors
and believers up at night. Can the justified become unjustified? When you see someone who
says they are saved, while living terrible lives, are they? How do you tell whether they are or
are not? In this section we are going to answer these questions very carefully. Remember,
everyone disagrees on these issues because they take the relevant passages differently. What you will
find as we go forward is that if you read specific passages in context, and maintain careful biblical
categories, the answers present themselves rather clearly. Our objectives for this section are that you be
able to clearly explain what is necessary to become justified (saved).

22.2 Objectives:

1. Students will be able to clearly answer whether good works are necessary to become saved.

2. Students will be able to clearly answer whether repentance is necessary to become saved.

3. Students will be able to clearly answer whether making Christ lord of your life is necessary to become
justified.

4. Students will be able to define faith and explain what it entails in Scripture.

22.3 Are Good Works Necessary to Become Saved?

The bible is clear that good works are not a condition for salvation. It consistently says that faith
and not works justify a person. Consider the following verses:

Titus 3:5 – “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his
own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is
the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Romans 4:5 – “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith
is counted as righteousness,”

So, there is an emphatic denial in Scripture that works are a condition for our salvation. The bible is also
clear that faith is the only condition for justification. Consider the following verses:

John 1:12 – “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God,”

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life.”

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