One Salvation

ONE SALVATION

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There is one salvation, not two. There is not a Jewish salvation and a Gentile salvation, a Jewish kingdom and a Gentile kingdom, a Jewish bride and a Gentile bride, a Jewish church and a Gentile church. The Divine salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in those who have been made an eternal part of Him.

The true salvation is one progressive revelation of God. There indeed has been a change of covenant. However, both the old covenant and the new covenant were made with the one elect—God’s Israel, whether Jewish or Gentile by physical birth. The old covenant was written on stone and the new covenant is written on the heart. The two covenants require righteousness, holiness, and obedience on the part of Israel and on the part of all who would partake of the salvation of the Lord.

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We shall present three concepts in this short paper. One is that the nation of Israel shares a common salvation with the believers in Christ. The second is that the destiny of the believers in Jesus is identical with the destiny of the elect of Israel, that is, to become the righteous Kingdom of God on the earth.

The third is that from the days of Abel, the righteous always have lived by faith. God has shown man what is good—that he behave righteously, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. The monumental error of Christian teaching is that under the new covenant, God has changed His expectations concerning man; that now we have a new, magical way of pleasing God. The new way is by professing belief in the Lord Jesus apart from any change of our behavior.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning God gave the word concerning man: man is to be in the image of God; man is to be male and female; man is to be fruitful; man is to rule the creation of God.

In the beginning God created all His works. He finished them in vision all the way through to the new Jerusalem, and then rested.

God still is resting. The wisdom and power unleashed in the beginning are working and will continue to work until all that God has spoken has been fulfilled.

In due time Abraham and Sarah appeared; and then Israel, the elect of God, came into view. Israel is the royal priesthood, the light of the world. Israel will find its fulfillment and meaning in the holy city, the new Jerusalem. The nations of the saved of the world will walk forever in the light of Jerusalem.

Later, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Sin-bearer, King of all kings, was born in Bethlehem. The Word of God will continue to work until the enemies of Christ have been brought beneath His feet.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Servant of the Lord. God’s purposes will be fulfilled through Him.

All this is one Divine plan. There can be no changes. Although the history of the world appears incoherent, confused, subject to random occurrences, it actually is proceeding with clockwork precision—so great is our God.

From time to time God has spoken through people whom He has chosen, revealing the part of His plan necessary for man to know.

Of special importance is the revelation of Christ, which began with the calling of Abraham (although possibly heralded earlier by Job—19:25), and was enlarged in the tribes of Israel. To Israel were given the promises, the priesthood, the Tabernacle, and the Covenant—the Ten Commandments.

In the fullness of time, Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord of all, made His appearance. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. Abraham and Jesus are part of the one revelation of God to man.

After Jesus’ resurrection His Spirit continued in the Apostles, and then in the various other ministries and gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

Soon the Lord Jesus will return, accompanied by His brothers—the firstfruits of Israel, the royal priesthood. Then the nations of the earth will be judged. Some of the nations will be led away to the eternal burnings. Other nations, those who were kind to the Lord’s brothers, will enter eternal life.

In the end, the holy city, Jerusalem, will descend from Heaven and be established forever on the new earth. In that day Jerusalem will be “Heaven.” The nations of the saved will no longer pray to God in Heaven above. They will come up to Jerusalem and receive blessing and guidance, eternal life and healing, from the saints in whom Christ is dwelling.

“At that time Jerusalem shall be called the Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts. (Jeremiah 3:17)

This is the one Divine plan from the beginning.

Men, in their self-seeking, change God’s revelations into religions. God is not caught by surprise. Understanding the wickedness of our heart, He knows we will accommodate ourselves to His revelations in various ways. God works in spite of our weaknesses.

A religion is an attempt of man to find God, to satisfy God. Salvation is God reaching down to man through the darkness, showing man God’s purpose and ways.

Organized religion is of the spirit of Babylon (man-directed Christianity).

Biblical Judaism was given by the Lord and is not a religion (as we have defined religion) but a revelation of God. It is the weakness of people that has corrupted Judaism into an intellectual domain inhabited by scholars and elders, lawyers and administrators.

Can we call the plagues on Egypt a religion? Was the crossing of the Red Sea a religion? Was the manna falling from the heaven a religion? No, these were revelations of God to His chosen people.

The Levitical priesthood, the ordinances of the Tabernacle, the dietary statutes, have points in common with the religions of the world. The difference is, each aspect of biblical Judaism was given by the Lord in detail. No part was left to man to devise.

No other faith, including Christianity, has received such precise Divine instructions concerning a priesthood, a plan for a building, and dietary regulations.

The Torah came from God. It is Divine revelation. First, the Torah was written on tables of stone; later in greatly enlarged form on the human heart.

The religions of the world fight against each other because they come from the evil heart of man. The religionist of Judaism fights against the religionist of Christianity. The Moslem struggles against the Hindu. All is vanity. All is wickedness. The struggle, the hatred, are not blessed by the God of Heaven.

Biblical Judaism is unique. Although the unbelief and hardness of heart of men has changed Judaism from a revelation of God to a religion operated by scholars, the land and people of Israel belong to God in a manner true of no other land and people.

The Messianic revelation began with Abraham. The Olive Tree, the Spirit of Christ, has continued with a remnant of Jews and a remnant of Gentiles. When the era of the Gentile elect has ended, the Olive Tree will be given back to the people and land of Israel. At that time Christ will return and establish His throne in Jerusalem.

When the Holy Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost, a number of Jews believed that God had made Jesus of Nazareth both Lord and Christ. They were the first Body of Christ. Then the Spirit led the Jewish Apostles to seek the elect among the Gentiles.

Because of the sinfulness of man, the early Christian churches began to change from a revelation of the Spirit to an organized religion. Human nature was in control. The human religious impulse decided that the Jews, accused of murdering Christ, were not part of the Church. (How ironic in that the Jews were the first members of the Body of Christ!)

As the centuries progressed, Christianity became established as one of the major Gentile religions of the world (not one of the revelations of God).

Judaism (when it is dominated by the human personality), Christianity, and all other organized religions are Babylon—the attempt of man to find God, please God, define God, and then control God.

In the days in which we are living, the False Prophet (the spirit of religious delusion) will overpower multitudes of people, including the majority of professing Christians. The mammoth “Christian” organization of the end time will make its headquarters “in the land of Shinar,” on the Euphrates, at the original site of the tower of Babylon.

And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.” (Zechariah 5:11)

The Holy Spirit of God will call out from religious Babylon the elect Jews and elect Gentiles. They will become one “stick” in the Lord’s hand. They will be perfected by the spirit of judgment and burning and made ready for the Lord as a firstfruits of the Bride. The entire Bride, the Body of Christ, is destined finally to be without spot or wrinkle.

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, (Isaiah 4:4)

There is one salvation, not two. There is not a Jewish salvation and a Gentile salvation, a Jewish kingdom and a Gentile kingdom, a Jewish bride and a Gentile bride, a Jewish church and a Gentile church. The one Divine salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in those who have been made an eternal part of Him.

There are the nations of the saved, the “sheep” nations.

They were brought into the Kingdom of God because they had assisted the saints, the elect, the Lord’s brothers, when they were in distress.

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
‘for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; (Matthew 25:34,35)

They will continue to be saved by serving the saints.

For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:12)

The saints, the elect of God, are one, whether Jew or Gentile by race. Both the elect Jews and the elect Gentiles have the same calling. The elect will be served by the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Hebrews 8:10)

Both the old and new covenants require righteousness, holiness, and obedience on the part of Israel and on the part of all who would partake of the salvation of the Lord. The new covenant is superior in that it is administered by the Lord Jesus in the heart rather than written on stone and left to human nature to obey.

In our day the continuity from the Old Testament to the New Testament is sometimes disregarded in favor of a Dispensational model. Dispensationalism has caused three evils. First, it has left the Gentile believers with the mistaken idea that God no longer requires righteous behavior on the part of those whom He is reconciling to Himself (saving). “Grace” has replaced godliness.

Second, Dispensationalism has blinded the eyes of the believers to their destiny as portrayed in the Old Testament. Actually, the Scriptures are one whole and should not be divided into an old testament and a new testament. In place of the marvelous vision of the Glory of God filling the earth we have the pale picture of “mansions” in the spirit realm where we shall do we know not what forever.

Third, the doctrine of the pre-tribulation “rapture” of the believers in Christ, a part of the Dispensational model, has brought great confusion to the central message of the Gospel—the resurrection of the saints. The ascension is being preached instead of the resurrection. Under this concept, the Apostle Paul would have said, “If by any means I may attain to the ascension of the dead” (Philippians 3:11).

Although many believers of today may not realize that God’s Christ will rule the earth only from Jerusalem or that it is through the Jews and their Christ that the Kingdom of God will come, Satan understands these facts very well.

We Gentiles have been sandwiched in, having a place in Israel through Christ. But the purposes of God always have been and always shall be centered upon the physical land and people of Israel. In the days in which we are living the elect Jews and the elect Gentiles are finding each other. This is a sure sign that the return of the Lord is at hand.

Some seeking new creatures leaders of our day are teaching “replacement theology.” They would replace the physical land and people of Israel with the Church in the future plans of God. Replacement theology is contrary to the teaching of the Apostle Paul.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; (Romans 11:25,26)

A child could read the Hebrew Prophets and see they are referring to one Kingdom of God that will fill the earth with glory, and then he or she could turn to the New Testament and notice that John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostle Paul preached the coming of the same Kingdom announced by the Prophets.

So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening. (Acts 28:23)

The Book of Isaiah proclaims the Servant of the Lord. The Servant of the Lord is Christ who will bring redemption to Israel and to the nations of saved peoples of the earth. The Servant of the Lord illustrates the oneness of the Divine salvation. The Servant of the Lord, a Person described by the Hebrew Prophets, is Israel. The Servant also is Christ—Head and Body.

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles [nations]. (Isaiah 42:1)

A little later we see that the Servant is Israel.

“Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. (Isaiah 44:1)

Without any doubt, the Servant of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, Christ is Jacob and Israel. Because we Gentiles in whom Christ has been born are an integral part of Christ, being His Body, we therefore are an integral part of Jacob and Israel.

What is the work of Christ, the Servant of the Lord? The work of Christ is in three areas:

And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’” (Isaiah 51:16)

Plant the heavens.
Lay the foundations of the earth.
Say to Zion, “You are my people.”

The Lord Jesus is of the physical land and people of Israel in every earthly respect, and all true Christian saints are one with the Lord Jesus.

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)

The destiny of Christ is to fill all things.

that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (Ephesians 1:10)

Yet, Christ always is Israel—the Servant of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ is planting the heavens with Himself and with those whose life He is—the spirits of righteous people made perfect (Colossians 3:4; Hebrews 12:23).

The Lord Jesus Christ and His saints will lay the foundations of the earth. The kingdoms of the world will become theirs.

The Lord Jesus speaks to Zion, to the elect, Jewish and Gentile, and says, “You are my people.”

The Lord Jesus is all things. He is the Servant of the Lord. Yet, He is Jacob; He is Israel.

The Divine salvation is one revelation of God through Christ. It is thoroughly Jewish with respect to its political aspects in the earth. There is no Gentile Kingdom, no Gentile salvation. There only is the one salvation, one Olive Tree, one light of the world—the new Jerusalem.

Satan is attempting to guide the churches to a destiny in the spirit world, in the heavens—the realm from which Satan came. Satan’s desires are in the earth. He is the God of this age and hopes to perpetuate his rule over the nations.

If Satan could move the entire Church to Heaven, to the spirit realm, he would do so. The sooner the churches are “raptured,” to borrow a term from the current error, the happier Satan would be.

But this would be to retreat to the conditions prior to the creation of the heaven and the earth, to a lesser state, to a veiled existence.

Satan’s fear is that Jesus and the saints will return to Jerusalem and destroy Satan’s influence among the nations.

Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the LORD my God will come, and all the saints with You. (Zechariah 14:5)

This is why the False Prophet (the spirit of religious delusion), always the supporter of Antichrist, has deluded the believers in the Lord Jesus into believing they are separate from the Jews, that they are a special “heavenly kingdom” with a destiny somewhere other than the earth.

What is the role of the Servant of the Lord, of Christ—Head and Body?

To bring justice to the nations. When the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven it will be for the purpose of bringing justice to the nations. The Lord is not coming to take His Church to Heaven, He is coming to bring justice to the nations. We shall return with Him and assist in the bringing of justice to the nations. The reason we are repeating this is that it seldom is mentioned in today’s preaching. Yet, it is the clear message of Isaiah.

He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law.” (Isaiah 42:4)

The Church is the light of the world. By this is meant that the nations will learn of God and His ways through the Church. They will see the righteous Nature of God through the good works performed by those in whom the Lord Jesus is dwelling.

having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (I Peter 2:12)

Through Abraham’s Seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:18)

Abraham’s Seed is Christ and all who are part of Him.

The Church is Israel in that it is the continuation of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the anointed priests and prophets of Israel. It is not separate from the land and people of Israel, it is part of one whole. Its mission in the earth is the same as Old Testament Israel: to be a kingdom of priests who judge, teach, and bless the nations as representatives of the Lord God of Heaven

Israel in the Old Testament:

‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:5,6)
“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6)

The same Israel is found in the New Testament:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (I Peter 2:9)

God’s elect, His royal priesthood, His eternal Temple, are one, whether of the Jews or the Gentiles. The purpose of God in Israel is a single purpose—to bless the nations of the earth, to bring justice to the nations.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, (Ephesians 2:14)

We who serve the Lord Jesus must cease using the terms “Gentile Church” and “Jewish Christian.” There is no such thing as a Gentile Church or a Jewish Christian, in God’s sight. There is only the one Church, the one elect of God, the one family of saints.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; (Ephesians 4:4)

The context of the above verse reveals that Paul is referring to the believing Jews and Gentiles, who have become one Body of Christ, one new Man, through the cross.

Perhaps the churches have forgotten that when the Holy Spirit of God was first poured out, marking the beginning of the Church Age, He fell upon 120 Jews.

The followers of the Lord Jesus do not understand the purpose of the Church Age. The calling out from the world of God’s elect does not mean the remainder of mankind is doomed to the Lake of Fire. The elect are called out from the world to learn of God, to offer spiritual sacrifices to Him, to build up and to be built up as the members of the one Body of Christ.

When the Body of Christ has been built into a perfect, complete man, then Christ, Head and Body, will establish justice among the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

The calling out of Israel does not mean the rest of the nations are lost to God and will be destroyed. Rather it is through Israel that the nations will be saved.

The coming of Christ is twofold. He came and is coming again.

In another sense, the two comings are one coming. They are one coming in that the resurrected Christ keeps “coming” to and in His saints and always is with them. His coming in the clouds of glory will be an unveiling in the eyes of mankind of the fruit of two thousand years of the travail of the Church to bring forth Christ in the saints.

Christ will appear rather than come from a far distance. He is here now but the world cannot see Him.

The Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus, came two thousand years ago and bore upon Himself the sins and sicknesses of mankind.

Since that time two aspects of salvation have been occurring. First, a witness has been given to the nations of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. The nations are commanded to keep the word of the Apostles. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord, being baptized and obeying His Apostles, shall be saved in the Day of the Lord.

Second, the Body of Christ is being formed so that when the Lord Jesus is revealed He will not be alone. The Lord Jesus will be revealed in and with a company of brothers.

when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. (II Thessalonians 1:10)

It is likely that multitudes of people will see the Lord primarily in His brothers rather than in a face to face encounter with the Lord Himself.

“I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. (Daniel 7:13)

Of course, the one like the Son of Man who receives the nations is the Lord Jesus Christ, and God in Him.

But God has ordained that the saints be one in Christ as Christ is one in the Father. The nations will come to Christ in us. We are crucified with Christ so His Life may be in us. Other people can come to the light of Christ in us and receive healing and blessing.

The nations cannot see the Light except as they see Him in us. This is true today and will continue to be true in the ages to come.

The Gentiles [nations] shall come to your [God’s elect] light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:3)

Three times in the seventh chapter of Daniel the “one like the Son of Man” is defined as the saints.

‘But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’ (Daniel 7:18)

The Lord Jesus refers to Daniel 7:18, using Daniel’s term “the Son of man.”

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. (Matthew 25:31)

The Son of Man speaks to the nations concerning how they treated His brothers—the saints through whom He will be revealed in the Day of Judgment. It is the saints who will judge the world.

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

“The least of these my brethren” refers to those who will be surrounding Christ in that day, and in whom He will be dwelling when He sits to judge the living nations of the earth.

The saints are judged in terms of their response to the calling of God on their life.

The nations are judged in terms of their attitude toward the saints, the Lord’s brothers, His witnesses.

The living nations will be judged by those whom they had judged previously. Pilate will stand at the bar of the Lord in that day. In the Day of the Lord, Pontius Pilate will be required to defend the things he did and said when the Lord Jesus stood before him two thousand years ago!

Those who abused the saints will stand before them and answer for their attitude toward the Lord’s “little ones,” who endeavored to obey His teachings in a hostile, malicious, self-seeking world.

Those who assisted the brothers of the Lord, particularly during the great tribulation, will be given eternal life.

Those who would live must come to the Bride of the Lamb in order to drink, for the living waters will come from the Throne of God that has been established in her.

The nations of the earth will keep the feast of Tabernacles by coming up to Jerusalem and drinking from the Life of God in the saints, in those in whom God is tabernacling.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)

Living waters will go forth from Jerusalem, from nowhere else.

And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it shall occur. (Zechariah 14:8)

Those who ignored or abused the saints, who did not serve them, will be led away (while still living in the flesh, apparently) to the eternal fire.

“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46)

The Servant of the Lord, the Israel of God, including we Gentiles who have been grafted on the Divine Olive Tree, shall bring justice to the nations of the earth. We shall judge the nations in righteousness because Christ is abiding in us and the Father in Christ.

He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law.” (Isaiah 42:4)

Here is a picture of Christ—Head and Body—bringing salvation to the peoples of the earth.

What would we Gentile believers be doing in Heaven at this time while the Lord Jesus is here on earth ruling from Jerusalem (as the current doctrine teaches)? According to the New Testament, those who gain victory through Jesus will govern the nations with a rod of iron, with their headquarters most certainly in Jerusalem.

The Lord will be here on earth in that day. God will be here in His Son. The Glory of the Holy Spirit will be here. The saints of the Old Testament will rejoice exceedingly as the greater Son of David is crowned Lord of all lords in Jerusalem, the city of God.

The holy angels will dance and sing for joy. Out from Christ through His saints will flow living waters for the nations of the saved. The nations of the saved will turn from the creation of instruments of destruction and build that which is productive. The Glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

The writer was born a Gentile but now is of the Seed of Abraham through the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore his ancestors include Moses, Daniel, and David. His place is here in the Kingdom on earth with the Lord, enjoying the fulfillment of the promises given through the Hebrew Prophets.

There is only one plan of salvation. It is to the Jew first. Salvation always has been of the Jews.

Where will Peter, James, John, and Paul—all Jews—be during the thousand-year Kingdom Age? Will they be in Heaven in mansions or on earth judging and ruling the nation of Israel?

So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28)

If Peter, James, John, and Paul will be on the earth with the Lord Jesus, then that is where I also want to be. How about you?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning God ordained that man be in the image of God; that he be male and female; that he be fruitful and govern the works of God’s hands.

Then God rested.

Since that time God has revealed Himself periodically to individuals, and especially to the nation of Israel, choosing the Jews and their land as His special possession.

The greatest revelation of God to man occurred when Jesus of Nazareth walked in Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

God has never changed. Faith has never changed. Righteousness has never changed. Salvation has never changed. There are no Dispensational differences in faith, or righteousness, or salvation, or in God Himself.

That there are no differences in faith can be seen in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, which is the scriptural definition of “the just shall live by faith.” Hebrews, Chapter 11 begins with Abel and proceeds through the heroes of faith of the period prior to the Christian Era.

Righteousness is that which is pleasing to God, that which is approved of Him.

In every age and nation there have been people who have pleased God.

“But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. (Acts 10:35)

Our limited salvation formula stresses that no individual has pleased God, none has been judged righteous. This position is not supported by Scripture except by verses taken out of context.

When Paul quoted the Old Testament passages concerning the sinfulness of man it was not his intention to convey the idea that no person on the earth is righteous. The Scriptures refers to many people as righteous. Paul was emphasizing that all men have a sinful nature that can be changed only through Christ, not through the Law of Moses. To claim there never has been a righteous person on earth would contradict numerous passages of the Scriptures.

Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. (Genesis 7:1)
“Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. (Exodus 23:7)
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (Luke 1:6)

The Jewish Apostle Paul has been grievously misinterpreted. Paul’s point is that religious works alone cannot please God. No ritual of itself pleases God. He who comes to God must come with a heart of faith and love, making his offering directly to the Lord with his heart as well as his hands.

Abel’s offering was accepted because he came to God with a loving heart. Cain performed the ritual but without faith. There was murder in his heart.

The Law of Moses is perfect and spiritual. One can perform the works of the Law with a heart of faith in God, as did Anna and Simeon in the Temple; as did the mother and father of John the Baptist.

One can perform the works of the Law as a ritual with one’s heart far from God. This was true of some of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.

No one has ever pleased God by works alone. Righteousness comes to the individual who recognizes, as did King David, that God is to be loved from the heart, to be first in all our thoughts.

Faith never changes. Righteousness never changes. There are no “Dispensational” changes in faith or righteousness or God’s goal for man.

God requires of man that he practice justice, that he love mercy, and that he walk in humility before God. Man is to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself.

The requirement of God has been the same from the creation of the world. It has been the same throughout history. It will be the same forever. God never changes. His ways never change.

Satan’s purpose in Dispensationalism is to cut off the believers in Christ from the revelation given through the Hebrew Prophets, to give Christians the impression they can walk in unrighteousness, bitterness, and pride, with their heart far from God because they have been “saved by grace.”

Divine grace under the new covenant has one purpose—to guide, strengthen, and forgive us until we practice justice, love mercy, and walk in humility before God.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, (Titus 2:11,12)

God’s expectation concerning the behavior of people has never changed from the creation of the world. Salvation is one plan from the foundation of the world.

Salvation has little to do with going to Heaven when we die. Salvation is not where we are but what we are.

To be saved is to be reconciled to God in our behavior.

To be saved is to be delivered from relationships, circumstances, and things that hinder our rest in God’s will.

To be saved is to be freed from all that is of Satan and brought into eternal union with all that is of God.

Salvation under the old covenant was directed toward victory over physical enemies and the acquiring of material prosperity and health. Salvation under the new covenant has to do with spiritual enemies and with eternal life—particularly with the resurrection of the body to righteousness, immortality, and glory.

The Divine salvation never has been pointed toward eternal residence in mansions in Heaven, in the spirit Paradise. The vision of the Prophets, the vision for all the elect of God, describes a new world, a new earth in which dwells righteousness.

There is one Israel of God. Israel is the Olive Tree. The fathers of the Church are of physical Israel. We Gentiles have been grafted on Israel and are an integral part of Israel through the Lord Jesus Christ.

God used physical Israel as an object lesson for us (Jews and Gentiles) on whom the end of the age has come. The true salvation is in Christ and it is for all men—first for the Jews and after that for the Gentiles.

The elect of the Jews and the elect of the Gentiles will be guided by the Lord into the patient waiting for Christ. Religious men will grow worse and worse until finally they have built their headquarters in the land of Shinar. The Babylon they create will become the prison of unclean spirits.

Each of us who loves the Lord Jesus must come out (in our heart) from the babylonish spirit of the churches. Let us watch for the Lord, who is coming leaping upon the mountains of spices.

Let us “come away” with the Lord. We shall find that our Lord is beginning to speak to Jewish people, and they too will find Him to be a “clear shining after rain.”

The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away! (Song of Solomon 2:13)

(“One Salvation”, 3999-1)