"We stand in grace." "We are in a state of grace." "We are saved by the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord."

Do we dare question these venerable positions?

Yes, we do dare to question them. We have found them to be without basis in the Scriptures. They have destroyed the churches of Jesus Christ. They are a monumental deception.

Their origin is: "You shall not surely die," and we know where this advice came from.

In order to get at the unscripturalness and illogic of the concept that we are "saved" independently of our behavior, let us think for a moment about the goal of salvation. (I know my readers are tired of my incessant repetition of our problem of goal, but the issue is central to the question being raised here.)

The truth and the lie keep getting more clearly defined in my mind and so I struggle out of bed (at the age of seventy-two), sit down at the computer, and think, "I will try once more. There must be many people, particularly young people (for whom I have a special burden), who will understand if I make another attempt while it is so clear in my mind, and Paul's words from Philippians are cascading over the falls, sparkling and shining as pure waters from the highest mountains."

The "stand in grace," "state of grace," "saved by the merits of Jesus Christ" position assumes that the goal of salvation is eternal residence in the spirit Paradise. To be saved is to go to Heaven when we die.

Isn't this the assumption underlying the question of what happens if we do not live righteously? Isn't the issue whether we will go to Heaven when we die if we do not take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus as we should?

If we change the goal in any manner, if to be saved does not mean to go to Heaven when we die, then the argument must be reviewed carefully.

How do we discover what the goal of salvation actually is? We go to the Bible. We look and see what it says about the goal of salvation being to go to Heaven when we die.

Look!—look again!—look again!—look again! Search the Scriptures to see if there is any clear statement that to be saved means to make our eternal residence in Heaven. If there is no such statement then we need to rethink why we are a Christian and what it means to be a Christian.

Did the Lord Jesus teach about going to Heaven? No, He did not. He told us to lay up our treasures there, and we may have assumed He meant we would go there when we die and get our treasures. But this is an assumption. Other passages inform us the Lord will bring our rewards with Him when He returns. The rewards are coming to us. We are looking for a city that is coming from Heaven, a Paradise that will come to the earth when God has His saints prepared to govern it.

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:14—NIV)

To be continued.