To be saved is to be brought into the Kingdom of God. Since there is no sin in the Kingdom of God, the program of salvation (and it is a program, a lifelong process), has to do with deliverance from sin and self-will.

It absolutely is true that all have sinned and have come short of the Glory of God. It absolutely is true that no human being can save himself, can deliver himself from sin.

God has sent the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver us from sin so we can enter His Kingdom.

Therefore we are to keep all of the commandments issued by Christ and His Apostles. God has given us grace through Christ so we can keep the commandments, not in order to provide an alternate route into the Kingdom of God!

We come boldly to the throne of grace to receive power to keep the commandments of God.

It is said we cannot save ourselves by good works. This is the same as saying we cannot be delivered from sin by practicing good works. It is true that the adamic nature cannot deliver itself from the bondages of sin. But there is grace in the Lord Jesus that can and does deliver us from sin.

"Well," one will ask, "did God save us so we would be able to keep His commandments?"

The answer is, yes. Notice below:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

The new covenant is not a means of evading the commandments of God but of keeping the commandments of God. When we do not keep the commandments of God we are not bearing the fruit of Christ's image that God is looking for. Therefore we shall be cut out of the Vine, out of Christ.

We understand, therefore, that the present Christian understanding of the Christian salvation is incorrect. The result of the error has been the moral destruction of the churches and, as a result, the moral destruction of the secular governments that have only the moral light of the churches to guide them.

Today we see numerous pastors and believers falling into moral sin. The reason is twofold. First it is because the satanic pressure on the world has increased. Second it is because the Gospel is viewed as a means of avoiding the commandments of God rather than the means of keeping the Lord's commandments.

In our day the Lord must remove the view of the Gospel as the Divine alternative to godly behavior. If He does not, the end of the age is surely at hand and multitudes of believers will face destruction in the day of resurrection.

The Great Commission did not charge the Apostles to go forth and advise the nations that if they "make a decision for Christ" there is no need for them to keep God's commandments. The Great Commission charged the Apostles to teach the nations to keep the commandments of the Lord.

The end result of all of God's covenants is people who do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Whenever this goal is changed for any reason whatever, no matter how "correct" the reason may seem to be, we know that Satan has been at work.

To be continued.