Is Salvation In Christ In Anyway Conditioned Upon Our Personal Obedience

To The Law Of God?

Romans 3:28

Without question, salvation is conditioned upon obedience to and the satisfaction of the law (Matt. 5:20; Ezek. 18:4; I Cor. 6:9-10). The law of God must be perfectly obeyed. Sin must be thoroughly punished. Justice must be completely satisfied. Without perfect righteousness, complete expiation, and full satisfaction no sinner could ever be saved. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for all God's elect, as our Mediator, Representative, and Substitute. The salvation of God's elect was conditioned entirely upon his obedience. But it is not, in anyway whatsoever, conditioned upon our personal obedience. Insofar as we are concerned, salvation in its entirety is totally free, without any cause in us. It is the work and gift of God's free grace in Christ Jesus, without the works of the law. This is clearly the doctrine of Holy Scripture (Rom. 3:20-28; 4:3-5; 11:6; Gal. 2:16, 21; Eph. 2:8-9; II Tim. 1:9). Every aspect of salvation (Election, Redemption, Justification, Regeneration, Sanctification, Conversion, Repentance, Faith, Preservation, Perseverance, Glorification, and everything else necessary for eternal glory) is totally the work of God's free grace. Neither the grace of God toward us, nor the grace of God in us, is conditioned upon anything we do.

Grace devised the way of salvation. And grace puts us in the way. Grace accomplished salvation. And grace applies salvation. Grace preserves us in grace. And grace causes us to persevere in grace. Grace completes salvation. And grace crowns salvation with eternal glory. We do nothing to earn, merit, or even influence the grace of God toward us. We simply receive what God has done by faith in Christ. And even that faith, by which we receive God's salvation, is the gift and work of his almighty grace. To make any part of salvation dependent upon man is to make the whole work of salvation dependent upon man. Then "is the reward not reckoned of grace,but of debt"(Rom.4:4). It is evident, then, that salvation is not in anyway conditioned upon our personal obedience to the law of God.

Don Fortner