What are the requirements/steps for salvation

[AnotherTraveler]

Salvation alone is thorugh Faith in Christ. For it is by Grace we are saved, through Faith, and this not from ourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works so taht no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). But Faith in Christ requires us to submit to Christ's will, admit our sins and truly Repent, turning around and in acknowledging our wrong attempting to live a proper and righteous life for the Lord. These are all essential steps to becoming Christian - admitting that we have sinned, admitting that we cannot do anything ourselves, acknowledging Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, and then promising to follow him in God's new path for us.

The poll is a little misleading. It is solely through Faith alone that we are saved, but that cannot be possible without putting our Faith in Christ, which involves repentence of sins. I'm not sure what the poll-starter intended, so can't really give a proper vote on this one without further clarification.

All the best,

I agree completely.

All the works of obedience (repentance, baptism, ect) are very scriptural, and they certainly FOLLOW a believer, but believing allows for GRACE, and all the rest flows from the Grace of God.

Eph 2:4-10 (KJV)

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

WE WERE DEAD What can a dead person do to become alive? Nothing. It is by Grace.

If I may, you are correct in what you have posted. The reason for the division on this is because these verses are used to as a definition of Christianity en total. What these verses are trying to tell us is that there was nothing that we did to work for nor earn the grace that God gave to mankind to reconcile ourselves back to him and have all of our sins forgiven. Now, what people are leaving out is the fact that we are still required to live the rest of our earthly lives as Christians after the manner in which the scriptures tell us to.

Look at the verse that is written AFTER the 9th verse:

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

You will notice that we were created unto good works and it has been ordained that we should walk in them. These works have nothing to do with our salvation, reconciliation, nor to take away from what Jesus did for mankind on the cross. The works are our deeds that we do on the earth that are told of us to do in the scriptures. Every time we repent of a sin or obey a commandment in the scriptures we do a work. The are not of our own accord, but of God's will.

What also needs to be understood is that there is nothing in the scriptures that has been given to us to decide if we want to do them or not or if they are allowed to be left out if we deem them not important. I.e. Many people choose to leave out baptism when Jesus commanded that the Apostles go into all the world to preach AND baptize. Peter, in the book of Acts, told the people to be baptized for the remission of their sins after they asked what they needed to do. Romans says that we are buried and resurrected with Christ in baptism. We are told that all that have been baptized have put on Christ. Ask yourselves why after reading all of these things that we would choose not to be baptized.

All scripture is for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. If that is so then ALL scripture is needed for our righteousness before God. If we purposely leave anything out and not obey the scriptures then we are telling God that we didn't deem them worthy enough for us to obey. All scripture is given for us to obey and if we choose not to do some of them then we are putting ourselves before God.

The works that Eph. 2:8,9 are talking about are not the same works of obedience that we are given and commanded to do.

If a person obeys the scriptures, I call that works of obedience, I was not trying to refer to something else. I agree that it is not optional to dismiss any of the precious scriptures, and other than not quite understanding that last sentence, I agree with your post wholeheartedly.

Thank you for your comments.

Regarding the last sentence that I posted: When you read Eph. 2 from the very first verse you will see what perspective that Paul was coming from and what he was referring to. God knew what state mankind was in as we were all filled with sin. Through the mercy of God he sent his Son to be propitiation for our sins. Now, we did nothing to work for or earn God's mercy to do that for us. That is why it is called "Grace". What has come to happen is that it is being taught and believed that this is speaking of our lives before God and has caused people to believe that they don't have to obey the commandments in the scriptures. Eph 2:10 goes into telling us that we still were created and ordained to walk in works.

What has also been taught is that things like baptism are works and since Eph 2:8,9 is being used in the form that it is, it takes away having to do what we are told through the scriptures to do.

Without posting a whole lot of scriptures, the mindset that needs to understood through scriptures is that the New Testament is what took away a "works based" salvation. Most of the Old Law was based on outward deeds, such as, feasts, ceremonies, sacrifices on alters, etc. Under the New Law, it is all about the inner man. Our sacrifice is ourselves to the will of God (Rom. 12:1,2). The deeds of the law we do now is putting away the filth of our flesh and repenting of our sins. We are saved by faith in the fashion that all of this is done through and with our faith in Jesus. We don't just blindly do things and we don't do deeds of our own selves. Our deeds are outlined through out the scriptures that Jesus tells us to do.

What a lot of teaching has done today is take away from what Jesus has required for us to do. Everything that we see in the New Testament that we are told to do we are required to do it, but what is being done is Eph 2:8,9 are being used to cancel them out.

Even though we are saved by faith it isn't supposed to be an empty faith. Anybody can say they have faith, but what are we doing with that faith? If we say that we have faith in God then we should be compelled to do everything that the scriptures tell us to do to the best of our ability. That includes baptism for the remission of sins.

I'm sorry, I ramble on to much sometimes. I hope I answered your question.

Thanks for the answer, and again I completely agree with you. It should never be scripture against scripture, for in doing so, a person is misunderstanding the mind of God, for He is not confused about anything.

[Guest William Price]

Salvation alone is thorugh Faith in Christ. For it is by Grace we are saved, through Faith, and this not from ourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works so taht no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). But Faith in Christ requires us to submit to Christ's will, admit our sins and truly Repent, turning around and in acknowledging our wrong attempting to live a proper and righteous life for the Lord. These are all essential steps to becoming Christian - admitting that we have sinned, admitting that we cannot do anything ourselves, acknowledging Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, and then promising to follow him in God's new path for us.

The poll is a little misleading. It is solely through Faith alone that we are saved, but that cannot be possible without putting our Faith in Christ, which involves repentence of sins. I'm not sure what the poll-starter intended, so can't really give a proper vote on this one without further clarification.

All the best,

I agree completely.

All the works of obedience (repentance, baptism, ect) are very scriptural, and they certainly FOLLOW a believer, but believing allows for GRACE, and all the rest flows from the Grace of God.

Eph 2:4-10 (KJV)

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

WE WERE DEAD What can a dead person do to become alive? Nothing. It is by Grace.

If I may, you are correct in what you have posted. The reason for the division on this is because these verses are used to as a definition of Christianity en total. What these verses are trying to tell us is that there was nothing that we did to work for nor earn the grace that God gave to mankind to reconcile ourselves back to him and have all of our sins forgiven. Now, what people are leaving out is the fact that we are still required to live the rest of our earthly lives as Christians after the manner in which the scriptures tell us to.

Look at the verse that is written AFTER the 9th verse:

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

You will notice that we were created unto good works and it has been ordained that we should walk in them. These works have nothing to do with our salvation, reconciliation, nor to take away from what Jesus did for mankind on the cross. The works are our deeds that we do on the earth that are told of us to do in the scriptures. Every time we repent of a sin or obey a commandment in the scriptures we do a work. The are not of our own accord, but of God's will.

What also needs to be understood is that there is nothing in the scriptures that has been given to us to decide if we want to do them or not or if they are allowed to be left out if we deem them not important. I.e. Many people choose to leave out baptism when Jesus commanded that the Apostles go into all the world to preach AND baptize. Peter, in the book of Acts, told the people to be baptized for the remission of their sins after they asked what they needed to do. Romans says that we are buried and resurrected with Christ in baptism. We are told that all that have been baptized have put on Christ. Ask yourselves why after reading all of these things that we would choose not to be baptized.

All scripture is for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. If that is so then ALL scripture is needed for our righteousness before God. If we purposely leave anything out and not obey the scriptures then we are telling God that we didn't deem them worthy enough for us to obey. All scripture is given for us to obey and if we choose not to do some of them then we are putting ourselves before God.

The works that Eph. 2:8,9 are talking about are not the same works of obedience that we are given and commanded to do.

If a person obeys the scriptures, I call that works of obedience, I was not trying to refer to something else. I agree that it is not optional to dismiss any of the precious scriptures, and other than not quite understanding that last sentence, I agree with your post wholeheartedly.

Thank you for your comments.

Regarding the last sentence that I posted: When you read Eph. 2 from the very first verse you will see what perspective that Paul was coming from and what he was referring to. God knew what state mankind was in as we were all filled with sin. Through the mercy of God he sent his Son to be propitiation for our sins. Now, we did nothing to work for or earn God's mercy to do that for us. That is why it is called "Grace". What has come to happen is that it is being taught and believed that this is speaking of our lives before God and has caused people to believe that they don't have to obey the commandments in the scriptures. Eph 2:10 goes into telling us that we still were created and ordained to walk in works.

What has also been taught is that things like baptism are works and since Eph 2:8,9 is being used in the form that it is, it takes away having to do what we are told through the scriptures to do.

Without posting a whole lot of scriptures, the mindset that needs to understood through scriptures is that the New Testament is what took away a "works based" salvation. Most of the Old Law was based on outward deeds, such as, feasts, ceremonies, sacrifices on alters, etc. Under the New Law, it is all about the inner man. Our sacrifice is ourselves to the will of God (Rom. 12:1,2). The deeds of the law we do now is putting away the filth of our flesh and repenting of our sins. We are saved by faith in the fashion that all of this is done through and with our faith in Jesus. We don't just blindly do things and we don't do deeds of our own selves. Our deeds are outlined through out the scriptures that Jesus tells us to do.

What a lot of teaching has done today is take away from what Jesus has required for us to do. Everything that we see in the New Testament that we are told to do we are required to do it, but what is being done is Eph 2:8,9 are being used to cancel them out.

Even though we are saved by faith it isn't supposed to be an empty faith. Anybody can say they have faith, but what are we doing with that faith? If we say that we have faith in God then we should be compelled to do everything that the scriptures tell us to do to the best of our ability. That includes baptism for the remission of sins.

I'm sorry, I ramble on to much sometimes. I hope I answered your question.

Thanks for the answer, and again I completely agree with you. It should never be scripture against scripture, for in doing so, a person is misunderstanding the mind of God, for He is not confused about anything.

Our salvation is based upon His grace through our faith. Even John the Baptist called for the people to bring forth fruit of repentance.

One must repent of their sins, turning to Christ alone by faith, confessing our sins. He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.