**The following is an article I mention in my first book, Calvinism: Built on a Foundation of Sand, to give you a taste of what's inside. Happy reading!**
There are a lot of answers one will get if they ask the Christian world today how to be saved. Some will say “just believe” or “it’s by God’s grace alone”. Others are “you don’t have do anything because everyone will be saved” or “just trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross”. While all of these may sound biblical, when they actually look in the Bible themselves, they would see that most of what the religious world says today isn’t found within the pages of Scripture. I’ll let you look for yourselves.
One passage that many seem to overlook regarding salvation is Matthew 7:21-23. The passage says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”.
Here we see that only the people that do “the will of the Father” will be in Heaven after the Day of Judgment. It seems pretty important to man’s salvation but why is it left out of so many people’s plans of God’s redemption? And what is the will of God?
Well let’s start with the definition of the word. The “will” in the passage above is the Greek word ‘thelema’ and it means “will, choice, inclination, desire, pleasure”. So put another way, it would mean to do what God desires of us. That is how we can be saved from our sins. Every person in the world (1 Timothy 2:4).
So what is the will of God? Well, there are many things that are contained in the will of God. First and foremost, as was just sited, He desires us all “to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). He wants us to know Him and learn of Him and what He has done for mankind. He wants us to obey Him because He is the Creator and He gets all glory (cf. Ecclesiastes 12:13). The best way to do that is by becoming a child of His by following His plan of redemption and being forgiven of our sins.
Once we become a Christian, most think that’s the end but it’s not. It is only the beginning. We must endure this life and whatever it throws at us and then in the end, God will bring us home to Him (cf. James 1:12; Revelation 2:10). We must also be sanctified or “set apart” from this world and not do the things that the world does (1 Thessalonians 4:3-6; 5:18; 1 Peter 2:15-17; 4:1-2,19).
But how do we know what the will of God is? Romans 12:2 can help us. It says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. Again, it reminds us not to become like the world but have your mind renewed. This is done when we start following God’s ways and stop following our own. Ephesians 5:15-17 says “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (NASB). It’s extremely important to know what His will is, for if you don’t know, how can you follow it?
Another passage, Hebrews 13:20-21, says “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead…make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ”. We see here that God is the one that equips us with the works needed to do His will. We can only get that from reading His word, the Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Keep in mind that God does not do this forcefully but only those that humble themselves before God and wish to follow God will discern the truth (John 7:17).
Now this is not to say that just doing the will of God will automatically get you saved. We have to want to follow God and His ways. John 4:24 says that we must worship God in spirit as well as truth. Our hearts or spirits must be in the right place and in the right mindset as we follow Him or our walk with Him is in vain. It’s beneficial to us to want to follow God and not this world as He knows what’s best for us.
One of those benefits to doing the will of God is of course salvation as we’ve been discussing already (Matthew 7:21; Hebrews 10:36; 1 John 2:17). In addition, the Lord counts us among His family (Mark 3:35) and hears us when we talk to Him (John 9:31; 1 John 5:14). What a great and awesome God we serve!
So, let us not forget these verses in our walk with God. We ought to always strive to do His will in all we do. As we can see in countless other passages, when we make a God’s will a priority, everything else in this world falls into place.
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