Justification and Salvation
Sanctfication and Eternal Life



What is Justification (before God)?
    One might first ask, what is justification and how does one obtain it, since the questions naturally go together.
    Justification before God means that one remains (abides) in the love of God (NIV), as the scriptures put it.
    Justification also means that one's soul (person) is sanctified, filled with God's grace, meaning that such a person belongs to God, rather than to the world, or to Satan. This also means that if a person dies when they are sanctified that person will be saved.
    At the Last Judgment a sanctified person will be recognized by Jesus Christ as one who belongs to God. Such a one will be raised to eternal life and then go to live with God forever. This is what remaining in Him means.

    A person can obtain Justification, the sanctification of the soul, in one of two ways.
    First, one can be baptized according to the command of Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Being baptized indicates that one belongs to Jesus Christ, to God. This Baptism is the initial way one's soul is filled with God's grace. A person can receive Baptism at any point in life. But, a person can be validly baptized only once in their life.
    Second, if at any time after a person has been baptized one knowingly violates God's trust by sinning against His Commandments, that person loses his justification before God.
    However, that person can regain his justification by repenting of his sins to God, by admitting his fault(s) and asking God for His forgiveness. A person does this by confessing his sins and also sincerely promising that he will do his best to avoid sinning again.
    A person can confess one's sins to God as many times as necessary during life, as long as one is sincerely sorry that one has offended God and also if one is sincere in one's resolve to change one's life, to avoid the repetition of sin.
    Therefore, a person who is justified before God (sanctified) and dies in that state is Saved!
(Romans 6:8 "But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.")

    By this we can see that even though Justification and Salvation may be simple, they are NOT easy!

Only By Grace! Can any of this be done.
    All Christians should know that none of this happens for no reason. And certainly NOT by purely human effort. It is only God's Grace which will prompt us to do things that are good for us if we voluntarily or consciously invite God's grace and love into our hearts and souls.
    However, if we ignore or fail to follow the prompting of God's grace it is possible, even probable that we will fail to do good things that will help us, but we may instead, do evil things that are bad for us.
    Yes, we are assured that God's freely offered grace is sufficient for our salvation, as long as we freely accept it wihtout reservations! (2 Corinthians 12:6-10)

What the Reformers Emphasized?
    Many persons who follow the doctrines and traditions of the so-called Reformers, of the 16th century will say that a person is saved ONLY by their Faith! To illustrate this they will quote the following bible verses which they cite to sustain their claims:
Please don't pick and chose which
New Testament scriptural verses you will believe.
If you don't believe ALL of them,
perhaps NONE of them will apply to you!

    Note that all of the above verses are fully true and correct. But they are NOT the ONLY verses in scripture which are true and correct, and, above all, pertinent to a person's eternal salvation!

What the Reformers Ignored?
    Many of these same persons who cite the above verses will also tend to ignore or pass over the following verses which illustrate what is lacking, the deceitful simplicity, in their claims and beliefs.
    The following verses, along with the ones above, explain the entirety of God's conditions for man's salvation. This is true since one is saved ONLY by God's Grace which must be invited into and lodged in our heart and soul, and never by man's ingenuity, lodged in his puny brain.
    The only one who is all good, Almighty God, certainly has the power, but NEVER forces us to do anything and Satan is UNABLE, has no power, to force us to do anything, he is limited (By God) to being a tempter only! His only power is deception. This is strongly intimated in John 10:29 where Jesus said no one has the power to snatch them from the Father's hand, this especially includes Satan who is always limited in what he can do by Almighty God. For more see Irresistible Grace?
  • Matthew 4:17 "From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

  • Matthew 5:3-12 "Blessed are the poor in spirit . . ."

  • Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."

  • Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

  • Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."

  • Matthew 7:12 "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets."

  • Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few."

  • Matthew 7:20-23 "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name? Then I will declare to them solemnly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers."

  • Matthew 10:22 "You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved."

  • Matthew 10:28 "And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."

  • Matthew 12:30 "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

  • Matthew 12:33-37 "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; . . ."

  • Matthew 15:8 "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

  • Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

  • Matthew 16:27 "For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct."

  • Matthew 18:2-3 "He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mark 10:13-16)

    • Perhaps you have heard that the narrow gate to Heaven is also low, so that only a little child can enter standing upright, but that an adult can enter only on his knees.
    (Matthew 7:13-14 & Matthew 18:3)

  • Matthew 18:17 "If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

  • Matthew 19:17 "He answered him, Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."

  • Matthew 19:18-29 "You shall not kill . . ."

  • Matthew 22:37 "He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."

  • Matthew 23:12 "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."

  • Matthew 25:31-46 "When the Son of man comes in his glory . . ."

  • Mark 12:28-31 "One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, Which is the first of all the commandments? Jesus replied, The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."

  • Luke 13:3 "By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"

  • Luke 5:30-32 "I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

  • Luke 6:31-36 "Do to others as you would have them do to you. . . ."

  • Luke 6:46-49 "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? . . ."

  • Luke 10:26-28 "What is written in the law? . . ."

  • Luke 18:17 "Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

  • John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him."

  • John 5:28-29 "Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation."

  • John 13:34-35 "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

  • John 14:15-21 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

  • John 15:1-17 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. . ."

  • Acts 3:19 "Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,"

  • Acts 17:30-31 "God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will 'judge the world with justice' through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead."

  • Acts 26:20 "On the contrary, first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance. "

  • Romans 2:13 "For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified."

  • Romans Chapter 6 "What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not! . . ."

  • 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 "If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. . ."

  • 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 "Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain."

  • 1 Corinthians 15:33-34 "Become sober as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God; I say this to your shame."

  • 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 "Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who recommends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord recommends."

  • 2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless, of course, you fail the test."

  • Galatians 5:6 "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love."

  • Hebrews 3:12-14 "Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. Encourage yourselves daily while it is still 'today,' so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end,"

  • Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin."

  • Hebrews 10:26-31 "For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, . . ."

  • Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us"

  • James 1:22-24 "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like."

  • James 2:17 "So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

  • James 2:22-24 "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. . ."

  • James 4:6-10 "But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says: . . ."

  • James 4:17 "So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin."

  • 1 Peter 2:21 "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps."

  • 2 Peter 1:20 "Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,"

    • The following verses clash with Martin Luther's Eternal Security Doctrine & at least one version of Faith Only
  • 1 John 1:6-9 "If we say, 'We have fellowship with him,' while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we say, 'We are without sin,' we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing."
    NIV & KJV

  • 1 John 3:4-10 "Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. . ."

  • 1 John 3:14-24 "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. . ."

  • 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

    • If these are not enough, others can be cited!
    2 Corinthians 13:11, Galatians 1:8-9, Galatians 5:13, Galatians 5:18-23, Galatians 5:19-21, Galatians 6:3-9, Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 4:2, Ephesians 5:10, Philippians 2:6-8, Philippians 2:12-13, Philippians 4:13, Colossians 3:5-6, Colossians 3:12-17, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, 1 Timothy 1:8-11, 1 Timothy 1:18-19, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, 1 Timothy 3:14-15, 1 Timothy 4:1, 1 Timothy 4:16, 1 Timothy 5:8, 1 Timothy 6:10, 1 Timothy 6:21, 2 Timothy 2:11-19, 2 Timothy 3:17, 2 Timothy 4:1-4, Titus 3:14, Hebrews 1:9, Hebrews 5:7-10, Hebrews 6:10-11, Hebrews 9:27, Hebrews 10:38, Hebrews 12:14, Hebrews 13:20-21, James 1:17, James 2:19-20, James 5:16, James 5:19-20, 1 Peter 1:16, 1 Peter 3:19-20, 1 Peter 4:6, 1 Peter 4:18, 1 Peter 5:5, 2 Peter 1:10-11, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 2:17, 1 John 3:10, 1 John 4:7-8, 1 John 4:7-21, 1 John 5:2-3, 1 John 5:16-17, 2 John 1:6, Jude 1:21-23, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 14:12-13,

  • Revelation 20:12 "I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls."


We believe this is true since the Apostle assures us that Faith without love is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2), that Love is greater than both Faith and Hope (1 Corinthians 13:13), and we know we shall be saved by a Faith that always works through Love (Galatians 5:6).

Once Saved, Always Saved?
    The eternal security doctrine, first preached by Martin Luther in the 16th century, is an especially pernicious heresy that can easily lull a believing Christian into a false sense of security.
    It provides false justification for any future bad behavior since Luther essentially assured believers that repentance is unnecessary since this false doctrine claims that any new sins are covered (will be ignored) and will not be held against them by Jesus Christ at the final judgment.

    This eternal security claim is without foundation in the bible. (1 John 1:6 opposes it) In the New Testament, we learn that we must repent of our sins to be rid of them or else we will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
    Jesus Christ NEVER said that He would ignore our sins, but He did tell us to repent of them! See more below.

    In 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 The Apostle Paul concluded his explanation of Reconciliation by urgently imploring us to be reconciled to God, as he explained the need for us to be repentant.
    This was reminiscent of Paul's explanation of his ministry to King Agrippa in Acts 26:19-20, in which he recounted how he urged everyone to repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped away.
    Since scripture tells us that repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in Jesus' name to all nations.

Because the Protestant tradition of self-commendation is a premature and unwarranted anticipation of the Final Judgment, which our Lord Jesus Christ alone will pass. 1 Corinthians 4:5 and 2 Corinthians 10:18

Once Saved, Always Saved (Eternal Security) is a false proposition.
    It is, in essence, a refusal to repent of our deadly sins, which is the same as a refusal by a human being to follow the Gospel, which includes:

Jesus' and His Apostles' teaching concerning sin and repentance
Matthew 3:2 (Repent!), Matthew 4:17 (Repent!), Matthew 12:30 (Are you with Him?),
Matthew 19:17 (Obey!), Luke 5:32 (Sinners to repent!), Luke 6:46 (Why do you not do what I tell you?), Luke 13:3 (Repent or Die!), Luke 15:7 (Joy for a sinner who repents!),
Luke 15:11-32 (unrepentant person was lost, but now is found!),
Luke 18:13-14 (The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be lifted up!),
Acts 3:19 (Repentance wipes out sin!), Acts 17:30-31 (God commands all people to repent!),
John calls on us to repent 1 John 1:9 and Acts 26:20 (St. Paul declares - Repent, turn to God)
St. Paul also pleads with us in 2 Corinthians 5:20 (to be reconciled to God)
Then in 2 Peter 3:9 (we learn that the Lord wants everyone to repent so they won't perish)

Our Faith (can we ever lose it?)
    "Our faith can be shipwrecked (1 Timothy 1:18-19), departed from (1 Timothy 4:1), disowned (1 Timothy 5:8), wandered from (1 Timothy 6:9-10), and missed (1 Timothy 6:21-22). Christians do not have a "waiver" that exempts them from these verses." Sal Ciresi

Please don't allow any of that to happen to you. Repent now while you are still able!



    It was once asserted that: "the fool lives his life as if God did not exist, the wise man as if He does."
    Likewise, one could say that: "the fool believes God requires no repentance, the wise man knows that He does."