In the last blog, we emphasized that it is not “works theology” to state that our salvation depends on more than just believing in Jesus. We gave several reasons why taking action to put into practice the teaching of Jesus is necessary.
However, we do recognize there is a danger in such a teaching because some might erroneously conclude that all they need to do is to perform a few actions to be saved. The fact is the Bible teaches God wants more from us than just our belief system or a few actions that we take. He wants nothing less than the renovation of our entire soul, not just parts of it, so that we become like him.
As our blog of April 9, 2011 states each of the ways of salvation that have been taught by various people and organizations—belief, conduct, motivation, or repenting—has its problems.
. . .belief without change is the same as no belief, actions without the proper motivation is just acting, actions without knowing what conduct God requires may be the wrong actions, motivation without a goal gets us moving but maybe to the wrong destination, and repentance without a change in action will result in us repenting for the same thing over and over and over. Beliefs, conduct, motivation, repentance, correct use of our abilities will not, done in isolation, make our soul like God.
Jesus tells us: For the gate is narrow andthe way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:14 ESV). It is so much easier to restrict salvation to our beliefs or to a few actions than to embark upon the renovation of our entire soul.
