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 LL MEN NEED to be saved. God is offering salvation to all men. However, God has set ways and means to attain salvation. God does not want us to consider only what we want. Apparently, this is the flaw of many religions today – they follow their own selves only. And yet, they are still expecting for salvation.
Let us instill in our minds that we can never be saved if we will only do whatever we think is righteous in our service to God. This is what St. Paul said in Romans 10:2-3, 1—
“For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”
St. Paul prayed for the salvation of those who did not want to submit themselves to the righteousness of God, because they were not amongst the candidates for salvation. Why? Because they followed only their own righteousness! That is why, in our service to God, it is imperative that you set aside your own righteousness. This is, actually, one of Christ’s admonitions to those who want to serve Him. Luke 9:23 says--
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
Did you see the foremost requisite set by Christ if you want to serve Him? It is self-denial! You have to deny yourself of so many things, you have to bear your cross daily, and you have to follow Him. That is why service to God means self-denial. You have to set aside your own beliefs, your own perceptions, and your own opinions. Such should not prevail in your service to God. All men have their own thinking; they have their own plans in life; they have their own priorities; they have their own principles; they have their own attitudes. But in our service to God, we should not let those things rule over us. Lamentation 3:35 says—
“To turn aside the right of man before the face of the most High ...”
We must not insist on what we think is right. It is not our self-established righteousness that we must exercise. It would clash against God’s righteousness. Whatever man thinks is righteous is not always righteous to God. And for us to be in good terms with God, we should set aside our own righteousness like what St. Paul did. Philippians 3:9 says—
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law.”
But today, most religious organizations consider only their own righteousness. They implement and obey only their own laws instead of God’s. However, the laws of God should be obeyed by all, most especially by the pastor. There is a self-proclaimed “apostle” who asks his members to collect money from passers-by in the streets. But never has he done such thing. Perhaps, he is ashamed to do it. Nevertheless, he orders his members to do that shameful act.
That is why, in religion and in our service to God, the very first thing that we must exercise is not our own caprices. Remember what the prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ taught us?
“Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven ...”
It is the will of God that should prevail. And this is also the reason why when our Lord Jesus was about to suffer, His prayer to the Father was—
“... O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ is showing us that it should be the will of the Father that must prevail, and not ours. There is a great danger if what we will do are only the things that we consider righteous. Proverbs 14:12 says—
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Therefore, there are things that seem to be righteous for man. Let me give you an illustration. There was a lady who had three suitors. And one of them was an expert in employing flattering words. The girl’s parents were very much against that guy because of his lack of sincerity. But for the lady, that guy is the most deserving of all her suitors. As a result, after only three months of marriage, she returned to her parents because the guy had abandoned her.
This is the reason why the Bible warned us:
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
So, if we want to be saved, we should not do only the things which we think are righteous. There are things which are righteous for man, but not for God. I Corinthians 10:23 says—
“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”
There are things which man perceives to be righteous for himself but little do they realize that they are not righteous for others. Isn’t it that for others, it is beneficial to steal because in doing so, they are gaining something? But is it beneficial to those whom they victimize? Real righteousness is not just righteous to one but to all. It is righteous in the eyes of God, it is also righteous for others and to oneself. But there are things which are righteous to oneself only but harmful to others.
For example, let’s say that you are residing in a subdivision, and you decided to raise hogs. In itself, there is nothing wrong with raising hogs. It is a way of augmenting the financial needs of a family. In fact, there is no law that prohibits anybody from raising hogs. Besides, you are not letting them loiter anywhere. They are kept in a sty, or a pigpen. But, while it is true that you can contain the pigs in a sty, the fact remains that you cannot contain the putrid smell of their excrements within your territory. Your neighbors will surely smell it, and they will definitely complain.
We once built a motor shop. For us, it was a righteous thing because we could earn money out of it. But for our neighbors, it was annoying because of the noise that we were producing as we pounded the metals. They couldn’t sleep. So, we just decided to close the shop.
Not everything that is righteous to you would also be acceptable to others. If this is true with our dealing with our fellowmen, more so with our service to God. That is why, the foremost requisite to salvation is not to do what we think is righteous. What we need to consider is God’s righteousness. The same admonition was repeated by St. Paul in I Corinthians 6:12—
“All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
Being humans, we have our own perceptions. And it is very possible that we think our perceptions are righteous. But St. Paul said, “… I will not be brought under the power of any.” Whose power was he referring to? The power of anything which is righteous for him! Because there is an authority under whom he must submit himself. It is not the power of what you think is righteous for you. It is neither the righteousness that is dictated by other people, nor the righteousness that your pastor, nor any other man, taught you. They are not the measuring sticks of real righteousness. And bear in mind that, it is only in God’s righteousness that we could learn real righteousness.
Now let us find out, What is the foremost thing that a man need to become righteous, and therefore, worthy of salvation? Let us begin with the things that a man needs to live peacefully, safe from harm, and most of all, worthy in the sight of God. There are things that we need to understand, and these are what we are going to study.
Let us evaluate ourselves first. Let us ask ourselves, as humans, what are the most important things to us? Luke 12:16-18 says—
“And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.”
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Bible
The
Way to Salvation
