Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

       William B. Bradbury wrote the hymn, Solid Rock. The first part of this hymn succinctly describes the doctrine of justification in a few words. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name. That is the whole of it. It is all through the name of Jesus, and Him only, that we are saved and justified. By faith, justification comes through Christ alone, then we grow in God’s righteousness and are sanctified by His continual work of grace in our hearts. For some fleshly reason, we have a difficult time accepting the gift of salvation that did not come from ourselves. There appears to be a deep-seated need to earn, work for, and build acceptance toward possessing salvation. What is in man’s heart that finds it so hard to accept the gift of salvation through Christ from God? Why do we need to boast that we have earned God’s love? Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

      I think one of the reasons we try to save ourselves is that if we accept within the deepest parts of our being that salvation is through Christ alone, then God, who gave the grace and gift of salvation, can make a demand on our souls. We are afraid because subconsciously, we know there is nothing God cannot ask of us. However, when we claim to be partly responsible for our salvation, we feel we can place limits on what God can ask of us because, after all, (we think) we have earned some of this sanctification that is taking place in our hearts. This seductive belief of our own importance comes out of our sinful ego and is truly flawed. We need to get rid of this erroneous thinking because there is no other name under heaven but Jesus by whom we may be saved. Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

      The evil that oozed from the egoistic desires of those who wanted to save themselves shows up in church history. The records show the numerous martyrs who were murdered, burned, decapitated, flayed and tortured for preaching that salvation is through Christ alone. The high cost of sacrificial deaths among the righteous men and women of God throughout church history is hard to read about. The payment of life and limb that was extracted, stolen, and ripped away from the saints of righteousness was beyond evil. These holy trailblazers were simply trying to give us a Bible written in a language we could understand. Their efforts of faith are extremely precious, and we need to take a moment and think about their sacrifices. These pioneers of the faith were people to whom God had illuminated His Word, and the self-righteous could not tolerate anything that pointed out the error of their doctrine, which claimed salvation through their works. Therefore, they needed to kill the messenger while advertising that they were doing the work of God.

      Over the last five hundred years of church history, the list of martyrs is numerous, and the evil that was done to them is beyond sad. The unjust treatment that was done to those who ministered salvation, justification, and sanctification by faith in Christ throughout the last few centuries is horrific and illogical to anyone who has read the New Testament, which clearly says that salvation and justification can only come through Christ. John. 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. These believers in Christ understood and lived with Christ in their hearts, and knew the scripture that declared “Jesus is the only way to salvation,” and they laid their lives on the line for that truth. In effect, they laid their lives down for us so that we could have the freedom to pick up the scriptures at any time of the day or year and soak in the Word of the Lord.

      For example: In the 15th hundreds, William Tyndale was executed by strangulation and for good measure, they burned his body at the stake for translating the Bible into a language the people could read and understand. We, the people who claim to know God, tend to get in the way of God’s redemptive work and mess it up royally with our versions of personal salvation that we deem acceptable to whatever trend is slithering by at any moment in time. The Apostle Paul spent many days teaching and reteaching that works without Christ are dead and that salvation can only come through faith in Christ’s sacrifice alone. Gal. 3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.

      There are still locations on this earth where our Christian brothers and sisters are being put to death because they have chosen to believe that salvation is through Christ alone. As the Word of the Lord says, “The world is not worthy of them.” Heb. 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were killed by slaughter of the sword; they wandered in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, being oppressed, being mistreated; 38 of whom the world was not worthy; wandering in deserts, and mountains, and caves, and holes of the earth. Throughout the last few weeks, as I read my Bible, I have thought of the courage that these Saints had in their souls to be able to withstand the demonic imaginations of ill will that were lashed out at these heroes of the faith. We are not far from these immoral choices that were made in the name of God. The sooner we lean into God and accept that justification is through Christ alone, the sooner our hearts will live in true peace. May God give us this understanding in Jesus name!