Salvation was Never by the Works of the Law

Man was never required to work for his salvation, not even before the Fall.4 Only the undeserved favor (or “grace”) of God alone first created and subsequently preserved man (Luke 2:40, 3:23-38: cf. Revelation 4:11). Although God required unfallen man to keep His Commandments, man’s obedience was not the meritorious ground of his obtaining of everlasting life. To the contrary, man’s obedience was an expression of gratitude—part of his “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1) and his “pure religion and undefiled” (James 1:26- 27)—to Almighty God. Obedience reflected man’s thankfulness to the Lord for already having given him (losable) everlasting life (Ephesians 1:4-7, 2:8-10, 4:17-32, esp. vv. 22-24). The everlasting life that God originally endowed to Adam could be lost, and was lost, as a result of his avoidable fall. Adam did not lose it, however, because he did not sufficiently earn merit with God. Scripture specifically declares that Adam lost everlasting life by disobeying God—eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17, 3:3, 11, 17: cf. Philippians 3:19).

Deuteronomy (Greek deuteronomion, "second law") is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. In form it is a set of three sermons delivered by Moses reviewing the previous forty years of wandering in the wilderness; its central element is a detailed law-code by which the Children of Israel are to live in the Promised Land.

In theological terms the book constitutes a covenant between Yahweh, the God of Israel, and the "Children of Israel"; this is the culmination of the series of covenants which begins with that between Yahweh and all living things after the Flood (Genesis 9). One of its most significant verses constitutes the shema ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord (YHWH) is our God, the Lord (YHWH) alone!"), which today serves as the definitive statement

Read the rest of God's Ten Commandments - Yesterday, Today, Forever, by Dr. F. N. Lee.

Salvation was Never by the Works of the Law brings you these lessons in Christian history:

January 2, 1909: Aimee Semple and her husband, Robert, are ordained by Chicago evangelist William H. Durham. Aimee, who married Harold McPherson after Robert died, would become the founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and one of America's most popular preachers of the twentieth century.

January 2, 1921: Pittsburgh radio station KDKA broadcasts the first religious program over the airwaves: a vesper service of Calvary Episcopal Church. The senior pastor, unimpressed by the landmark broadcast, didn't even participate in the service, leaving his junior associate to conduct it. The two KDKA engineers (one Jewish, the other Catholic), were asked to dress in choir robes to be less obtrusive. Today religious broadcasting is a multi-billion dollar industry.