Your Sincerity Will Save You!

Posted by Dan C. on

The gospel of “inclusivism” would have us believe that, and it’s spreading. Whether it comes from cowardly “Christians” who appear on the Larry King show and won’t take a stand for salvation through Christ alone, or from those who term ‘sincere’ god-seekers ‘anonymous’ Christians, it’s the same song. “If you are ‘sincere’ in seeking God and your ‘good works’ give evidence to your sincerity, somehow you will end up in Heaven.

I’m not sure the one who bore His Father’s wrath for the sins of His people would agree with that warm and comfy sentiment:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:18

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Inclusivists might tell you that you don’t need to have been presented with Christ as Savior in order to believe in Him. Or, they might tell you that non-christian religions have in the end the same goal of finding God that Christian religions do, so we are all in the same family of God.

The Apostle Paul provides some clarity on the issue:

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” – Romans 10:14-15

Since no one is “good” or seeks God on his/her own (Romans 3:10-11), unless God begins a work of regeneration in a person, there is no “sincere” seeking after the God of the Bible. If there is sincere seeking after God present in a person’s heart, God will send the Gospel of Christ, somehow, someway. It might be someone preaching. It might be someone finding a Bible, or a even a piece of a page from a Bible. God has innumerable ways of ‘sending the Gospel’.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

No matter how sincerely a person seeks after God, it is not that sincerity, or any amount of ‘good works’ that saves. It is God who saves! Ask Jonah.

6 responses to “Your Sincerity Will Save You!”

  1. Or, they might tell you that non-christian religions have in the end the same goal of finding God that Christian religions do, so we are all in the same family of God.

    What’s your spin on this, then? (from Romans 2)

    12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

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  2. Good Morning Christian,

    “John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”

    If I have a ‘spin’ it would only matter if it aligned with scripture. We are all part of God’s creation – that is not in doubt, John 1:12 is not alone in declaring a ‘class’ of individuals who are ‘children of God’, not merely ‘in His creation’.

    Paul’s discourse in Romans 2 is set in the context of chapters 1-3, in which his whole point is summed up in Romans 3:23 “For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Both Jews and Gentiles, according to Paul are in the same boat as sinful fallen human beings.

    I know that there is a form of ‘evangelical inclusivism’ that places those who have not ‘heard’ the name of Jesus in the same ‘group’ as those who believed in the ‘promise’ (Abraham) in the OT. God will sort that out an I will not be dogmatic. There is much that can be said for God sending the Gospel message to those who are in our day ‘believing in the promise’.

    What I do know is that no one will get the Father save through the Son, His shed blood, and the finished work of the Cross.

    At any rate, no matter how Jesus saves His people, He Will save them (as the angel told Joseph). His people inlcudes those who have believed in the One God sent, whether that meant believing in the ‘promise’ as some on the OT did, or consciously believing in the One who died in our place, for our sins, and was resurrected.

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  3. Reasonably said, Dan. I would just suggest that when John talks of a ‘name’ that we are to believe in, that this name means so much more that just the recognizable word “Jesus” (or Yeshua). And to fully receive Jesus means a whole lot more than what we typically call conversion.

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  4. If what is meant by what is “typically called conversion” is the sort that seems to be”fire escape Christianity”, I agree. Faith that saves a man from Hell produces works. I recently did a study concerning being justified before God by faith and being justified before men by the works that come from having been justified before God.

    James and Paul don’t contradict each other, but are two sides of the ‘justification” coin.

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