An Answer to the Comment by Mr. Gormley

No, I don't believe salvation is a very simple thing at all. It's so vast. God is so vast and unsearchable and past finding. So wise. We can spend our whole lifetime searching out His knowledge and greatness, isn't it! No man can claim perfect theology, because that is to claim we know God perfectly, which is to claim we are as clever as God, and put ourselves in the place of God, which was Satan's sin. No, I don't know everything. But God is teaching me,  through His word, and I must listen and live it out.

Yes, I agree that salvation is often underrated and not understood! People think salvation is so easy, that just by saying the sinners prayer we can be saved. Far from it! Those who are think we can be saved by just saying a sinner's prayer are so wrong. Salvation is deep and it is a mystery, which now is being revealed to us by God's Word to His saints. God's grace is costly.

I quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing....[45]


Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.... In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.[45-46]


Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. 'All for sin could not atone.' Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin....


Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.[47]


Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.


Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.


Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


On two separate occasions Peter received the call, “Follow me.” It was the first and last word Jesus spoke to his disciple (Mark 1.17; John 21.22). A whole life lies between these two calls. The first occasion was by the lake of Gennesareth, when Peter left his nets and his craft and followed Jesus at his word. The second occasion is when the Risen Lord finds him back again at his old trade. Once again it is by the lake of Gennesareth, and once again the call is: “Follow me.” Between the two calls lay a whole life of discipleship in the following of Christ. Half-way between them comes Peter's confession, when he acknowledged Jesus as the Christ of God....[48]


This grace was certainly not self-bestowed. It was the grace of Christ himself, now prevailing upon the disciple to leave all and follow him, now working in him that confession which to the world must sound like the ultimate blasphemy, now inviting Peter to the supreme fellowship of martyrdom for the Lord he had denied, and thereby forgiving him all his sins. In the life of Peter grace and discipleship are inseparable. He had received the grace which costs.[49]


As Christianity spread, and the Church became more secularized, this realization of the costliness of grace gradually faded. The world was Christianized, and grace became its common property. It was to be had at low cost.[49]"

Sacraments cannot save us, man cannot save us, rituals cannot save us. It is God alone who will save us, and he is saving us every day. He is working in His saints, perfect and cleansing them, sanctifying and redeeming them, as they learn to "die daily". We are saved not by what we do, but by what Christ did. Sacraments are "good" in themselves, practiced, like the law but without true spiritual life and depth in us we are dead, we have no life of Christ in us.

The church is not an institute, it is the body of Christ, the body of believers, and Christ is the very head and center.

Discipleship is no convenient thing. It is hard, it is costly, it costs us our lives which must end at the place of the cross. Only Yahshua HaMashiach can save us. Only God can save us. We cannot save ourselves. God tries and tests the hearts, He sees beyond the outward appearance. He jugdges the motives and intentions of the heart.  The eternal, abundant, life from God begins now, not just in eternity. It begins at the place of the cross.

Yahshua alone is the way. There is no other way.

Yahshua alone is the truth. THere is no other truth but what is found IN Him. He is truth, and there is no lie in Him.

Yahshua is life, and in Him we find life, because we can die with Him and live again, ressurected, in that wonderful eternal life of God.

It begins with Faith, faith grows. Faith is not easy. Faith requires of us. God will give us that faith. If we are faithful in little, He will make us faithful in much. We can only reap what we sow into our lives, so what we sow must be the gold, silver, and precious stones, which go into the fire and come out unscathed, the wood, hay, and straw will perish. If we sow godliness and truth, that is what we reap. If we sow ungodliness and lies, that is what we reap, in the vengeance of eternal fire.