Salvation: 3 Old Testment

[kenblogton]

Old Testament believers: The Acts 4:12-Romans 10:9-13 salvation formula line of reasoning also excludes from heaven all the Old Testament heroes of the faith; since none can ever have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviour, they must all be in hell. However, in Matthew 8:11 (emphasis added), Jesus Christ Himself says “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” Luke 13:28 states the same thing. Hebrews 11 identifies many of these faith heroes.
By paying the price for our sins, Jesus made heaven possible for all humankind. As 1 Timothy 2:5 states “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” Jesus did not change the requirements for salvation. In the both the Old and the New Testaments, the essence of salvation is conversion demonstrated by confession of sin and repentance from it which leads to a Holy Spirit-inspired life of loving goodness. Ephesians 2:8-10 (emphasis added) states “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
The need for repentance – for a change of life direction – for non-believers is mentioned throughout the New Testament. However, believers are told to “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” in Philippians 2:12 and to “grow up in your salvation” in 1 Peter 2:2. Believers are warned of the danger of abandoning their faith in Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26-31 and in 2 Peter 2:20-22. Paul mentions the believer Demas as having deserted him because of Demas’ love of the world in 2 Timothy 4:9; see also Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 23. Paul also comments on believers Hymenaeus, Alexander, Philetus and others as having wandered from the truth and become more ungodly in 1 Timothy 1:18-20, 5:15; 2 Timothy 2:16-19. And believers in five of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation are told to repent or face loss of salvation (Ephesus: 2:1-6; Pergamum: 2:14-16; Thyatira: 2:20-25; Sardis: 3:1-3 and Laodicea: 3:15-20). The obvious conclusion is that many so-called conversions are not genuine. So why are some conversions not genuine?
Jesus explains that there is a cost to being His follower or disciple in Luke 14: 25-35. Verses 28 and 33 give the essence of His message: ““Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? …. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Paul makes the additional point in Romans 10:8-13 that genuine conversion is of the heart, not of the mouth. Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:14-20 is a commentary on non-genuine conversions.