Have you ever gotten in the mix of conversations where believers share differing views on topics of faith, such as what exactly is needed for salvation? Considering we read the same Bible, it is interesting how strongly Christians can differ on these things and how aggressively some can defend their perspectives or even abruptly change the topic to avoid hearing other views. Of course, this is not unique to our time, but many who heard Jesus speak likewise took great offence as He unfolded the mind of God in a manner that contradicted their long-held customs and perceptions drawn from scripture.

When it comes to the question of what is needed for salvation, Jesus did not just preach to the masses but also unfolded the deeper mysteries of God to those He had called to carry forward His stewardship later on as apostles. God has always worked through stewards of His election to accurately make known His mind to His people, ending the differing interpretations of scripture. Christ came to establish a new spiritual covenant in which He gave us the true blueprint for faith through His apostles.

God has again restored His government in the church today, and through them, the knowledge of Jesus’ covenant which is central in His due order for salvation. With this in mind, I’d like to show you why the mindset of being saved by asking forgiveness alone was induced by the false indoctrination of substitution and not by the living record Jesus established in Himself for our salvation.

I’d like to make a distinction on this subject from God’s perspective concerning how we are saved by grace through faith. Let’s begin with what Jesus said at the last supper.

1 Corinthians 11:24-25
²⁴ And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

²⁵ After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament (covenant) in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

When we read also what Jesus said in John 6, we can see how the bread He spoke of was His flesh (the very knowledge of truth, which He is), and His blood of His covenant is not only the covering of our souls as we partake of Him, but also the very life and healing of our souls through the things His blood sanctified for our faith to abide in Him, which things are spiritual, invisible, and give expression of Christ and purifies the conscience.

John 6:53-55
⁵³ Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man (truth), and drink his blood (my sanctifying Spirit for true life—life is in the blood), ye have no life in you.

⁵⁴ Whoso eateth my flesh (partakes of my divine knowledge & nature), and drinketh my blood (drinking of the Spirit through God’s daily gifts of grace), hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁵⁵ For my flesh is meat indeed (His holy knowledge is our living bread & meat for the soul), and my blood is drink indeed (the Spirit quickens life to our understanding to truly know the Lord).

Can you see why Jesus said that the Father seeks to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth? Jesus was unveiling that the path of salvation He came to establish upon the cross would be walked out by way of His new covenant, wherein believers would daily partake of His fullness for their faith to be made living through the spiritual works He called worship in Spirit and truth.

Under the false indoctrination of substitution, this responsibility of faith to God is denied, saying that Christ was our substitute, and there is nothing more we need to do – and that those who turn to Christ for forgiveness will automatically be saved simply by acknowledging Him as Lord. But without the proper foundation of knowledge laid in the soul by living apostles, man does not understand that God requires faith that daily dines on the meat and blood of Christ’s covenant knowledge, which is the ordered activity by which God assigned faith to function in righteousness & holiness; so partaking of Christ’s propitiation.

Micah 6:8
He hath shewed thee, O man (through the preaching of the knowledge of Christ), what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Notice the words, “do”, “love”, and “walk” which are all action verbs, showing that faith must be active with the things Christ sanctified by the shedding of His blood for the new (spiritual) covenant.

Faith must be active with the spiritual tokens of Christ in order to worship / honor / obey / serve God acceptably (John 4:23-24). This is God’s divine design for salvation, whereby we have forgiveness of past sins as we are conformed to Christ by His present propitiation. It is God’s covenant due order by which believers bear forth the fruit of the Spirit that identify us as His own. This cannot take place by Satan’s counterfeit design, which takes scripture in the wrong (unsanctified) direction by appealing to man’s logic instead of submitting to the stewardship & knowledge of Christ.

Salvation is indeed free, but it is not free from responsibility as God seeks obedience as proof of faith. This and many other topics of faith is set aright in God’s perspective by His sanctified stewardship to restore the church back to the unity once known under apostolic stewardship in the early church. You can learn more about these things and about God’s divine design for your spiritual transformation in Christ by signing up for free for our IDCCST Course.