Do you believe the Holy Days are required for Christians? This question was recently asked by someone who doesn’t believe they are. It is a question that is discussed frequently among those who have been involved with religious organizations, which teach that we earn salvation through obedience to the law. How would you answer this? Do you believe the Holy Days; the Sabbath or any other of the commandments are required? Do you mean for salvation, or just required? These are questions that are difficult for many Christians. What is your personal belief about this question? The purpose for this article is to discover the Biblical answer to the question, “just what is required for salvation”?
If our keeping the commandments is the requirement for salvation the Christ died in vain. Conversely, if God saves us with no consideration for His law or His commandments then His law has no bearing on the matter of salvation. Neither of these conclusions is accurate.
The righteousness of the law is a requirement for salvation. God’s holy, righteous law is the basic standard for all living beings that have the ability to thin and make decisions. However, “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), which is, “transgression of the law” (John 3:4).
So, all of us are hopelessly lost, unless God either bypasses His law, which He cannot legally do, or somehow, makes provision for a Savior. Sin demands death, i.e. the eternal death of the individual who sins. So, the problem is very complex and difficult. This is where God’s Son, Jesus Christ, comes in. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”
This sounds as though God allowed His Son to die in our place and that all we need do is accept Him. Is this true? Many will say, no, this is not true. Others will say yes, it is. Well, again, neither of these answers is accurate. The question is the problem. Christ certainly satisfied the demand of the first issue by perfectly obeying the law of God. But, this leaves the second legal issue of substitutional death. The Bible is clear on this issue. Ezk. 18:4, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” No substitute! The answer to this is, we die “in Christ”. Remember those who are baptized properly are baptized “into His death”. Christ obeyed perfectly. Christ died the second or eternal death for sin, but not His own. He died for ours, but we must die “in Him” (Rom. 6:1). Eph. 2:8-10 “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” This gives the correct order of the whole process. By the way, to those who say that Ray Wooten is Protestant because he does not believe in the law, I hope this brief article answers that for you. I know of no Protestant doctrine that teaches the proper application of this salvation process. On the other hand, the legalistic conclusion of the Churches of God who believe that obedience to God’s law earns salvation is not the answer. Only God’s Word, the Bible, gives us the Godly solution to this question.
“For by grace are you saved through faith and that (i.e. salvation) not of yourself, it is the gift of God.” In Greek, this gift is clearly shown to be salvation, not faith. Faith is from the Greek work “pistis”.
John 3:16 the word “believe” is also from the Greek “pistis”. They are one and the same. So, we do the believing or having faith. We must exercise our ability to believe or have faith in the salvific nature of Christ, His life, death and resurrection, in order to be saved. So, salvation is offered to us through no other means than our belief in His gift. It is God’s gift to us.
Does the process of God’s creation of His family end there? No! It does not! Now notice “not of works”. Salvation is not of works, it is a gift, period. “Lest any man should boast.” So many in the Church of God have boasted of their own righteousness. “For we are His workmanship (this is the work of God) created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
So, here is the process. God creates man (Adam). Man (Adam) sins. All mankind, male and female, all races, everyone, is born “in Adam”, hence all are born with a sinful nature and all have sinned. Consequently, man is cut off from God. So, he does not have eternal life. Christ (the second Adam) is God incarnate who lives a perfect life, hence deserving eternal life because of His righteousness. But, He willingly takes on and pays for our debt of sin and dies for, not in place of, us. We, through faith, which God has provided through man’s ability to think, reason and make decisions, accept Christ’s death for us and we are made righteous, “In Him.”
So, yes, obedience to all of God’s will is required for salvation. But it is Christ’s obedience that satisfied that requirement. You see, brethren, God does not put His Spirit into a sinful vessel, but we cannot obey without God’s Spirit. So, the cycle would be unending while we would remain lost and separated from God. But, once Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, (justification). We are then perfect and holy before God. Then He gives us His Holy Spirit, which empowers us to begin to obey God, (sanctification) so we may experience in our lives, what God has imputed to us in Christ. This is God’s righteousness imparted.
We then are enabled and empowered to perform the good works (based on God’s law) which God has before ordained that we should walk in them, because God is writing them in our hearts by His Spirit which dwells in us. Then, at the “parousia”, i.e. the second coming of Christ or the resurrection, the process which began in Gen. 1:26-27 will be completed by our resurrection (glorification) into the literal family of God.
Then we will be in the state John showed in I John 3:9 “he who is born of God cannot sin”.
So, are God’s Holy Days, or any of God’s Commandments, required for salvation? Yes, but, Christ did it for us. We accept that and respond by obeying God because of our love and appreciation for Him. This is the correct order of God’s requirement for our salvation.
Written by Ray Wooten