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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.

Luke 10 25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

These are powerful scriptures. They merit our study as sacred scripture; they inform us of our relationship with God. Notice first of all that these are found in the ‘gospel’ books. Next, look at the doctrine that Luke proclaims to procure ‘everlasting life.’ “What is written in the law?” No mention of believing on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus for payment of sins is here. This is still the LAW program- Judaism. People in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were being offered Judaism.

Now let’s skip ahead to Romans and see how things have progressed:

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Most obviously, something major has happened to our salvation. Someplace between the gospel books and Romans, we have changed to a completely different plan of salvation. At this point, we are NOT under the LAW, but under GRACE! This is not Judaism. This is Christianity!

This is why it is of no small thing to determine where this change took place. We want our salvation to be based upon scripture that applies to us as the body of Christ.

Notice that Judaism did not offer salvation apart from the Law of Moses. .
The basic principle of Christianity was not even a consideration in the gospel books.

Luke 18 31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

By these scriptures, we can see that the 12 disciples had no concept of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as a means of salvation. This was still 100% Judaism (salvation by faith PLUS works of the Law).

We need to look at the doctrine of our salvation very carefully, understanding it from top to bottom and inside out, because this is where we live or die. We don't want to miss it!