The devil has tried out several lies to keep people from God. He used the "There is no God" technique, but most people didn't fall for it. Then he went with the "You don't need to be saved" routine, but too many people could see through that one also.

So he tried the "Sure, you need to be saved from your sins, but there is no hurry about it" line. That one has been the downfall (no pun intended) of quite a few.

Feeling a flush of success with that line, he waxed bold and even had his next act of verbal sabotage printed on the cover of at least one major magazine. That was his "God is dead" stroke of genius. But alas, that was doomed to fail miserably.

Feeling the need to come back with a really successful plan after such an obvious disaster, he came up with a real winner, (For God's people, it's a real loser), and here it is.

"Yes, there is a God. Yes, He is still alive. Yes, you need to be saved. No, you do not have an unlimited time to take care of it." You may be saying by now, "But how could that be a winner for the devil?" Just wait until you hear what he has tacked on to that little discourse. Here it is—

"When you get saved, or born again, you never need to strive for holiness, as you receive all the holiness you will ever need at the time you are saved."

Ladies and gentlemen, that has been an unqualified success for the devil, and an unqualified disaster for the church world. Satan even has pastors, evangelists and teachers standing behind pulpits and podiums all over the world, parroting his BIG lie.

To do this they often use as one of their passages of scripture:

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4:1-8

Using (or should I say, misusing) this and other passages of scripture, a great number of people have ceased to believe that living a life within holiness standards is necessary. A great number of ministers have ceased preaching against sin and worldliness. In fact, they preach against those who preach against sin. Why? They have completely misunderstood this scripture. Paul is dealing here with justification. In other words, he is talking here about being saved, or born again, or being converted.

The word justified or justification is taken from Hebrew and Greek words which simply means to be "acquitted", to be "freed" or "cleared" or "cleansed". In other words, it means to be brought to a place of "JUST AS IF I'D never sinned". So we see this is talking about the new birth.

Someone might say that you can never be any more perfect than when you arise from that place of prayer and are made clean by Jesus' precious blood. I agree; and thank God we are not saved by works.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8,9

But let's not stop there.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

It is true, you can never make yourself good enough to be accepted into the family of God, but it is just like the little baby that is born, and the doctor comes out to tell us that the baby is perfect. All it can do is cry, throw up and mess its pants, but it's still perfect. However, if in a certain period of time that baby does not begin to pull itself up, or walk, or talk, we know that the baby has not retained its state of perfection, because it has ceased to grow and make normal progress. We take it to the doctor and want to know what is wrong. How do we know something is wrong?

We can easily see that the baby is no longer perfect. We must realize that perfection in this instance means growth, improvement and coming to maturity.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48

These words of Jesus are talking about labor, growth, completeness as we mature. So you see, if we do not continue to grow, to labor and mature, we who once were perfect become imperfect.

So many people are misled into believing that if they try to make themselves better by living a holy life, they are in danger of falling from (or at least frustrating) grace.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12

This verse, by the way, is written by the same man (and Holy Spirit) who wrote Romans 4:1-8.

Is there then a contradiction? Not at all. You see, in one place he is talking about being saved, in another he is talking about growing in the Lord after we are saved.

I think you will find the next chapter extremely interesting.