What happens if you try to earn your salvation through religious rituals instead of having faith in the Gospel?
Attempting to earn salvation through religious rituals, law, legalism, or works rather than faith in the Gospel causes Christ to become of no effect to you. No matter what rituals or works you do, if you have no faith in the Gospel, those efforts cannot justify, because justification is freely by His grace through redemption in Christ Jesus.
Les teaches that people go through all sorts of rigmaroles to somehow earn salvation—dotting every I, crossing every T, walking an aisle, shaking a preacher’s or deacon’s hand—and think they have done all that is required. But if they have never had faith in the Gospel, the end result is that Christ becomes of no effect. Paul says, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,” and Les explains that law, legalism, and works all mean the same thing. The contrast is Romans 3: all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, yet are justified freely by His grace through the redemption—the buying back—that is in Christ Jesus.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
More Questions
What happens when someone tries to earn salvation by walking an aisle or shaking the preacher's hand?
When people go through religious rigmaroles—dotting the I, crossing the T, walking an aisle, shaking a preacher's or deacon's hand—to somehow earn salvation and think they've done all that's required, the result is that they never had any faith in the Gospel.