Does the Bible Teach You Can Save Yourself?

This is a question which two people can debate about and both could be dead wrong.

One might say that man can save himself. They might claim their own ideas of what they think the Lord ought to accept are all they really need to follow. One hundred people who think like this could very well have one hundred different ideas of what is acceptable. Yet all one hundred would be misguided.

Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

A way that seems right unto a man could appear religious or non-religious. It could seem boastful or humble in the opinion of many.

There are also many who would counter those in the Proverbs 14:12 category and say that man cannot save himself. They might point out that Jesus would have died in vain if a person’s efforts could be enough to atone for their own sins and obtain God’s favor. They might quote from John 14:6 where Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Would such counterpoints be wrong? No, they are true. The attempts of people to devise their own ways to be saved are insufficient.

The following realities can also complicate something which is really rather simple.

Many will somehow add Jesus into the equation of their self-made way of salvation which doesn’t align with the Bible’s counsel.

Many who say you cannot save yourself say that Jesus’ grace requires nothing of man or say that man has no ability to cooperate with the conditions for being saved by Jesus.

Now consider this: Is a drowning person working to save themselves by cooperating with a good Samaritan who is laboring in wisdom to save them? Yes. Yet work of that nature is a practical admission that one is helpless to save themselves otherwise. And if the drowning person is really trusting the one laboring to save them, they will cooperate with them and do whatever they say.

Man’s helplessness to rescue himself out of sin and man’s capability to cooperate with God’s grace are not opposing concepts like many teach. Christ died on the cross to redeem us from our sins. He has made a narrow path of redemption through His sufferings. Otherwise, there would be no adequate way at all. When one gives heed to the instructions from the Lord which are calculated to their rescue out of sin, they are exercising faith in Him rather than working to earn salvation. There is work involved in exercising faith in Christ according to the Bible’s instructions.

The Apostle Peter told the crowd in Jerusalem in Acts 2:32-40: “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”

Peter preached Jesus as the resurrected Messiah, an authority figure whom all are bound to worship and to give heed to. Many Jews have missed Christ due to their expectation of Him to come as a military conqueror. They disregard the clear implications of Scriptures such Psalm 110:7 and Isaiah chapter 53 which demonstrate that the Messiah would endure humility on earth before being exalted. Yet many professing Christians also do not properly prepare for His second coming because they dismiss the truth that Christ is indeed a militant conqueror who will righteously judge and make war on His enemies when He returns.

The people who gave heed to Peter’s preaching in Acts chapter 2 understood that being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins means submitting to His authority as the children of Israel were bound to obey Moses in following him through the Red Sea out of Egypt. Peter told the people to save themselves, not because they were expected to atone for their sins or just try to be better people, but because we are expected to repent and come under Jesus’ authority in order to be saved from God’s wrath on this guilty, evil world. Christian baptism is indeed intended to be a testimony of submission to Jesus’ supreme authority as well as an initial expression thereof (though it’s usually not performed in that context- infant baptisms couldn’t possibly be done in that context).

Acts 2:41-42: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

In Acts chapter 9 Paul (aka Saul) submitted to Jesus’ Lordship in exercising faith in Him. Right as Paul practically acknowledged that his past religious scrupulousness was insufficient to save him, he also acknowledged that he had to do things afterwards to really trust in Jesus to save him.

Acts 9:1-6: “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”

In relation, we read in James 2:18-20: “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

There are preachers who say that a dead faith is profitable for salvation, though it is unprofitable otherwise. That is foolish. If they are right, then James would be teaching that even the devils are saved by what he says in James 2:19. The devils are obviously going to hell. The works that must accompany faith, which James chapter 2 is speaking of, are works that show you have embraced the entire package of Biblical Christianity so that it molds your mind and your conduct accordingly. James is not dealing with works of the sacramental system of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, or any other church. Those aren’t spoken of in James chapter 2 nor does the whole counsel of the Bible warrant any of these.

Consider also what Jesus said about the Queen of Sheba and the Ninevites in Jonah along these lines.

Luke 11:31-32: “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”

The Queen of Sheba had made great effort to seek the true God. Jesus commended her for this and said that others who had better opportunity to do so, yet did not do so, would be condemned in relation to her on Judgment Day.

The men of Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching. Jesus commended them for this and said that others who had better opportunity to do so, yet did not do so, would be condemned in relation to them on Judgment Day.

Jonah 3:10: “And God saw their works (i.e. the works of the men of Nineveh), that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil (i.e. the calamity), that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

It is a really good thing that the voices of easy grace preachers who oppose Jesus’ Lordship and deny the need to turn from your sins in order to obtain His grace didn’t prevail in Nineveh. Though many say that no one can really turn from their sins, the Lord’s verdict is that the Ninevites did indeed turn from their sins. God didn’t change by not bringing the calamity on the Ninevites. The Ninevites rather changed in accordance with what He required of them. If a preacher’s message wouldn’t have saved Nineveh from destruction, then it surely cannot save anyone on Judgment Day.

1 Timothy 4:16 says: “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”

The way to eternal life is a path, a narrow path, rather than a one-time transaction. 1 Timothy 4:16, among many other places in the Bible, proves that staying on the path of truth after one has entered it is necessary for salvation. One will really not endure on the narrow way to life if they are not careful to do so in accordance with the Bible’s instructions.

Peter saying yourselves from this untoward generation in Acts 2:40 is utterly different from what many mean when they say that you can save yourself.

Many who claim that you cannot save yourself in the Acts 2:40 sense practically chop that verse out of the Bible- along with all the passages in relation to man’s need to seek the true God, turn from all sin, and diligently obey the Bible in order to really trust in Jesus and be in His grace. They lump those who stand on such verses together with those who are trying to save themselves outside of doing what the Bible prescribes for entering, and continuing on, the narrow way to life in Jesus Christ.