And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

— Ephesians 1:13

8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,

9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

— Ephesians 2:8-9

6 This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

7 so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

— Titus 3:6-7

But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.

— Matthew 10:33

11 This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;

12 if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;

13 if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

— 2 Timothy 2:11-13

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and salvation from Christ to you.

Another confusion about the gospel is that people must come forward and make public profession. This confusion implies that you must make a verbal public profession of your faith in Christ in order to complete your salvation. If this were required, Christ’s work on the cross to pay for your sins was not enough. To complete your salvation, you would need to add your imperfect work of public confession to His already perfect work of dying for your sins. Christ alone gained our complete salvation. Nothing more can be added to improve on what He did.

It is true, that before God in heaven, you will either receive rewards for publicly confessing Christ or be denied rewards for denying Him, but testifying publicly does not earn or ensure your salvation. It is them very important to understand the proper meaning of 2 Timothy 2:11-12 — It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us. What this verse is saying is that He will deny us rewards, crowns or ruling authority for unfaithfulness, but Hew will not deny us entrance into His kingdom. And in 2 Timothy 2:13, Paul clearly proclaimed, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown [deny] Himself. Even if we became totally faithless, He would remain faithful to us His children.