Yes, it’s true! There’s no place in the New Testament where anyone is told to “trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.” That is a modern “Christian” cliche’. If you continue reading, you will soon understand why, at best, it is very poor advice, and at worst, it is heresy.
Yes, Jesus did say from the cross just before He died, “It is finished.” But He certainly wasn’t referring to His saving work. He still had plenty of work to do, not the least of which was to rise from the dead, then appear numerous times to His disciples over a period of forty days, then ascend to heaven, and then sit down at the right hand of God.
Beyond those things, Jesus has been working to save people ever since. Luke wrote in the first verse of the book of Acts that his Gospel account was about “all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1, emphasis added). In the book of Acts, Luke recorded what Jesus continued doing—through His servants. Mark wrote: “The Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed” (Mark 16:20, emphasis added). Jesus was still working to save people.
And there is still more. Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us (John 14:3). That must have required some work. And, in heaven He intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34). That has been part of His saving work for the past 2,000 years. When people repent and believe in Him, He comes to live in them to empower them to be holy and blameless so they will be ready to stand before Him. All of that, too, is certainly part of His saving work.
So, what was finished on the cross? Scripture doesn’t say, but it would seem reasonable to think that His sacrificial suffering was finished, since He said, “It is finished” with His final breath (see John 19:30).
When people say, however, “Just trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross,” they don’t mean, “Trust that Jesus’ sacrificial suffering was finished on the cross.” They generally mean, “If you are worrying that you may not be on the path to eternal life because of your continued sinning, then you are not trusting in Jesus, but rather you are trusting in your works. So, trust that everything that was needed for your salvation was accomplished by Jesus on the cross, and realize that your works have nothing to do with your salvation because it is all by God’s unconditional grace.”
But all of that is wrong on so many levels—according to hundreds of New Testament passages. A book could be written filled with the evidence. I am tempted to ask people who make such statements, “Is the New Testament in your Bible?”
First, as I’ve already pointed out, everything that was needed for our salvation was not accomplished by Jesus on the cross. Part of our salvation was accomplished by Jesus rising from the dead. Paul wrote that, if Jesus was not resurrected, we are still in our sins (see 1 Cor. 15:17). Scripture teaches that Jesus is risen in everyone who believes in Him, and He indwells them, giving them the power (but not forcing them) to live obediently in order to achieve “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). To that end, Paul wrote:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:4).
So, instead of telling people that “Jesus did it all, so you don’t have to do anything,” why don’t we tell them the truth that Jesus’ resurrection and indwelling makes it possible for them to live free from slavery to sin? And that salvation is more than a stamp of forgiveness, but is also a transformation of one’s life and behavior?
Second, we are not saved by believing in a doctrine about what Jesus did on the cross. We are saved by believing in a Person, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). If He is not your Lord, you don’t believe in Him, because He is Lord. If you have never repented of your rebellion against God and started obeying Him, you have not yet been born again. You don’t actually believe in Him. All you have done is carved an idol and named it “Jesus.”
Third, we are repeatedly warned in the Gospels and New Testament Epistles that ultimate salvation carries a standard of obedience. That is biblically inescapable. Those who claim otherwise can only be grossly ignorant or incredibly dishonest. The Lord Jesus Himself plainly warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21). Jesus said those words near the end of a sermon in which He repeatedly revealed the will of His Father in heaven—the Sermon on the Mount.
Paul similarly warned the believers in Corinth: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
So, if a professing Christian says, “I’m a Christian, but I’m having sex with my girlfriend, and I’m afraid that if I died tonight, I may not make it into heaven,” would it be right to respond, “Brother, we aren’t saved by works, but by grace through faith. So don’t put your trust in your performance. Trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross”?
Obviously, that would be horrible advice. And it would also be heretical, since it blatantly contradicts what the New Testament repeatedly affirms about a very significant issue, namely that sexually immoral people will not inherit God’s kingdom (see also Matt. 5:27-30; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5).
Better advice would be to warn him that his sexually immorality is sure proof that He does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will definitely prevent him from inheriting God’s kingdom. And it might not hurt to warn him that sexual immorality is not the only damning sin, according to the New Testament. If he’s having sex with his girlfriend, chances are that he is committing other damning sins. He needs to repent, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, be born again, and then “walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh,” striving to be “holy and blameless,” to borrow an oft-mentioned New Testament phrase. (By the way, if genuine Christians are capable of committing sexual immorality, which they are of course, then they are also obviously capable of forfeiting inheriting God’s kingdom.)
If you think that what I have just described is “salvation by works,” you don’t yet understand the most fundament tenants of the gospel. Salvation is by grace, through faith. Saving grace is obviously conditional, and the condition is faith. And faith obeys (see Rom. 1:5; 16:26). It is so simple that anyone can understand it. Only those who “love the darkness” remain willfully blind to it. So much so, that they will build fortresses of false doctrines to prevent any light from penetrating. Don’t join them in their self-deception!
