Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
A couple of weeks ago (June 13) we sent out a devotional in which the author, Robert J. Wieland, wrote about a book "entitled The Glad Tidings by Ellet J. Waggoner, a verse-by-verse study of Galatians." He said, "The light broke through the clouds when I read [the] little book."
This week many of you are beginning a three-month study of the book of Galatians, so we would like to make you aware of the availability of The Glad Tidings at: http://www.cfibookdivision.com/ This is an excellent companion to the current study.
Following, for today's devotional, is an excerpt from the book.
The Gospel Is Not Magic
There is nothing in this world that can confer grace and righteousness upon men, and there is nothing in the world that any man can do that will bring salvation. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not the power of man.
Any teaching that leads men to trust in any object, whether it be an image, a picture, or anything else, or to trust for salvation in any work or effort of their own, even though that effort be directed toward the most praiseworthy object, is perversion of the truth of the gospel--a false gospel. There are in the church of Christ no "sacraments" that by some sort of magical working confer special grace on the receiver; but there are deeds that a man who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who is thereby justified and saved, may do as an expression of his faith.
"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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10, KJV, margin. This is "the truth of the gospel," and it was for this that Paul stood. It is the gospel for all time. --Ellet J. Waggoner (pp. 33, 34).
