{"id":119,"date":"2026-01-29T14:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/?p=119"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:45:10","slug":"greenhouses-and-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/greenhouses-and-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenhouses and Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith . . .\u201d (Ephesians 2:8, NKJV).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why is a greenhouse full of light? One answers, \u201cBecause it is made of glass.\u201d Another replies, \u201cBecause the sun is shining.\u201d The two answers are not contradictory; they simply approach the question from different angles. Cover the glass, and the greenhouse will be dark even at high noon; but at midnight the greenhouse will be dark no matter how much glass it has.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What saves sinners? One answers, \u201cGod\u2019s grace.\u201d Another replies, \u201cWe\u2019re saved by faith.\u201d A third says, \u201cWe must obey the gospel to be saved.\u201d All three are correct. The ultimate source of salvation is God\u2019s grace (Ephesians 2:8). But the sunshine of God\u2019s grace radiates through the glass of trusting obedience (Mark 16:16; Hebrews 5:9). Sadly, multitudes of sincere people utterly reject the third answer (obedience), mistakenly thinking that it contradicts the first two (grace and faith).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In particular, most religious people reject the necessity of baptism for salvation. Erroneously viewing baptism as a work of merit, they think it detracts from God\u2019s grace. Baptism, however, is like the glass in a greenhouse. It does not, of itself, provide salvation. Without God\u2019s grace and your trust in Jesus, you could be immersed until you wrinkled up like a prune, but you would remain utterly lost. On the other hand, God ordained believer\u2019s baptism as one of the conditions for receiving His grace. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Peter said baptism is \u201cfor the remission of sins\u201d (Acts 2:38), and that it saves us (1 Peter 3:21).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is baptism a \u201csacrament\u201d that produces salvation? Absolutely not! Nor does glass originate light. \u2018But glass is still necessary for the greenhouse to be illuminated. And baptism is still necessary for sinners to receive God\u2019s gracious gift of eternal life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s teach and practice the truth about the most important question of all: \u201cWhat must I do to be saved?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\r \t
\r \t\t\r \t\t\"\"<\/a>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\tSend article as PDF<\/span>\r \t\t  <\/span>\r \t\t\r \t\t\r \t<\/form>\r <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith . . .\u201d (Ephesians 2:8, NKJV). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why is a greenhouse full of light? One answers, \u201cBecause it is made of glass.\u201d Another replies, \u201cBecause the sun is shining.\u201d The two answers are not contradictory;…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… Greenhouses and Salvation<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}