What does First B Jackson teach about salvation by grace?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on salvation by grace starts with an honest look at where most people actually are. Brad Yates has described his own situation before the gospel landed on him: he attended church, gave in the offering, prayed when he needed something, and would have rated his confidence of getting to heaven a seven out of ten. That answer, he explained, revealed that he was treating salvation like scales of justice, hoping enough good deeds would tip the outcome in his favor. The problem, Brad has argued, is that any sin at all removes a person from the presence of God, the way any metal in a microwave causes a problem. The dose does not make the poison. No accumulation of good works can correct that, which means grace has to come from entirely outside us.
The picture Brad returns to is a swimmer caught in a riptide who has exhausted every ounce of strength and finally stops fighting so the lifeguard can reach him. That, he has said, is the shape of saving faith: not a contribution but a surrender. Faith is what grace awakens in a person, the way the prodigal son came to his senses in the pigsty and remembered he had a father. And even that faith is itself a gift, which means there is no credit due to the one who opens it, only to the one who gave it. Pastor James, preaching through Titus 3, pressed the same point from a different angle: the distinction between grace and mercy matters here. Grace is receiving something good you do not deserve. Mercy is not receiving the punishment you do deserve. Both are in play in salvation, and neither has anything to do with human effort.
Where the teaching at First B Jackson is especially direct is on the order of things. Grace comes first, then faith, then works, and that order is non-negotiable. Works flow from faith, and faith flows from grace. Reverse the sequence and you get either a self-righteous person looking down on others or an anxious person unsure whether they have done enough. Brad has pointed to Galatians 2:20 as the compressed version of the whole argument, and both he and Pastor Mike Demetrius have been careful to say that the practices of the Christian life, prayer, scripture, serving, loving others, belong in a second bag that is real and important, but they must never be confused with what is in the first bag. Forgiven people make it into heaven, not good people.
Taught from Ephesians 2:8-10 · Romans 6:23 · Galatians 2:20 · Titus 3:1-11 · Galatians 5
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 5
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2 You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 1, 2025 Grace, Faith, Works Brad Yates walks through Ephesians 2:8-10, showing why grace comes first, faith follows, and good works flow from both rather than earning what God freely gives.
- June 1, 2025 Grace Through Faith: It Is a Gift Brad Yates opens Ephesians 2:8-10 to show that salvation comes by grace through faith alone, and that good works flow from that gift, never the other way around.
- June 1, 2025 By Grace, Through Faith A Wyoming pastor walks through Ephesians 2:8-10, showing why salvation comes by grace through faith alone and how genuine good works flow from that gift.
- June 4, 2023 Pack Up Youth pastor Mike Demetrius unpacks what truly matters as graduation season arrives: salvation by grace through faith is the one essential every person needs, at every stage of life.
- September 20, 2022 Monday Night @ First B Sept 19th Pastor Karl speaks on the book of Phillipians Carl walks through Philippians 2:12-30, showing how obedience, joy and care for one another flow from what God has already done for us in Christ.
- August 5, 2018 Not Because of Works Done by Us Titus 3 shows that God saved us by mercy and grace, not our works, and calls believers to gentleness, good works, and unity with all people.
Mentioned along the way
- June 4, 2023 Pack the Essentials Michael Demetrius shows graduating seniors and their church family what belongs in the essential "backpack" for life: salvation by grace through faith, and walking daily with God.