The Way to Salvation

How do we repay grace that is immeasurable and has no end?  How do we repay grace that is of greater value than a life time of accumulation of the world's gold and silver?  How do we repay a grace so sufficient and far reaching that it covers all the sin we could possibly commit with a covering of mercy and forgiveness?  There was a time when the foolishness of youthful years and beginning faith caused me to think that with enough service and good deeds I could balance the scales with the Christ's sacrifice on the cross on one side and my good life on the other.

 

And while greater men than I have walked that dead end road, including the likes of the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther, and John Wesley, my foolishness in those years surely places me in the category of history's greatest all time fool.  What God has done for us through Christ on the cross cannot be repaid.  It is a gift greater than all my sins, and yours, and all the rest of humanity.  It is a precious gift of divine grace that saves me and you and nothing else.  The Apostle Paul declared this truth powerfully when he wrote, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast."  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

In the letter to the Galatians the Apostle spoke against the heresy that something is needed for salvation in addition to faith in Jesus and here he proclaims the bankruptcy of any system of righteousness based on what we do instead of what God has done and is doing.  There is no salvation by right and decent living.  If there was such a salvation, Jesus would not have willingly walked to the cross.  He went out of love, but He always went because He knew what we are slow to learn.  There is no other way to once again be at one with God except through this saving act of shedding blood on a cross.