Thursday, January 10, 2008
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
UNDESERVED KINDNESS
Imagine for a moment that you have been thrown from a moving vehicle off a cliff and you cling to a scraggly bush that has grown between the rocks on the face of the cliff. Death is inevitable. If you summon all your strength, you will be able to hang on for a time, but eventually you will tire and fall to your death.
Suddenly, someone appears overhead who kindly unwinds a rope and lowers it down to you. Since you have no strength to pull yourself up, he pulls you up and rescues you from certain death. We might say that it was undeserved kindness on the part of your rescuer that saved you by means of a rope.
Did He save you because of your goodness? NO, rather because He was kind.
Were you saved by your own actions? NO, he pulled you up and rescued you.
YOU have nothing of which to boast, do you? Nope, not a thing.
So we are told here that God rescued us out of His undeserved kindness by means of faith. God didn't rescue us because of our goodness or kindness, but out of the abundance of His own love. God didn't throw us down a rope so we might save ourselves, but rescued us by means of faith, which is the golden rope that connects us to our Savior. We don't boast in our ability to hang on, but glorify God for rescuing us. You and I were rescued by God without our aid, it was not of works, not of our doing. No man can brag of taking what is a gift graciously given by God.
Yet how often don't we imagine that God deals with us based upon what we do for him? When sickness or disease or death comes suddenly, people ask: "Why, what did I do to deserve this?" It's faith in Christ that makes us Christians, and faith that clings to Christ that renders us acceptable to God.
However, God has rescued us for a purpose. He has made us His own dear children by faith so that we use our hands, hearts and mouths for Him.
