Friday, January 25, 2019
Ephesians 2:8-9 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.
REMEMBER WHO RESCUED YOU AND HOW!
Imagine for a moment that you have been thrown from a moving vehicle off a cliff and manage to grab and 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. It would be true to 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 undeserved kindness by means of faith. He 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 the gift of faith, which is the golden rope that connects us to our Savior. So we surely ought not boast of our ability to hang on, but glorify God for rescuing us. You and I were rescued by God without our aid. It was not by our works, not of our doing.
No man ought to brag of taking what is a gift graciously given by God.
Still, 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?" (As if my doing good would result in good coming to me, but doing evil would result in evil.) We are tempted to classify ourselves and others as "Good Christians" because of the things we do and see others do!
It's the gift of faith in Christ that makes us Christians, and that faith clings to Christ who makes us acceptable to God.
