Devotionals

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“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ~ Ephesians 2:8-10 (NAS)

If you’ve been a Christian for long, or even if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard the ticket analogy of salvation. Salvation is like a winning lottery ticket that you find in your front yard. You receive it freely, but you still have to cash it in. This implies that we
have some part in our salvation. We have to do something in order to receive the rewards. In this analogy “cashing it in” would be faith. We must have faith in Jesus Christ and His ability to save us. When we acknowledge that only He can save us, that is faith. That acknowledgement and faith is our part of salvation. Makes sense – right?

In an attempt to be more diligent in my memorization, I put Ephesians 2:8-10 up in my kitchen this week. I look at it when I am feeding the kids or cleaning up afterwards. I read it while I eat. It is a wonderful presence and reminder of my new goal. It may have been the constant reading or it, or simply noticing the punctuation … God used this to teach me something new.

We have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation.

I proclaim just as loudly as the next Baptist that salvation is a free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn our ticket to Heaven. But then when really tested on this, we hem and haw over the technicalities. Well, you do have to believe. You have to ask Jesus to be your Savior. You have to confess your sins and ask forgiveness. But other than that … well, and then you really should live a pure life. You need to look like a Christian, not just talk like one. But salvation is free!

I am not a legalist. Really. I firmly do believe that salvation is completely without merit. It is by mercy and grace alone that we may be called heirs of Christ. I just have difficulty defending this sometimes. Until now.

Look between the dashes. It says: “and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Whenever reading this verse, I thought this phrase referred to the grace. Read the whole verse again. This refers to the FAITH.

Yes, our salvation is by grace – obviously given by God – through faith, which is also given by God. How cool is that! We don’t even have to cash in our tickets. God gives us the faith we need and He requires. It is all a work of God! And the apostle goes on to tell us just that in the next verse: “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus …” God has created us. He gave His Son for us. Through grace He gives us salvation which we may accept through faith – which He also gives us. But there is still more: He created us to do good works. Even those good works have already been prepared BY HIM for us to do.

All this is just more fuel for His glory. May our praise to Him echo like thunder throughout all eternity!

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