Jump Start # 1290

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

  I like this verse. It’s simple. It’s plain. It explains how we are saved. Salvation is not of ourselves. Salvation is a gift of God. There is a difference between a purchase and a gift. At weddings, we give the newly married couples a gift. There isn’t an invoice on the item we give. If there was, then it moves from the gift category to the purchased category. The couple would owe us something. There is no owing when it comes to gifts given.

Many have trouble reading this verse as God wrote it. They feel inclined to put qualifiers and an asterisk or footnote on it and then spend pages and pages explaining that we are not saved by Grace alone or only and that we must be baptized to be saved. It seems to me that God, who is smarter than we are, and a much better writer than anyone of us will ever be, would have done that. He didn’t. Maybe God knew that this verse is to be taken with the rest of what He said. Maybe He knew that a careful study of the Bible would show that not everyone is saved. Maybe He knew that when people got to Hebrews 11 and the many “by faith” passages, they would conclude that faith is action and faith moves a person closer to God. Maybe God just knew better than we do.

Grace is hard to understand. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. We are accustomed to the paycheck lifestyle of our society. You go to work, you earn and you benefit. Many are extremely bothered by the number of folks today who do nothing but get government help. Even that isn’t grace, because they have been qualified and approved and it’s not considered a “gift.” We don’t do gifts unless there is a reason. Birthdays, weddings, holidays—and we expect gifts. Christmas isn’t really “gifts” because there is so much pressure to purchase presents for someone else. To have a Christmas without “gifts” would be shocking in most families. Even more difficult is to see gifts given to someone who is not deserving. We may think of giving a mentor a gift for his time. Recently, I’ve been teaching an early morning Bible study with a group of men. At the end of the study they gave me a gift card in appreciation. That was a complete surprise and extremely kind. However, to give a gift to someone who hasn’t done something nice for us, just doesn’t make sense. In fact, we talk ourselves out of that. We do not want to honor bad behavior. We do not want to enable them in wrong. Romans 5:8 states, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait until we cleaned up our act to send Jesus. God didn’t hold Jesus back until we promised to never do wrong again. At the worst time, the Best came. While we were sinners.

When the prodigal came home, he didn’t stop and take a bath first, get a job, earn the money that he wasted and then showed up to his father. Not at all. He came dirty, smelly, broke and hopeless. He was a mess. He was out of options. He was wanting to be back home. He had nothing to show his father that would please him. He had wasted a lifetime of money. He had ruined the family name. He had been irresponsible. He had broken dozens of commands. He did what his father never would have. All he had left, was himself and that was pitiful. He came. He came knowing that he was still loved. He came willing to feed his obnoxious brother, sleep in the barn and forever be a servant. That was good enough for him. His story is our story. That’s how we are. God doesn’t save us because we are so cute and adorable. We are not like the furry little puppies in a pet store. God walks by and He just has to take us home. No, that’s not us. We are the prodigal. Dirty. Smelly. Pig junk under our finger nails. Hair a mess with things in it. Clothes stained and torn. Barefoot. Hungry. Tired. Wrinkled eyes. And that’s just the outside. The inside is worse. Sorry. Guilty. Ashamed. Broken. Miserable. Unhappy. Unholy. Hurting. Disappointed. Embarrassed. Confused. Mad at self. But wanting to be near our Father.

God extends His grace because He chose to love us, even messy as we are. The prodigal did absolutely nothing to earn the family ring back. Common sense would say no to that. I could understand putting sandals on those dirty and worn feet. That’s a nice thing to do. It alone carried volumes of meaning. Servants walked barefoot. Sons wore shoes. This was more than being nice, it was symbolic. However, the ring, not just jewelry, was “The ring.” The signet ring. This was used to make official documents. With this ring, deals could be made. Things could be purchased. It was like giving him dad’s credit card. He hasn’t even reached the house yet, and the father is calling for the ring. He hasn’t proven himself yet. Is he trustworthy? Has he learned any lessons? Will he stay home? The father gave him a gift. It was based upon grace and driven by love. Most of us wouldn’t do that. We’d tend to think it wasn’t wise. Give it some time and we’ll see. We’ll talk about it in a few weeks. Not this father. No waiting. No later. Bring the ring and bring it now.

Grace. We are saved by grace. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is the coming home. Faith is the broken and contrite heart. Faith is willing to be placed in whatever position or status that the father decides. Faith is hoping. Grace is giving.

We are saved by grace. That ought to make us complain less and be more thankful. We are saved by grace, that ought to make us try to be more like the father, and less like the sons. We are saved by grace, that ought to make us love more and judge less. We are saved by grace, that ought to open our arms to God more and worry less about perfection. We are to obey, no question. But obedience is not what saves us, it’s the grace.

Think for a moment about a girl who gets engaged. For months she plans the wedding of a lifetime. Brides magazines everywhere. The right invitations. The right place. The right food. The right dress. The right cake. Why all that? So her boyfriend will love her? He already does. He’s asked her to marry him. She does that because he loves her. So translate that to us. Why do we go to worship? So God loves us? He already does. We do that because He loves us. It pleases Him. We want to do what He wants. That’s were obedience falls in. We are not saved because of perfect attendance, we kept all the commands, but by the grace of God. We do all we can because He loves us so much. This ought to change our thinking. It ought to help us get things straight in our minds and heart.

We are saved by grace through faith. Simply amazing!

Roger