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He is able
Christians know that salvation comes by grace, through faith, and not by
works. Many think of it as sort of an equation: Salvation equals grace plus
faith. The idea is that God provides the grace, and we humans provide the
faith, and the result is salvation.
That might be an interesting sounding equation, but that’s not the
gospel, and that’s not how salvation works.
If salvation depended in any way on our faith, none of us would be saved;
because we all know, if we’re honest with ourselves, that our faith is
frightfully weak at times.
The gospel is not that God will give us salvation IF we have good enough
faith; the gospel tells us that Christ has, in himself, already secured our
salvation, and then tells us to believe what is already true for us.
Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-4, “Since, then, you have been raised
with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the
right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ,
who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
(NIV)
Theologian and pastor Elmer Colyer once related a story about a
California man in Northern Wisconsin who found himself needing to cross a
frozen lake one winter. New to the state, and not familiar with how to read
the ice, the man spread himself out on his belly and with a pounding,
fearful heart, he inched his way across the lake. At every moment, he
worried that the ice might break and he would fall through into the deadly
cold water below. At last, after a good deal of time and anxiety, he made it
safely to the other side.
Immensely relieved, he stood up and looked back across the lake, only to
see a team of horses pulling a large sled heavily loaded with logs descend
at a fast pace onto the pond, rumble across it, and continue its way up the
other shore without breaking stride.
You see, Dr. Colyer said, it wasn’t the quality of the faith of the two
men that kept them safe on the ice, it was the quality of the ice. One man
was terrified and one man was fully confident, but the ice was exactly the
same for both of them.
When our confidence is in Christ himself, who is our life, instead of in
our own faith or obedience, then our hearts can truly rejoice in peace, for
he alone is our salvation.
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.
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