Performing to Please God

I am still dwelling on salvation this week.

Allow me to preach for a minute about salvation. The many CrossPointers who read this blog should be familiar with these thoughts.

Salvation is all of God and none of us. We are not saved by what we DO for God; we are saved by what Christ DID for us. We are saved by God’s grace and by what He did for us through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to be saved. If we are saved by what we do or by what we do combined with what Christ did for us, then salvation is based on works. The Bible is very clear—salvation is not by works, so that no one may boast.

With that truth in mind, I must ask this question: if we are not saved by our performance, then why do we, as believers, revert back to performance to please God in our Christian life?

While wrestling with this question today, I am reminded of Martin Luther’s timely comment about salvation:

People don't earn God's approval or receive life and salvation because of anything they've done. Rather, the only reason they receive life and salvation is because of God's kindness through Christ. There is no other way.

Many Christians are tired of hearing this teaching over and over. They think that they learned it all long ago. However, they barely understand how important it really is. If it continues to be taught as truth, the Christian church will remain united and pure — free from decay. This truth alone makes and sustains Christianity. You might hear an immature Christian brag about how well he knows that we receive God's approval through God's kindness and not because of anything we do to earn it. But if he goes on to say that this is easy to put into practice, then have no doubt he doesn't know what he's talking about, and he probably never will. We can never learn this truth completely or brag that we understand it fully. Learning this truth is an art. We will always remain students of it, and it will always be our teacher.

The people who truly understand that they receive God's approval by faith and put this into practice don't brag that they have fully mastered it. Rather, they think of it as a pleasant taste or aroma that they are always pursuing. These people are astonished that they can't comprehend it as fully as they would like. They hunger and thirst for it. They yearn for it more and more. They never get tired of hearing about this truth.

I don’t know about you, but I yearn more and more each week to learn more about my salvation through Jesus Christ. One result of this desire is that I try to preach more and more each week about our salvation through Jesus Christ. Just for this week, this is what I have learned: if we are saved by what Christ DID for us, then we should live by what Christ DID for us.

WOW!