Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [147] Only By Grace
The Muddy Victorian Path
Today's Devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers
The story is told of a journeyman who sets out on a moonless night walk to a big city. Muddy ditches formed by horse cart wheels are filled with water, so little by little his clothes become fouled with Victorian grime.
But he does not really notice it without moonlight.
Ah, but then the light of the big city begins to illuminate his clothes and he realizes, the closer he gets to the city, just how dirty he really is. And the more he sees his dirt the more he tries to rid himself of it, but alas he arrives at the city soiled by the journey of life.
So too, the Christian journey. Before we are converted, we think we are good, we think we are righteous. Then the light of the heavenly city, the illumination of the Holy Spirit makes us realize we are sinners.
And the closer we get to heaven the clearer we see all our sin. And it's not a pretty sight. So the more we try to put to death, by the Spirit, the misdeeds of the flesh.
But all the way to heaven's pearly gate we will be caked in the grime of sin. In God's eyes made righteous through his Son's perfect life, and by his death forgiven, but still, in practice, at the very gate of the heavenly city, a sinner saved by grace.
Every believer should enjoy the comfort of our memory verse today:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)
Faith vs Works
The instinctive impulse of every fallen human being is "I can get right with God with good works." It's where all religion comes from - human self-righteousness. We can't accept our inability to get right with God. We can do something to gain God's favour. Count beads, climb a mountain on our knees, pray, go to church, whatever!
But since the best of our works is as filthy rags in the eyes of God, earning our salvation just can't be done. The only way we can be put right with God is if God does something, and he has! By his wonderful grace he has taken away our sins and clothed us in the righteousness of his Son! These salvation gifts then provide the motive for living a humble righteous life in the power of God's Spirit: but we will never become more than a pale shadow of what we should be and what we will be in the world to come.
Purely by faith
The point Paul wants to make so forcefully in this verse is that the gift of God's grace comes to us by faith, by merely believing. So much is salvation a gift, he says, that even the faith with which we first believe is itself a gift!
Salvation is a gift.
The faith by which we take hold of that salvation is also a gift!
So we contribute zero to our salvation.
So we cannot boast in our glorious and full salvation, because we have contributed nothing to it, not even believing in it!
And so we do not need to fret about the security of our salvation when we let the Lord down, for our works, past, present and future contribute nothing to our salvation!
Summing it all Up
Once we know that salvation is all of God, it frees us from the fallen religious impulse to perform. We want to live godly lives because of the grace of God, but we know that at the end of the day, nothing we have done contributes to salvation - that, Jesus has paid, in full.
Like the Victorian traveller of old, the longer we travel on this road, the more we will see our sin. We might even think we are becoming worse sinners as the days go by! We aren't, but it might seem that way; it's just that the light of the city, the knowledge of God's holiness is illuminating new and untouched sinful areas of our lives, which God in his mercy did not illuminate the day we first believed.
Let us daily rejoice in the pure gift of salvation! And respond to the unmerited gift of God by living a holy life pleasing to God.
"For
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can
boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)
A SONG FOR THE DAY Our song for the day rejoices in this wonderful truth.
Only By Grace Can We Enter
Only By Grace Can We Stand
Not By Our Human Endeavor
But By The Blood Of The Lamb
Into Your Presence You Call Us
You Call Us To Come
Into Your Presence You Draw Us
And Now By Your Grace We Come
Now By Your Grace We Come
Lord If You Mark Our Transgressions
Who Will Stand
Thanks To Your Grace
We Are Cleansed By The Blood Of The Lamb, Precious Lamb
Lord If You Mark Our Transgressions
Who Will Stand
Father Thanks To Your Grace
We Are Cleansed By The Blood Of The Lamb
Only By Grace Can We Enter
Only By Grace Can We Stand
Not By Our Human Endeavor
But By The Blood Of The Lamb
Into Your Presence You Call Us
You Call Us To Come
Into Your Presence You Draw Us
And Now By Your Grace We Come
Now By Your Grace We Come
We acknowledge our sin to you and freely confess our iniquities. We realize, the closer we reach the gates of heaven how sinful we are in thought, speech and actions.
We thank you that salvation comes to us as a free gift of your grace. We thank you that we do not need to do any religious works to be accepted but merely need to believe in the name of Jesus.
Keep us from spiritual pride and help us to walk humbly with our God, all the days of our lives.
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