What is our part in salvation?

I was having lunch with a friend last week, having the most wonderful conversation about all sorts of topics. At one point, the topic turned to salvation - specifically, what is our part in it? Rebecca had a terrific illustration to share and I want to pass it along to you.

First, think on the story of Lazarus. He and his sisters (Mary and Martha) were dear friends of Jesus. The story can be found in its entirety in John 11, verses 1-45. We shall just focus on the last part but to refresh your memory - here is a summary of what happened to this point:

Lazarus was sick. So sick, in fact, that the sisters sent word to Jesus to come. Scripture is clear to tell us that Jesus loved these siblings and yet, He didn’t come immediately. He stayed where He was. In the meantime, Lazarus died. No one told Him that but He knew because He told His disciples so. By the time He arrived in Lazarus’s village, His friend had been in the tomb for four days. No doubt he was dead. The sisters were understandably sad and, truth be told, maybe even disappointed in Jesus for not coming sooner. Each sister independently states that her brother wouldn’t have died if He had been there! Their pain moves Jesus deeply and Scripture tells us He wept. His love for them was obvious. Let’s let the Word tell us the rest: (John 11:38-45)

 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”  Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”  So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”  When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him,

Lazarus was dead. Dead people can’t do anything. He was helplessly, hopelessly dead.

Jesus calls to him in his deadness. He gives him life.

Lazarus has a choice. In the instant he is given life, technically he could have stayed in the stinking grave. He could have said, thanks but no thanks - I prefer to be dead. So, yes, I suppose he has a choice that is really no choice at all. He is raised from death to life and he responds to that call instantaneously.

That is a true story. And, dear friends, it is a beautiful picture of salvation. We were dead - DEAD - in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). Dead people can’t do anything! They can’t save themselves. They can’t make decisions. They can’t do good works. They can’t impress God. Just as Lazarus was dead in that grave, when we were without Christ, we were dead. DEAD.

Then, Jesus calls us. Not when we decided to come to Him but rather when He decides to come to us. Just like He did with Lazarus. He calls us and imparts life. Our only “role” is to walk out of the grave! Maybe technically we have a “choice” but is it any more of a choice than Lazarus had when he was brought back to life? We were dead. He called us and made us alive. Of course we walked out of that grave!

I hope you, too, have walked out of the grave. That you who once were dead have now been made alive, that you have been called from darkness into His marvelous light. But if you haven’t, then please don’t deceive yourself that you can “make this decision” when you’re ready. You can’t. He is the one doing the choosing. If you have heard His voice, don’t delay. The day you hear that call is the day of salvation.

"It's all grace" - what does that mean, anyway?

Grace.


Amazing grace. How sweet the sound.


Truly.


But what is it, really, and what have we done to it?


Perhaps grace is hard to define. We try and explain it, but we can hardly understand it. So we come up with ways to help us comprehend.

God's unmerited favor.
His Love.
God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
Unconditional love.


All these definitions are true. Thank God!


We cannot earn His favor. He is far more gracious than we can fathom. Far more merciful and kind and generous than anyone can ever deserve.


But I don't think that "mercy" and "forgiveness" are all there is to grace. I often hear Christ-followers excuse their behavior with "grace". And while I don't want to go back to the era of legalism that I went through (which brought not only judgment of others but especially of my own self), I fear that we are in danger of trampling upon the truth of what God's grace is.


We humans tend to such extremes. We either lean waaaaaaay far in the direction of self-sufficiency, as though we can somehow muster up enough good deeds or omit enough bad deeds that we impress God....or we camp out in the land of "it doesn't matter how I live, it's all grace anyway".


Both miss the mark of what grace is.


Yes, grace is unmerited. And absolutely there is nothing too awful to be redeemed by grace. Nothing. But let's take a look at grace to better understand what it is and how God grants it....


My favorite apologist, John Piper defines grace as " the supernatural power of God regenerating us and opening our blind eyes so that we can see Christ for who he really is." Amen.

And when we see Him, I John 3:2 tells us that we shall be like Him! Grace enables us to see the treasure of Christ, to desire Him above all this world has to offer,...and the same power that opens our eyes to that glorious truth also transforms us. Empowers us to obey Him.


So, it is the mercy of God that is willing to withhold from us the punishment we deserve and it is His grace that gives us far more than we could ever earn...but that grace includes our transformation. The power to obey Him. Yes, He lavishes acceptance and blessing and favor --- grace -- upon His people but He tells us that there is more to grace. It's not a public drinking fountain that we can visit from time to time and wash off our guilt or request special treatment.






Humility is a condition of receiving this grace. James 4:4-6 clearly explains not only that God gives grace to the humble but also that cozying up to the world puts us in opposition to God. He gives grace so that we might live according to His Spirit within us.
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
So, you might say, that says there is a condition to receiving grace! I thought God's love was unconditional! Do I have to earn it?
The grace that causes us to be chosen of God before the foundations of the earth - that is completely unconditional. We weren't even around when God us and foreordained that we would be His. He is not responding to our good behavior or our desirability in His choosing us.
But there is grace that is conditional, where He does respond to our behavior - Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’ (1 Peter 5:5). God responds to humility with more grace - grace that transforms us by enabling us to obey His commands.


Let me explain a bit further -
Philippians 2:12,13 says - work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure
Yes, the work of transformation that please God is a result of His working within us...but that does not lessen our responsibility to cooperate with His power and obey His Word - to work out our salvation (not work for it, but work it out from the inside of our spirit to the outside of our soul and body)


Piper puts it this way:


I can flip a switch, but I don’t provide the electricity. I can turn on a faucet, but I can’t make the water flow. There will be no light and no liquid refreshment without someone else providing it.
And so it is, in a limited sense, for the Christian with the ongoing grace of God. His grace is essential for our spiritual lives, but we don’t control the supply. We can’t make the grace flow, but God has given us circuits to connect and pipes to open in case it’s there.
Our God is lavish in his grace, often liberally dispensing his favor without even the least bit of cooperation and preparation on our part. But he also has his regular channels. And we can routinely avail ourselves of these revealed paths of blessing, or neglect them to our detriment.


We can “fight to walk in the paths where he has promised his blessings” (John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God, 43–44


What, then, are these paths? What are the means of availing ourselves of His grace?


Basic, everyday, seemingly unglamorous Christianity - sometimes referred to as "spiritual disciplines" -
Persevering in prayer
Consistent time in His Word
Loving the fellowship of His People
Obeying what He says in His Word


My husband calls it "the blocking and tackling of following Christ".

We put ourselves in the paths of blessing, the place to receive God's favor, the avenue that takes us to a life changed into one of joy and peace and significance when we obey Him. When we respond to His commands with the humility that sees our inability to obey Him and we cry out for His enabling power - His grace.


I exhort us all, dear sisters, not to trample upon His precious grace by thinking we can live anyway our flesh desires and then just continually confess and repeat. Let us not think we can expect the grace of His blessings if we don't go where He says the blessings are to be found.