Saved through faith

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The Christian is saved through the gift of faith

Paul then adds that this grace comes through faith – and in case you are then tempted to think it is, after all, all a matter of what we do, he adds and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Even faith itself - putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, leaning on him – is a gift from God. Faith is more a matter of the means by which God's grace is received.

If I drink a milkshake with a straw I don't say I'm drinking the straw – I'm drinking the milkshake through the straw. The milkshake is the thing not the straw.

If I say to you “come and see me” I will tell you my address and you will knock on my door and I will open the door to you. The knocking on the door and the door are important but quite incidental really. It is just the means to the end.

In case there is any confusion, however, Paul says that even faith is a gift from God. You can't have it unless God grants it to you. It really is all of God's grace. The through faith is important though. To have faith is to believe. It is to put your trust in.

No hybrids

Do not make the mistake of thinking you can have a hybrid sort of Christianity. You know how these days you can have a petrol or diesel car or you can have an electric one but then you can also have a hybrid, petrol and electric. The false teachers were arguing for a hybrid form of Christianity. You may be able to have a hybrid car but a hybrid Christianity will not work. If it is based on law at all then it will be all law and Christ and grace will be pushed out.

Christ all the way

Gaatians 5:3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. When you start to rely on something like circumcision or baptism or confession or prayer then you are opening the door to a completely different way of thinking about salvation. You are basically saying that you think that you can be saved by law, by obeying certain rules. Now the way the law works, you have to obey everything it says. You cannot pick and choose what you are going to follow. You cannot say, I like circumcision but not keeping the ten commandments; I like church on Sundays but not the other commandments. No, if that is the way you want to go it has to be a total obedience.

Say you were going to a place and as far as you could see there were two ways to get to it – the one way was a straight road leading all the way from your city to your destination and the other a route that went along back roads and lanes and involved catching buses and trains. You could not start on one route and then suddenly switch to the other. You would have to choose your route and then stick to it. There would be no room for chopping and changing. And so with being a Christian – you cannot begin with circumcision and then turn to Christ – you must begin with Christ, go on with Christ and end with him. Christ all the way.

Is passing the entrance exam enough or not?

Imagine you wanted to study medicine at a certain university. Imagine you made enquiries and they said that as long as you pass the entrance examination then you can go to that university to do medicine and say you passed the entrance examination. "I'm in!" you think. "I'm okay". But then they say, yes, but you also need three A*s at A level or you need to be interviewed as well to see if we like you or whatever. That would not be right. Either passing the entrance examination is enough or it is not enough. The false teachers in Galatia were saying, yes, faith in Christ saves but there are these other things you need to do as well. There is a plus. The truth is either Christ is enough or Christ is not enough.

How are you saved? By Christ or by Christ plus something else? We must know it is by Christ alone.

A sinking boat and salvation

Philippians 3:8 I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage.

This is one thing that is so difficult for some to understand. It is automatic for us to put our trust where we shouldn't – in our prayers, in our knowledge, in our good deeds. Such confidence will save no-one. Who cares if you were on the cradle roll or if you went to Sunday School or Christian school or camps or conferences if you you don't trust in Jesus Christ? What good is there in being a Baptist but not a Christian, Reformed but not converted, a person who does his quiet time every day but has not come to faith? Or for that matter, being the prime minister or a king or queen, winning a Nobel prize or captaining England?

They are absolutely worthless when it comes to saving anyone. It is not that we despise such things and nothing more but we despise them as far as their being a means of salvation is concerned. Think of a man in a sinking boat. Paul himself was in one on more than one occasion. In Acts 27 we read of how they jettisoned the cargo first and then even the ship's tackle (the mechanisms for raising and lowering the sails), as important as that would normally be, in an effort to lighten the ship. When you are in a sinking boat you are willing to sacrifice everything, as long as you can get safely to shore. Everything gets thrown overboard. That is how it is if we want to be saved.