By Grace Through Faith

One of the most important things about christianity is its careful understanding of the difference between grace and good works. At 24 Church we often emphasize the difference between a gospel-centered approach to God and a religious-centered approach to God. To put it simply: the gospel has the power to save us, but religion can only damn us.

In Ephesians 2:8-9, the Apostle Paul says:

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

How are we saved? We are saved by grace through faith, not through works. In other words, we don’t try to work our way to God. We’re not trying to be good people, hoping that at the end of our lives we will have done enough good things and because of this God will allow us into heaven. That’s religion. And all the world’s religions basically teach some form of this. They say, if you believe the right things, or do the right things, or experience the right things, then the deity will be pleased and you will receive salvation. You have to work. And because of your work, salvation is granted.

But the Bible teaches that this is not how we are saved. We’re not saved because of anything that we do. Instead, we’re saved based on what Jesus has done for us. He lived the life we should have lived. He died the death we deserved to die. He rose again and defeated death. And he offers us his life, death, and resurrection in exchange for our imperfect lives.

Look again at Ephesians 2:8-9. What does it say? It says we’re saved by grace through faith. This means that we inherit new life in Jesus (salvation), by God’s grace, through the medium of our faith. To be given grace means that we are given something we don’t deserve. In this case, God’s grace gives us salvation (which we don’t deserve because we are law-breakers / rebellious / sinful people). And we accept this freely offered gift of grace through faith in Jesus. Faith means trusting in something or someone when we can’t see or know everything. We can know a lot about Jesus, but we can’t absolutely prove him. We have to accept him, and what he’s done for us, by faith. This is the gospel. We don’t earn our salvation, we are given salvation by faith.

So, let’s rest in what Jesus has accomplished for us. God doesn’t love us more or less based on how well we’re keeping the rules. He loves us because He loves us. So pursue relationship with him! The God of the universe has done all the hard work to bring us to himself! He wants to know us. He calls us sons and daughters. Let’s spend time with Dad.

- Ben