By Which – The Place Of Grace In Salvation (Part 2)

Passage: Ephesians 1:6

“…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

I believe this to be an important reason for God’s choice to order salvation accomplished entirely by grace.  He desired that salvation be entirely divorced from the issue of your merit and my merit.  It is true that we can’t be good enough to warrant or earn God’s blessing and His approval.  However, the issue of merit clouds and confuses the thinking of men.  We tend to think in terms of earning and being due things, including God’s favor.  Now, in regard to human matters, this is not terrible.  However, in regard to spiritual matters, this is problematic, to say the least.

If God blesses us, either in the matter of our justification, or in the matter of our sanctification BECAUSE of our behavior, in any fashion, then it is because we merited that blessing.  It becomes a matter of works and not of grace.  Remember, merit is the opposite of grace, theologically.  This is why Paul asserts, in another place, that which is of works is not of grace. 

We need to reconcile our thinking to this truth and allow it to change the way we think about this matter.  We easily have made this adjustment in the matter of our justification, our initial salvation from the penalty of in.  However, we need to see that it is true in the matter of our sanctification as well.

I am convinced that most believers think of their relationship with god, after salvation, as being entirely (virtually) on a merit basis.  This is not a conscious matter for most, at least I don’t think that it is.  However, effectively, they have put themselves on a works basis with God in their thinking.  Now, we need to remember that is a matter of perception alone.  No man can actually change the way that God works salvation in His people.  Salvation is never on a works basis with any of God’s people, it never has been and it never will be, not really.

However, many believers live as if they were, indeed on a merit basis.  We have confused ourselves, and been more concerned with securing our blessing from God than we are with where and why that blessing comes.  Our Pastors and Bible Teachers (some inadvertently, but some deliberately) reinforce this idea by telling us that we need to be on praying ground, blessing ground, etc. They tell us that we can’t expect God to bless unless we do our part and in so doing cloud the difference between the “why” of God’s blessing and the “means” He uses to bring it about.

We have said that God ordains not only the outcome of His plan, but also the way in which He will accomplish that plan.  His plan includes not only the goals and purposes He will pursue, but also the steps and instruments by which He will accomplish them.  When we say that God CANNOT bless unless…. We communicate the idea that there is some inability with God, and that the real determiner of God’s actions in the world is the will and the submission (or lack of it) in men, and not the power and mighty right arm of God. 

Some will say that this is a small matter and that we are really just splitting hairs.  I very much disagree.  I see this as a very important point, one that is essential to our understanding of how God operates in the world, and one that can prevent us from truly comprehending the God we profess to serve.

We will continue this discussion tomorrow…