“I explained that there was something that I had heard and known for many years and had recently began to bring about new life in my walk. My understanding of this familiar text was renewed.”

Earlier this year, I traveled to another city in the great state of Texas for a work convention. One of my best friends was also in town for business the same week. As two out-of-towners, we got to try out a couple restaurants and catch up at the end of our work days.

Not sure if it was the queso or just the nature of our friendship, but we got into some really rich conversation about work, faith, friendships, and the vague, yet all-encompassing topic of “life”. I want to share just one of the things discussed in that conversation.

The Old Renewed

I explained that there was something that I had heard and known for many years and had recently began to bring about new life in my walk. My understanding of this familiar text was renewed.

Ephesians 2:8-10
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. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

I hope I never grow tired of verses that I hear often. There’s depth to this. It gives you reassurances, keeps you in check, and also promotes a bit of awe and wonder in subtly telling us our value, origin, and our purpose in life. Don’t you see the depth?

But because there is so much depth to those several sentences, I’m only going to talk about just one of those things. The thing that has refreshed my view on God, myself, my accomplishments, and others.

“Keeps You In Check“

I used to read that passage in Ephesians and the immediate takeaway was the reassurance. It is a very concise presentation of the Gospel and Salvation.

“So how are you saved?”
“Through faith. It’s not by works so I don’t get to brag. Faith, not works. Boom – saved.”

We can have faith in something.
We can actually have faith in anything.

We go to college because we have faith that it is better for our careers in the long run. Same with the internships we choose to apply for. Even the people we choose to spend time with… we believe that in some way we are better off because of it.

We orient our lives on whatever faiths we hold close.

Stay with me on this one.

Take Kyrie Irving for example. The NBA player made sure everyone knew that he had faith that the world is flat. And while I’m not completely sure if he was just trolling by keeping this bit going, it’s a harmless example and hilariously inconsequential – minus the jokes made about him here and there.

Here’s a clearer example on different placements of faith and will get closer to what I am trying to get at:

There are two men stranded on an island.
One has faith that he can drink saltwater at the shore.
The other has faith that doing so will actually worsen his already miserable situation, so he drinks from the nearby inland freshwater river.

*Pause*

They can have faith that drinking water from the freshwater river is better than drinking straight from the ocean. Or vice versa. But whichever one is true is only by grace. In other words, it’s not from either of their doing.

Put yourself in the situation of the man who chose the freshwater river. You drink from it and you find life in it!

How silly would it sound that the man who chose correctly felt as if he had a hand in the freshwater lacking saltiness?

We didn’t decide which one is true, we just reaped the benefits of it being true. And by placing faith in something that is true, we are set free from thirst in that scenario.

This makes what John wrote “the truth shall set you free” come to life.

In the same way, we can have faith in Jesus Christ, but what truly saves us isn’t our faith. At least not anymore than having faith that saltwater hydrates the thirsty more than freshwater.

I hope that doesn’t sound offensive or heretical. I actually think its the same idea that Paul conveys to the Corinthians. In chapter 15 verse 17, the Apostle Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

“For By Grace“

I am not, and I don’t believe Paul is, trying to discount faith in the salvation equation. Grace is not an excuse for inaction nor a copout on accountability.
Faith is actively involved in salvation. It is absolutely necessary. But Jesus being who He said He is quenches that thirst. It is the grace that validates our faith into our salvation.

The distinct beauty of Christianity is that our God came down on His own accord. He pursued us. And instead of telling us a way to heaven, He gave himself: the way to heaven. Hence “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Do you see the difference between this faith and every other world religion? Even being a Christian is a gift from God! And being a Christian tells others much more about the God we worship than the inherent goodness of you or me. Just look to the old hymn:

“Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.”

Freedom

I hope you don’t sense that there isn’t an application or that we are getting lost in the weeds. It goes so much further than just reading your Bible differently.

Even in a faith / religious context, it can be easy to put the focus on ourselves. This understanding allows us to take our eyes off ourselves and set our eyes on things above. To set our eyes on Him.

It’s like what I mentioned earlier from John: FREEDOM. We don’t have to put up a facade of success. Of superior morality, either. We can be happy for our fellow colleague. It sincerely leads to shackles being broken. To being set free. And isn’t that why Christ came down? To free the world of our ways and redeem our relationship with Him and with others.

It produces spiritual awe, wonder, and gratitude in your soul.

This understanding should lead to the Spirit prodding us to point to Christ in all that we do. Just as Jesus points to the Father. Those are gracious whispers. As a Christian, I can’t lay claim for much in my life. And that just means I get to “boast in my weakness” and make much of Jesus. What a gift.

I suppose my renewed understanding of this old text is a dim allusion to what Christ does with us. He is making us new over and over again. More and more like Him over time.

Drowning in grace,
JW

Philippians 3:12-14
¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

“It is not the strength of your faith,
but the object of your faith
that actually saves you.”
– Timothy Keller