The parable of the sower:
Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured
them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not
much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of
earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and
because they had no root, they withered away. And some
fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But
other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some
sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let
him hear.
Matthew 13:3-9
In our local church, I fear the church regularly
over-estimates the possible Christian response. Often I hear that “all
Christians ought to make disciples”. Or worse, I hear that
Christians must follow Jesus before they are truly saved. Recently I read one
claim that now defined “making disciples” as a fruit of the Spirit. Not to be
found in my Bible, but when Christians wax esoteric apparently the impossible
becomes possible.
It seems to come often when we are over-estimating the good
in our fellow Christians—not such a bad thing, I guess. But it is nowhere
accurate. As I have tried to show in these brief sections, Christians are a lot
more broken than is often measured. I have hoped in the illustrations of just
my parents to show that, indeed, grace remains the theme of all salvation.
It was the theme in the last hours of my father’s life—that
he might be saved by believing. It was true in my mother’s life, though she
spent decades without building any discipleship skills. It is true of each and
every person that believes. They encounter the pure grace of God.
Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John 3. He says that as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted
up. The serpent, in the midst of a rapidly spreading plague, was lifted up on a
pole in the center of Israel’s camp. If they had become infected, there
remained one sure cure—they were to look upon the serpent, and in their looking
they would be healed. Jesus went on to explain to Nicodemus, that as it was
with the serpent, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
I do not know how Jesus could have been more plain. There is
nothing else to be added to salvation. It is good as James suggests, that
others should show us their faith by their works, but there is not any
suggestion that this is the basis that God judges us. God only asks that we
believe—much else ought to come from that belief. But it is never
guaranteed to come—it just ought to. The seed is planted with every hope
that it will reproduce many times, but casual observation ought to show that in
many cases, it just is not so. As those who looked in faith on the serpent, so
we are commanded to look and believe that God sent his only Son that we might
have eternal life.
I can almost hear some teachers object that that lets people
off of the hook. They no longer have to do anything for salvation. Exactly! God
in Christ either did everything for us, or else we have no hope. There is no
middle ground.
I remember when Luther first started to pull away from the
Catholics. It was over this very issue. The leaders looked at Luther’s doctrine
of salvation and objected that Luther had made salvation free. They argued that
they would no longer be able to urge the people to earn their favor with God,
now that Luther had taught that grace was free. Exactly! Grace comes without
cost to us of any kind. The least suggestion that we must do such and such puts
us in the same boat as Luther’s critics: that salvation must have a cost or we
will never be able to force people to follow us.
I would carry the boat analogy a bit further. Imagine that
our lives are that boat, and if it capsizes all is lost, for we are way out in
the sea. In our belief, God offers us the bucket of salvation, Jesus, that
quickly saves us from capsizing. Now imagine that some of us pull out our
thimbles and begin emptying the boat with them. Then we claim that without our
help, we would have been lost totally! That analogy, imperfect though it is, is
exactly what we do when we bring our “thimbles” before God, pretending that we
have helped God in our own salvation. How insulting that must be to God! He
gave us Jesus freely to save and rescue us from everything. But we insist our
thimbles are essential. How great is our folly!
Eternal life is given to us, not by works, but by grace. The
mathematical formula for this would be eternal life = belief in Jesus +
nothing. To add our thimbles, whatever they may be, is only to show our lack of
belief in what God has already and completely done. To those who are still
skeptical about this plan of God not working—I would just point out that it has
worked very well for two thousand years. Involving sinful man in effecting
salvation only ruins what God has done.
14 And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:14,15
Chafer’s Corner:
God cannot propose to do less in grace for one who is
sinful than He would have done had that one been less sinful. Grace is never
exercised by Him in making up what may be lacking in the life and character of
a sinner. In such a case, much sinfulness would call for much grace, and little
sinfulness would call for little grace. The sin question has been set aside
forever, and equal exercise of grace is extended to all who believe.
Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Grace (p. 7). Biblos Project. Kindle Edition.
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