by Richard Mansel

Salvation is the most desirable thing and we are helpless to find it on our own (Romans 3:23). Isaiah 59:2-3a says, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood." In order to obtain this salvation we have to find our way back to God.

Romans 5:6 says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." In Romans 6:3-4 and Galatians 3:27, we obey his will when we are immersed into his body. Grace gives us that privilege. Ephesians 2:8-9, "for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Joseph Thayer says that "through" refers to the "Means or Instrument by which anything is effected" and "because what is done by means of a person or thing seems to pass as it were through the same." Grace is free and undeserved, yet only through faith can we obtain this special gift.

If grace is the room we enter, faith is the hallway to its entrance. We must pass through it before God will bestow this grace on us. His gift is so special that he has no reason to give it to someone who does not believe he is the Lord (John 3:16). Because it is bestowed on us, we have no right to boast of our worthiness.

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

"Walk" is significant in that it "denotes the state in which one is living." Paul is saying that we exist in a state of service to God. He has created a place for us to work and serve him. Our focus is no longer on us, but on him. Our purpose is to bring glory to him as we work in his vineyard.

The argument for grace or works is framed with ourselves in the spotlight. What do we have to do or not do? Instead, we should turn our eyes upward and say, "What can I do for him?" We exist in his world, we have been washed by his Son's blood, walk in his kingdom and all we can think about is "what do we have to do?"

We come humbly to him and act like a servant doing the will of his Master. He asks us to do certain things and we do them out of gratitude and purpose. These works do not save us because 2:8-9 tells us that grace does. However, these works must be fruit in a life lived for him. The absence of these works means we are no longer useful to his purposes (John 15:1-8; James 2:20-26).

We should say, "Am I still being useful to His kingdom?" The Lord knows us. He knows whether we are continuing to walk for him and does not want "anyone to perish" (2 Peter 3:9). As long as we are trying to live for him, the Lord is there beside us.

We are saved by grace but we live, serve and work for him in his kingdom, by his purposes and designs. Obedience alone does not save, for the sacrifice of Christ is primary, but its absence will condemn us. We forget this at our peril.

After retail management and teaching, Richard began preaching full time in 1995. When he was ten he would read stories he had written to his classmates at school. He writes the newsletter Culture Wars.