Dwight L. Moody in a
sermon on Grace told the following story:
“A friend called my attention to the fact that God has put the
offer of salvation in such a way that the whole world can lay hold of it. All
[people] can believe. A lame man might not perhaps be able to visit the sick;
but he can believe. A blind man by reason of his infirmity cannot do many
things; but he can believe. A deaf man can believe. A dying man can believe.
God has put salvation so simply that the young and the old, the wise and the
foolish, the rich and the poor, can all believe if they will.
Do you think that Christ would have come down from heaven, would
have gone to Gethsemane and to Golgotha, would have suffered as He did, if
[humanity] could have worked [his or her] way up to heaven.” (Dwight Lyman
Moody, evangelist [1837 – 1899].)
The
Bible says Christ died on the cross to save humanity from their sins. On the cross Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them.” This is the
Gospel story; on the cross Christ forgave all of humanity for their sins. All
we have to do is accept Jesus’ forgiveness and we are saved, it is our choice, we
call this “free will”.
The
questions I often hear are “if we are already saved then why do I need the
church? Why do I need to support the
church with my gifts and talents? Why do I need to do service projects, support
missionaries, or to help the poor? If all I have to do is accept Jesus’
forgiveness then I have my eternal ticket. So why do I need to do anything else? Isn’t
all this church stuff just religious propaganda?
I
believe the church has failed to provide a good response to these questions. I
cannot guarantee my response is any better. I do believe these questions are
important, but I
believe a better question to ask is, what do I do now, after I accept Jesus’
forgiveness. The answer to this question
may be simple, but the doing is not so simple.
To accept Jesus’ forgiveness means we accept the reality that Jesus has
the power to forgive us of our sins. Once we accept this reality we are also
saying we believe Jesus is the Son of God, God incarnated in the world because
only God the creator can forgive the created. In faith if we accept Jesus as
God incarnate we are also saying we accept Jesus’ teachings as God’s teachings
and Jesus’ call to love God and neighbor.
How do
we love as Christ loves? We cannot love as Christ loves, at least not on our
own. We need God’s help; a help that God provides with gifts of grace. Gifts
that help us love as Christ loves. We call these gifts “the Means of Grace.”
The power behind these gifts is the Holy Spirit. When we do a selfless act of
service in Jesus’ name we grow more like Christ, when we worship God in
community we grow more like Christ, when we study scripture with an open heart
to the Holy Spirit we grow more like Christ. When practicing the Means of Grace
the Spirit helps us grow in faith and into the image of Christ.
Salvation
may be ours the moment we believe, but salvation is a lifetime experience of living
out our belief as we grow into the image of Christ.
