God’s Provision and Procedure for Salvation

God’s Provision and Procedure for Salvation

Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB

8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Paul gives us more information about God’s salvation and explains what saves us and what does NOT save us. Men today endeavor to go to God’s Heaven in their own way because they will not recognize God’s authority and His truth. They will in fact say that there are many gods and many different ways to Heaven, but such thinking is vanity.

If you are depending on religion, good deeds, obeying the Golden Rule, money, baby baptism, catechism, your family heritage (Grandma went to church), self-affliction, church membership, yourself, some mysterious event such as “I saw Jesus at the foot of my bed,” to deliver your soul from Hell and take you to Heaven, it won’t happen.

God’s provision of salvation is by His saving grace when you put your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ to forgive and cleanse you of your sins. Salvation is not earned. It is His gift to those who trust in Him. If man attained salvation through his deeds, he would boast about them in Heaven, which in turn would make Heaven a miserable place because of the constant bragging.

Listen to me people, if you went to your neighbor’s house and mowed their lawn, what would you think if you saw them get out and mow it again right after you left? It would not be necessary because the work was already done! Right!? The work of salvation is already done too! It was completed on the cross. Jesus cried, “It is finished!” It is foolish for someone to try to work their way to Heaven or earn their way because the work of salvation is already done!

I remember when I was in Brazil that the following story was shared with me. I think that it would be appropriate at this time. It was the summer of 1994, and things were not going well for Marcio da Silva. This cupid-struck artist from Brazil was broken-hearted over the breakup with his sweetheart Katia. They had been dating for four years. He decided to try to impress her with a gesture of devotion by attaching portions of a car tire to his kneecaps and crawling for nine miles to her home in Santos, Brazil. It took this twenty-one-year-old young man fourteen hours to reach the house. Unfortunately, she was not there. She was not impressed when she heard what he did and did not want to see him.

People try to do the same thing with God. They try to impress God with their good deeds and works to get themselves into Heaven. Beloved, God is not impressed because He has already paid the price by giving His son Jesus to die for our sins. Christ has the power to save us and rescue us from the highway to Hell.