THERE'S NOTHING QUITE LIKE IT
The Way This World Works
If a person wants to retire at a certain age with a certain amount of money in the bank, what does that person have to do? Buying a lottery ticket is not the right answer, is it? And waiting for a long-lost relative’s inheritance to drop out of the sky isn’t either. If a person wants to retire at a specific time with a specific figure in hand, that person will have to plan for it, right? That person will have to work hard and work long hours and work in the right way. That person will have to spend wisely and save as much as possible. That person will have to put in a lot of effort. Many of you have done that already. Many of you are working towards that goal. But all of us understand that something like that doesn’t happen without bending your back and getting your hands a little dirty and keeping at it for a long period of time.
If you wanted to lose ten pounds, what would you have to do? You might have to exercise a little more and you might have to eat healthier foods and you might have to watch your weight on a regular basis for a few weeks. A diet pill alone won’t do it for you. An exercise video won’t help if it stays on the shelf. Even a lap-band procedure in which they can surgically tie your stomach a little tighter can only do so much if you continue to eat fatty foods and refuse to get off your couch. If you really wanted to lose ten pounds you would have to put in some work in order to get those results.
If you wanted to do something as simple as quench your thirst you would first have to find some sort of drinkable liquid in your refrigerator or at a store, you’d then have to get a glass or a cup or a bottle in which to pour and drink that liquid, you’d have to physically bring that container up to you mouth, and finally you’d have to swallow it on your own. No one is going to do those things for you. And so if you really wanted to quench your own thirst then you’d have to personally do something about it.
Because that’s the way this world works, doesn’t it? If you want something, you have to do something to get it. You have to put in the time and the work and the effort to produce results. You have to earn it. And if you don’t put in the time and the work and the effort to earn it, then you certainly cannot expect to get what you want.
The Example of Abraham
That is the way this world works; but that is not the way our salvation works. Our salvation is just the opposite. In order to get to heaven what we do doesn’t count; what we try doesn’t matter; what we attempt doesn’t make a difference. In fact, we not only don’t work for our salvation, we can’t work for it! We aren’t even allowed to work for it! And the harder we try, the farther away we get. There’s nothing quite like it. There’s nothing quite like salvation through faith. Because salvation through faith truly is “free” in every sense of the word. And since this concept is so foreign to the way things function in this world, the apostle Paul spends quite a bit of time explaining this truth in the middle chapters of the book of Romans. And to do so Paul uses Abraham as the prime example. Abraham was credited with righteousness, he was officially recognized by the Lord as having perfection, not because of what he did, but because of the one in whom he believed.
If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Here’s Paul’s point: this great man Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, a faithful servant of the Lord up to the point of even sacrificing his own son because God asked him to, a caring and compassionate man, a generous man, a well-respected man… even a man like Abraham wasn’t capable of gaining the righteousness required for entrance into heaven by what he did. And if he couldn’t, neither can we. But just like Abraham, we are only saved through faith. Which means nothing we ever do can contribute to that salvation in any way.
Chinese Finger Trap
Have you ever run across a Chinese Finger Trap? It is a cylinder only about six inches long and made out of tiny strips of bamboo. The “trap” happens when you put your two forefingers in each side and attempt to pull them free. When you pull your fingers apart, the strips of bamboo tighten around your knuckles and you are unable to release the trap. Only if someone informs you that you have to stop trying can you get free. You have to relax your hands and allow your fingers to actually come closer together so that the trap will loosen enough to a point where you can slowly twist your fingers free.
The quicksand found in the Moab Desert around the Colorado River works the same way. The harder you try to get out of it, the faster and more fanatically you try to struggle to safety, the farther down you sink. The trick is to do nothing, to relax your body and simply lean one way or the other to find solid ground or wait for someone to help.
We can even take it into the financial realm. Because of the way this country works, it can be a wise decision to declare bankruptcy at times. If you are in a financial bind it can actually be better for your credit and for your future to stop attempting to get out of the hole you are in and officially admitting on paper that you can’t do it on your own.
Although all three of these analogies can’t fully describe our spiritual condition, they are similar to the way salvation works. The harder we try and the more things we attempt and the closer we think we can get to the solution on our own only makes things worse. We, in effect, have to realize that we can’t do anything by ourselves; we have to rely on someone or something else to fix our self-imposed dilemma. And that “something else” on which we rely for our salvation is our Savior through faith. Because faith supplies what we are lacking.
Supplying What is Lacking
By the very fact that we are sinful human beings, we lack a number of different things. And the first thing that we spiritually lack is the ability to even want what God says. From the very beginning we didn’t want what God wanted for us. We didn’t know him and we didn’t want to know him. We weren’t forgiven and we didn’t want to be forgiven. We weren’t saved and we didn’t want to be saved. An unbeliever doesn’t want what Christ wants. But faith does. And when the Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts through the written Word of God or the spoken Word of God connected with baptism, we suddenly wanted what Christ wanted. We longed for what Christ longed for. We believed what Christ achieved. Faith supplied what we lacked. Faith changed our outlook on life and our very attitude towards God himself. There’s nothing quite like salvation through faith.
But even though we now want what God says, we still lack the ability to understand what God says. We and anyone else can read or hear what God tells us in his Word. But to truly understand it, to be able to logically figure out the what and the why and the how and the where and the when… that’s a whole different story. Tell me: how does the Triune God work exactly? Yes, he’s “3 in 1” but that doesn’t make any logical sense at all because there aren’t three parts of God or three characters played by one God; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all 100% God but different than each other. Explain that to me? Or describe for me how Creation happened according to Scripture. Apparently God created this universe out of nothing. Really? Out of nothing? There has to be “something” to start with if you are going to make something else. But not in Genesis chapter one. Not when God created this world. There was nothing at all. And then in six days there was everything that we see and hear and taste and touch and feel. How is that possible? And if you simply tell me that it’s true because the Bible says so, that’s fine but that doesn’t help my mind any! My brain still yells out “Ridiculous! Preposterous! Impossible! Baloney!” But that’s exactly where faith comes in. It supplies what our minds lack. It tells us that these things are true even though we cannot figure them out or logically explain them or scientifically prove them. There’s nothing quite like salvation through faith.
But even though we can want and know what God says through faith, we will always still be spiritually deficient in this way: we lack the ability to do what God says. For example: the first commandment is “You shall have no other gods.” That means that we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things at all time in every way. Have you done that? Have you always given the glory to God without having a prideful thought? Have you always loved God more than you’ve loved yourself? Have you always trusted in God more than you trusted in your own abilities or something else in this life? And what about the last commandment: “You shall not covet?” You shall not want anything you can’t have. Have you always been content with whatever you’ve had? Have you always been satisfied? Have you never been envious about what someone else had that you didn’t? I don’t think anyone of us in this room is delusional enough to think that we have the ability to actually do everything God tells us to do. But that’s where faith comes in again - not to give us the ability, but to act in place of that ability. Remember what Scripture said about Abraham? “He believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.” The faith that God gave Abraham counted as if Abraham had done everything required of him! And the faith God has given us in our Savior counts as if we have done everything required of us! Isn’t that amazing? The gift of faith carries as much weight in the sight of our Lord than does the ability to do everything that he demands! There’s nothing quite like salvation through faith. And it’s all free.
All for Free
You have been given the gift of faith. Whether you were baptized as an infant or your heart was worked on by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God later in life, you now believe that Jesus is your Savior. And so right now you enjoy freedom from the punishment of sin - because you did nothing. You now have peace of mind from all troubles and worries in this life - because you did nothing. You have the guarantee of eternal life with your Lord after death - because you did nothing. And one day soon you will experience that eternity of perfection, a heavenly worship service, a gathering of saints and angels, and the glory of the Lord himself in a place that truly is a “Paradise” - because you did nothing for it. There really is nothing quite like salvation through faith. Enjoy it. Enjoy the fact that you can live this life with the knowledge that you have heaven for free! Most people in this world don’t have it. Most people in this world don’t know it. Most people in this world don’t want it. You want it. You know it. You have it. And there’s nothing quite like it, is there?
Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Rom. 15:13
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