October 14: Don’t take the credit

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 — English Standard Version)

The dictionary defines “grace” this way: the free and unmerited favor of God. Before any of us turned to God or had done anything good, He saw potential in us, was determined to save us, and had a deep desire to make our lives into something great. In the third chapter of the Bible — at the very beginning of things — God spoke to the serpent and said, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel”, in a sign that even then God had known that Jesus would go to the cross to save mankind. Before we had been born, or done any good or bad, He had already decided to pay the highest price to win us back.

We cannot save ourselves. We could never do enough good to make up for our sins and rebellion, and since we can never reach a state of perfection, salvation based on our own behavior would be impossible. But even if we were perfect, good works do not save anyone. We are saved by faith, and yet even faith is a gift from God. So whichever way you cut it, there is no room for any of us to boast. We are saved through God’s inexhaustible mercy and compassion.

This does not mean that we can sit around and do nothing, waiting for God to do everything. We have to choose to use the faith that He placed in us, and to humble ourselves before Him. We have to daily choose to obey God and take up our cross and follow Him. There are many things that God will not do for us, that He is expecting us to do — but in relation to what God has done, our part is so small.

Rolls-Royce is a brand of car famous for it’s high quality workmanship, and in the same way, children of God should be known for their quality of life. We are His workmanship, His masterpieces, His works of art, the Rolls-Royces of humanity. No matter how bad our lives were before we found Him, we should be examples in this world of what God can do, that he is a God that does the impossible.