Not Of Yourselves – by Joseph A. Cortes

Ephesians 2:8 reads, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

Eternal life is a take proposition. Eternal life was never a give proposition.

Salvation costs you nothing. That is why it is a free gift. Salvation costs you nothing, but Discipleship will possibly cost you something, if not everything.

“You mean God will save the vilest sinner that is out there, that is walking on this planet and desires to be saved?”

 Absolutely! You might not think that person is ‘worthy’ enough to be saved but thank God, that isn’t how God looks at things. In fact, if that vile sinner comes by faith, believing in the Gospel, believing in Jesus Christ, God will save that person. I don’t care what he’s struggling with. It could be drunkenness, sexual immorality, (that seems to be big in the Christian world) whatever it is. Go to Jesus. Run to Jesus. Believe in Jesus.

This is going to make some very aggravated with me, but God doesn’t require that a person makes a commitment to stop doing evil works as a prerequisite to be saved.

“I never heard that.”

Then you never heard the truth. If God did require it, then what I am reading here in God’s Word is a lie, because it wouldn’t be a free gift!

Now, because there will be some who just twist my words six ways to Sunday, I’m not saying that Christians have God’s permission to sin. Oh, we’re going to sin, but I’m not saying we have permission. What I am saying is the first thing that God requires in His word is that every new believer have a desire to grow after they are saved. Believe me, He will mold you. He will change things about you that He wants changed. If you don’t believe that, go to I Peter 2:2. “As newborn babes, [individuals who are saved…and I believe you have the desire throughout your journey, but he’s talking about the newborn babes for now] desire the sincere milk of the word,” [for what purpose?] “that ye may grow thereby.” God is going to change the vile sinner that you are. If you have the desire to grow by understanding and applying His word in your life, you are going to find out God could care less about some things you thought were sin. And with things that God cares about, you’re going to find that you try to avoid them, because you know they aren’t pleasing to God. Everyone has a different growth pattern. That is why there is no formula that you must follow. God is the potter, you’re the muddy clay, and He knows how to form you into a vessel that He can display throughout eternity, because He is creating it. And He creates perfect completed vessels.

Too many false salvation plans today focus on Lordship Salvation and that is nothing but dead works. Their requirement to be saved is to follow Christ, forsake the world, (which I don’t really have a problem with) cease from all intentional bad behavior, and make public confession of Christ. No matter how you slice it, all those things are rooted in human effort. Translation? Dead works. We need a revival of born-again people from dead works including professing Christians. Thank you, Jesus, for your grace that brings peace.