In this post I’d like to clear up something that seems to confuse zillions of people around the world and throughout time: Whether or not we “earn” our salvation (a right standing with the Creator).
When we were created, God made us to have a perfect relationship with Him. And the first two people He made were declared “good” by Him (Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve were “right” with God until they weren’t (due to their own poor judgment).
Unfortunately, they quickly ruined their perfect relationship by disobeying the perfect Creator. But this did not overwhelm the infinite, all-knowing Creator. He already knew that they would mess it up. So He introduced death into the creation (Genesis 3:19). Death was both a curse and a blessing. Through death God would be able to correct the problem that mankind had brought upon themselves (Hebrews 10:20).
Mankind could not then, and cannot now, “fix” the problem that they made for themselves. But this problem of a wrong standing before God has been passed down to all of us from the very beginning. And so, the problem had to be solved by the Creator, and solve it He did. He made it possible to restore our relationship with Him through the cross of Jesus Christ. (See my post: The DNA of Imperfection.) But how does this work? and what part do we play in this solution to our inner pollution? That’s what we’re going to look at now.
The Timeline
As we trip along through life, we will all have to make a choice about the cross of Christ. In fact, I personally believe that we will be confronted with it either here in this world, during the temporary state, or at the final judgment (in other words, whether we are alive or dead). I say this because it is only by the cross that we can be made right with God (Colossians 2:14). And since God is fair, He will give each of us the choice of rejecting it or accepting it.
If we face the cross in this life, we will be given this opportunity to believe in its efficacy. If we have the capacity to believe in it (Ephesians 2:8), then we accept it or we reject it. But let’s say that we accept it. What is the timing of the key elements coming into play? And what are the key elements?
I think that we can all say that not one of us in this century played an active part (directly) in the crucifixion of Jesus. (Although He died as a result of our evil as much as anyone else’s, and each of us can gain from it as much as anyone else can as well.) So we can say that all we can “do” in making ourselves right with God is to believe in the cross (the only means to make us right with God). But this becomes complicated when we try to factor in the things that we do to serve God. What comes first: faith or works?
This is what I mean when I talk about the timing of our faith. We know that it is impossible to please God without having faith (Hebrews 11:6), and yet James tells us that works are required to make us “right” with God (James 2:24). But which comes first?
When Jesus was crucified, there were two other men hanging with Him. One of them believed in Jesus, the other may not have. To the one who believed, Jesus said, “…today you will be with me in paradise.” And isn’t that what “salvation” is, being with Jesus in paradise? And as far as we know, that thief did nothing to earn his salvation. There are no “works” that are accredited to him that would make him worthy of such a prize. Yet James still tells us about having works. What is James talking about and what is the effect on our relationship with God?
Because of the thief’s salvation while he was dying (and not having the ability to go on into works for God), I think that the works, if there are any in our lives, are done as a response to being saved by Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
[Jesus] died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
2 Corinthians 5:15, NLT
And what is the “work” that God demands of us?
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:29, NLT
If you want to be religious about it, you can listen to what James said about religion:
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
James 1:27, NLT
Paul tells us the recipe for being made right with God:
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9, NLT
But Peter tells us to be baptized.
“Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
Acts 2:38-39, NLT (Excerpt)
Since the thief on the cross didn’t (apparently) get baptized, this must be one of the “works” that comes after our salvation. And if you noticed the word translated as “repent” in the quote but aren’t sure what it means, it means to have a change in heart. It isn’t a “work” but a matter of the heart. If you don’t want to change, then the cross does you no good. You have to want it to receive it. Repentance is wanting it and agreeing that you need it (because of your fallen, imperfect nature). So really, the thing that makes this complicated for so many people is that Peter is addressing one thing that comes before salvation (repentance); and another thing that comes immediately after (baptism, which is a “work”). And James seems to say that they accompany each other, all the while, Paul tells us that faith is the real, essential ingredient (which seems to match Jesus’ proclamation over the thief on the cross).
So then, the timing of salvation is:
- Believe in God – if you can’t do that, you can’t be saved.
- Believe that you need the cross of Christ to make you “right” with God.
- Accept the cross of Christ as atonement for your fallen nature.
- Turn your life over to Christ
- Do the things He wants you to do.
This is a very simplified view of these things. I haven’t even begun to cover all that is entailed in each one of the elements or how we are to live out our lives for God. But I’m not writing a book here, either. (But feel free to poke around this site for more information on those things.)
The Red Dot in the Image Above
In the picture for this post, you’ll notice a red dot inside the walking man. That represents the corruption that we all cary inside of us. That’s the thing that makes us incapable of a perfect relationship with God. Notice that we have it both before and after receiving the cross of Christ. What I’m trying to convey in that image is that we are not going to be made perfect by accepting the cross for our salvation. As long as we walk the earth in our current skin, we are going to have imperfection, which makes us incapable of that perfect relationship with God. It isn’t until God transforms us into perfect, sinless people that our relationship with Him will be made perfect. (See my post: Humanity 2.0 – God’s Own Super Humans for more on that.)
This is why one of my objectives in this blog is to remind believers that we are no better than (“holier than”) anyone else. I get so very annoyed by those who profess Christ and have an air of superiority over those who do not. Being saved does not make us superior to the unsaved. However, in the era to come in the future, Humanity 2.0 (our next step in the human experience) will be superior to Humanity 1.0 (how we currently are), but that’s another story for another post.
However, accepting the cross of Christ is the crucial step in our personal timeline on our way toward meeting God. Before you meet your Maker, I hope that you will accept the cross that He hung and died on to make you “right” with Him. If there were any other way, don’t you think He would have told you and spared Himself the pain?
Be blessed,
Gary
