God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Eph. 2:8-9 NLT
Lord Jesus, how could your church ever forget, lose or reject this glorious gospel? What circumstances created the necessity for Martin Luther to nail his Ninety-Five Theses to the front door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517? Why would we ever choose some other way of salvation over the way of grace? Rhetorical questions indeed, for I know my own proud and foolish heart.
I know that by nature I’m allergic to grace, and by notion, I want to believe there’s something I can do to make God accept and love me. But the gospel declares me to be a whole lot worse off than I can imagine, and certainly a whole lot worse than I want to acknowledge. I wasn’t just distanced from God; I was dead in my sins and trespasses—running as fast and as far as I could from the God of all grace. Such is the insanity of sin.
Jesus, I praise you for showing me the great depth of my need and the ceiling-less heights of your grace. Earn my salvation; impress God with my works, and merit heaven by my rules keeping? I could sooner sneeze a Lexus into existence; click my heels and turn the moon into chocolate cheesecake; snap my fingers and watch Niagara Falls reverse directions! Oh the arrogance of works righteousness. Oh the despair of works righteousness.
You’re no mere moral model to follow; you’re my perfect righteousness to trust. You don’t give second chances to sincere people; you give new life to rebels, fools and idolaters, like me. I needed you to fulfill all the demands of the law for me; and that is what you did by your life of perfect obedience. I needed you to absorb all the judgment I deserve from God; and that is what you accomplished, once-and-for-all, by your death on the cross.
I needed you to begin a good work in me by your Spirit and that you will complete by your Spirit; and that is what you have signed on for by your resurrection. I need you to be my Advocate before the Father when I sin, not my cheerleader or coach when I fall; and that is who are you this very moment. I need and want you to come back and finish making all things new—in me, in your whole Bride, and in your broken cosmos; and that is precisely what you will do one Day. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus, on this Reformation Sunday, I once again affirm that my hope is built on nothing less, nothing more, and nothing other than your blood and your righteousness. On you, the solid and saving Rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Keep bringing me back to the gospel, Jesus; keep bringing me back to the gospel plus nothing for my everything. So very Amen I pray, in your most holy and gracious name.