What our efforts can't earn

by Chad Clough

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies” (John 11:25).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

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When I was a child, I would occasionally get into trouble with my parents. It might be because I told my parents that my older brother punched me and that is why I had a bruise … when really I fell off my bike after jumping off a shoddily built ramp. It could have been the time that my parents told me to stop jumping off my bed to dunk on the Nerf™ hoop, but I needed to get one last game winning dunk and landed so hard that I broke the kitchen light. In any case, there was no doubt I deserved every consequence coming my way.  

I imagine that most children had the same hope I did as a punishment was about to occur, “If I just do a few really, really nice things then maybe I’ll be forgiven!” You needed to give it a shot at least, right? Maybe the dishes got washed, floor was swept, bed was made, laundry moved from under the bed to the drawers or basement. You probably told your mom that her baking was the best that you’ve ever had (even if it was cream of mushroom casserole –again),   you noticed (2-3 weeks after the fact) that her new hairstyle was absolutely stunning,  and so on.

We did those things because we hoped our good works would save us. That little extra time that we put in and that extra effort to clean the table and say, “MMMMM” at dinnertime would earn us forgiveness. Sometimes, maybe, it would. Most times, of course, it would earn nothing more than an eye roll and more frustration or anger.

The same is true with God. When we sin there is absolutely nothing that we can do that will save us. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot have another person take our sins for us. We cannot do enough good works to make God forgive that sin. No matter how many times we sweep the floor, no matter how many times we dust off a picture of Jesus in our living room, no matter how many times we hold the door open for a stranger, we cannot do enough to save ourselves or anyone else.

The passages cited above from the Gospel of John repeatedly tell us what is our saving faith: Jesus. The Holy Spirit has blessed us with the Word and faith in Christ. Because of Jesus and his atoning sacrifice, we will live for eternity in heaven even though we die on earth.  Even Jesus himself tells us this same message! Jesus reminds us that it is God’s will that those that believe in him will be saved and raised by him

Good works are fruits of the Spirit.  They are not saving faith; they flow from saving faith. There is only one focus for saving faith, and that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Christ alone is the object of faith

by Can Kuang

Can's devotion was written with an audience of younger kids in mind (from kindergarten to fourth grade). But I felt her theme and imagery communicate well to all ages.

Are you LEGO® fans? Suppose you spend a whole day in building a LEGO® ship or house or airplane or whatever, with hundreds of pieces. When you finish it, will you be happy with it and enjoying looking at it again and again, and showing it to your friends and families? Sure, you will! Then, you put it onto the shelf so that it will not be broken and you can also easily reach it and play with it. However, one day it accidentally falls off the shelf and is broken into pieces. Who do you think can fix it and build it up again? The LEGO® pieces themselves? The biggest and fanciest LEGO® pieces? The shelf? Or you?

The answer is clear: You yourself, because it is you who built them and you are the lord of them.

This idea is true of us and God. God created human beings and put us in the Garden of Eden with all the blessings. However, we messed it up and fell down with sins which drove us to eternal punishment. Do you want to end up with that? No, we don't. But who can save us? Ourselves? The smartest and the strongest people? Heroes? Or God?

The answer here is clear, too. Only God can save us, because it is God who created us and he is the Lord of us. That is why God became flesh in Jesus Christ to live for us, die for us and rise for us in order to save us from sins and give us eternal life. Therefore, who is the object of saving faith? Jesus Christ alone is the object of saving faith, not us, not anything or anyone else. Therefore, God told us “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Praise God for his enduring love and unfailing promise.