The gift of salvation is a gift earned… by Christ. The penetrating bitterness and anguishing labor of Christ have delivered real grace. Grace is no empty package of neat ribbons and bows; it is a gift of actual substance, historical and redemptive work accomplished. Christ’s redemptive ministry renders “such a great salvation”….And his work of salvation was just that: it was a grueling work, an incomparable exertion of human effort….But it attains redemptive traction by the historic work of the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”

Many treat gospel grace with frightful flippancy, and much of this abuse spawns from a misunderstanding of how grace works. In the next few SQN columns, we will work through the all-important theme of biblical grace and its essential relationship to works.

Let me put the first premise starkly: salvation is by works alone.

It might seem jarring to hear, but that very jolt itself may well disclose a colossal and common misunderstanding of the gospel. Without vacillation, the Bible speaks with one voice about the task, the accomplishment, and indeed the necessary work of salvation. To view biblical salvation coming in any other way is a pure distortion. A costless grace is not gospel grace, but a dangerous impostor.

For those somewhat familiar with the five solas of the Reformation and with “salvation by grace alone through faith alone,” such insistence on works-based salvation may seem entirely inconceivable. It may even appear heretical. But those who so react have misunderstood the Reformers. They have misunderstood the apostles and prophets. They have misunderstood biblical grace.

Common misconceptions of the gospel (and/or of the Reformation) can come by consuming evangelical soft-drink theology. Epithet-driven, self-absorbed, and emotively drenched, this soda-fountain “gospel” syrup offers high fructose spirituality – addicting and compelling, but ultimately devastating and destructive for heart health. A flip “Bible promise” calendar or a daily devotional pick-me-up supplies my spiritual sustenance, a soda for the day that keeps the devil (of my troubled conscience) away. Such tonic may be “just what the doctor ordered,” but it is not the provision from the Great Physician….

The gift of salvation is a gift earned… by Christ. The penetrating bitterness and anguishing labor of Christ have delivered real grace. Grace is no empty package of neat ribbons and bows; it is a gift of actual substance, historical and redemptive work accomplished. Christ’s redemptive ministry renders “such a great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3)!

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