One day, I posted on Facebook: “Grace
and forgiveness can only be obtained by strict adherence to the Laws of God!” Promptly, a friend responded: “If it is by
adhering to the law then it is no longer Grace”. He then went further to cite Ephesians 2:8-9.
In the King James Version we read “For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not
of works, lest any man should boast.”
Now, what is written in scripture
also needs to be understood.
By grace are ye saved means: by the grace bestowed through
the knowledge and adherence to the Laws of our Creator we are saved! It is GRACE that we are permitted to know of
the laws of God which was also explained fully to us by the Son of God Jesus.
Great grace! This Grace came about by a great sacrifice. Jesus descended from all glory to this low-level
earth to proclaim the Will of His Father which shows us the way of salvation
and redemption. A Mission so dangerous and made even more perilous because mankind for whose benefit all the
sacrifice was made eventually sided with the darkness to wage war against the Son
of God leading to the dastardly crucifixion!
We are saved through faith means that when we come across the Word of Truth and
embrace it even if at first through our faith and belief, our decision for what
is good will establish the good in us leading us to a clear understanding. Thereafter follows full
conviction. Our belief which has grown into CONVICTION then leads us to conscious
and victorious adherence to the laws of God as brought to us through the Word
of Truth.
“Not by works” in the sense of the cited scripture simply means that we are not
saved by following the dogmas imposed by men and their religions! Such religious
dogmas are familiar: we must fast, we must not celebrate birthdays or Easter, we must pray 39 times a day, we must go on some
pilgrimage, we must not eat a type of meat, we must wash hands and feet and must worship only on a particular day of the
week! And so on…Tenacious adherence to such dogmas are the works Paul is referring
to. These types of work cannot save us and are not to be compared to the works
of repentance and works based on an adherence to the Word of Truth. For example,
obedience to the Law of Love as explained by Jesus is real work. However, such work
will save us! Imagine giving so must love to our neighbour to the extent that
such a neighbour then changes for the better. That is pure love and service.
That is living in accordance with the Will of God. Such works of love redeem us
and lead us back to our Creator, Who is Love!
Salvation and redemption will come to us only in the Word of God which
we must absorb, so that by
living in accordance with It, we may release ourselves from the bonds of
wrongdoing that holds us down through misunderstanding and distorting the true
concepts.
Let us therefore constantly stand in prayer to God for the strength to
live in accordance with His Will, to grant us the power to carry out ourselves the
works that count towards our salvation and our redemption!
