doctor's life support

17th April: Cart before Horse

By grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God -- not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand tha

Many people in the world today, including professing Christians, are trying to save their own souls by religious observances and by good deeds. It can't be done! However much he tries, man can neither atone for his past nor live up to God's standards in the present or the future. Had this been possible, Christ would not have died on the Cross, for just as a surgeon would not amputate a limb for a condition which would respond to conservative treatment, so God would not have allowed his Son to endure the terrible physical and spiritual agony of Calvary in order to save men who could have saved themselves.

We cannot earn our salvation, but we can accept it as an utterly undeserved free gift. 'What makes a man right with God is not the performance of the works that the laws lay down, but the simple trust of complete yieldedness which takes God at his word, and which believes that God still loves us when we have done nothing to deserve that love' (William Barclay). Only then do we start to have a life which is pleasing to him; only then do our good works become acceptable to him, good works which God had planned to do through us, and for which he makes us into suitable instruments as we hand over our lives to him.

We have the double privilege of showing our gratitude to him by our obedient serve and of having a part in his great work of saving those around us.

I cannot work my soul to save,
For that my Lord has done;
But I will work like any slave
For love of God's dear Son.

Further reading: Eph 2:1-10. Heb 13:20-21.

DCT