Divine Growth

There are two things in the sermon that Richard said that are important to be considered together. He talked about being saved by God’s grace, but he also made reference to Jesus’ comment in Matthew 7 about knowing God and entering the kingdom of heaven. Here Jesus tells that not everyone who calls him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, and the final comment is “away from me, you evildoers”. The role of works in salvation is a hotly debated issue, but Jesus’ comments in Matthew 7 show an interesting characteristic of the gift of salvation. And that is that it is unlike the kinds of gifts we give to each other, because these gifts don’t come with contingent actions. The very fact that we must know God in addition to accepting the free gift of grace is proof of that. In one way, it is similar to being chosen by God. Richard talked about Christians being chosen by God. But this too is not enough. We need to remember that Judas was chosen by Jesus. Being chosen doesn’t guarantee eternal life. If it did, we wouldn’t need to confirm our calling and election. We wouldn’t need to make any effort. Verses 10 and 11 of 2 Peter 1 clearly speak to the role of actions (or works) in our salvation, as uncomfortable as it may be to those at one end of the grace versus works debate.