We live in a society that puts such high value on
self-sufficiency. Recently our President
suggested that “you didn’t build that” when it came to beginning and running a
business. The reaction to those comments
has been fierce. People don’t like to be
told they are dependent on someone else for anything. We like to be self-sufficient.
While it is true that we are responsible for ourselves and
should not expect others to carry us through life, there is also truth in
recognizing that “no man is an island unto himself,” to paraphrase English
pastor and poet John Donne. The point he
was making is that we are all connected; we do indeed need one another.
This is especially true when it comes to your (and my) spiritual life. This is one area where the Gospel is very
much counter-culture. Where our culture
says be self-sufficient, do it yourself for yourself, Jesus teaches that
spiritual life is one thing you cannot do by yourself or for yourself.
We have been saved by grace – God’s gift of life that we
cannot earn or deserve in any way – and the Church usually gets that
right. Ephesians 2:8-9 says as much, “For
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
But so often Christians lose an essential element of life in
Christ when we lose sight of how much we need God’s ongoing grace in our
lives. Paul was amazed at how the
Galatian church missed it. “Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's
Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing
it? How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to
finish by your own power?” (Galatians 3:2-3)
Like them we usually can agree that we need God’s grace to
be saved, but we forget that we also need His grace to live the Christian life
each day. I cannot be self-sufficient
when it comes to living the way Jesus tells me to live. I can only do that by trusting Him to live in
me and through me. Then my life, in
addition to my salvation, is “by grace… through faith —and this is not from myself, it is the gift of God— not by
works, so that no one can boast.”
It can be so difficult to admit that I can’t handle
something all by myself; pride gets in the way so much. But until I am able to
confess that and stop trying to be righteous on my own I won’t be able to truly
trust in Jesus for His righteousness given to me. I have been saved by grace and I must also
live by grace. I don’t deserve this life, can’t earn it and can’t live it by
myself either.
It is what Paul wrote about when he said, That I may “be found in Him (Christ), not having a righteousness of
my own that comes from the law (and my
own efforts to obey it), but that which is through faith in Christ—the
righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” (Phil. 3:9)
