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What Do You Mean "Saved By Grace?"
George L. Faull
Suppose that I was a king of a city and you were a king of
another city. You had always fought and
antagonized my kingdom. Suddenly, you
found yourself surrounded by an army, cutting you off from food and water. I found out about it and sent my son to
inform you of a plan, so we can march and rescue you. He tells you this plan:
At exactly midnight, on the fourth of the month, you and your people are
to light every lantern in the city, then start blowing trumpets, and shouting
shouts of victory as loud as you can.
When you do so, it will confuse the enemy outside your city, and they
will start running away. At that time,
my son’s army will grab them in their unprepared state of confusion as they
flee.
Now, wasn’t that grace that I sent my son with a plan? Since you could not save yourself, were you
not saved by grace? Weren’t you saved
by faith? Weren’t you saved by
obedience?
I cannot agree that obedience is not included in faith, nor
do I agree that it follows that such logic makes every act of obedience
necessary for salvation. This would be
like saying that the rules to enter a golf tournament were the same as the
rules of the game. The rules for
entering the tournament may be that you must be recommended by a recognized
pro, and have a sponsor. These are the
basis to get into the tournament. Once
in a game, you may break a rule that will not forfeit the game, but will cost
you a penalty. To say that baptism,
which puts us into Christ, would be equal to “praying without ceasing” or never
saying a “word that cannot be condemned”, is ludicrous.
Now, to return to my first illustration.
There is a promise to be enjoyed in doing what I said to you
in “lighting the lights and shouting.”
The fact remains that the promise is not enjoyed without obedience. My grace includes that of providing the man
with the plan, and in giving you an opportunity to obey and enjoy the
deliverance. “Grace” is not synonymous
with “doing nothing.” The grace shown
to Noah required the building of the ark.
Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the
LORD.”
This was done by faith.
Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the
saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of
the righteousness which is by faith.”
Faith must be active or it is dead. James
2:26, “For as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
I think it is significant that the very root of “faith” is
translated persuaded 22 times, trust 8 times, have confidence 7 times, and obey 8 times. Among those translated obey is:
Acts
5:36-37, “36 For
before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a
number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all,
as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
37 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew
away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him,
were dispersed.”
Galatians
5:7, “Ye did run well; who
did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?”
Hebrews
13:17, “Obey
them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for
your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and
not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
James
3:3, “Behold, we put bits
in the horses' mouths, that they may
obey us; and we
turn about their whole body.”
James
2:22, “Seest thou how faith
wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”
The works that do not justify are the works of obeying
Moses’ law. Abraham’s righteousness was
imputed to Abraham when it was active before the law was even given. To me, Grace, Faith, Trust and Obedience are so connected that it is proper to
say that we are saved by any one of them.
That is my Biblical understanding of the subject and it
agrees with the use of these words in Scripture.