O is for Otherwise

Why make such a point of this? Because there is a different way of talking about how we are saved, and by that way Jesus' church short-changes itself. This other way, which may be more prevalent, under-appreciates God's commitment to us and how precious we are to him. By making our salvation appear to be shallower than it is, this other way also tends to make shallow our response to salvation.

This other way is to say we are "saved by grace." Certainly that is true. But it is important never to forget that the grace by which we are saved comes to us through Christ's cross. Isn't it "of first importance" to be mindful that that grace, that undeserved love--namely, Jesus Christ's atoning for our sins by his self-sacrifice in order to save us--that that grace, and no other, is the grace by which we are saved?

Otherwise, it may sound as though we are saved by "graciousness." Without including the cross, it may sound like we are saved because the Almighty is easy-going, understanding, or non-judgmental even. It would seem, that is, that we are saved by a characteristic of God, a sunny aspect of the divine personality. Now it is true that there is salvation only because God is indeed gracious. But is God always so? Is God, in every case, so gracious that all people can expect the benefits that the Bible promises to believers? Hardly. For God is not gracious in general; God is gracious in Christ. Oh, to be sure, there is a kind of general grace for all creation; God is no negligent Creator. The Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. But the major league grace--adoption, Holy Spirit, heaven, Eucharist--that grace arrives in one place: "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

If this is forgotten, that God is gracious not in general but in Christ Jesus, there is a great loss for our faith and love. The loss is the cross. What gets lost is how expensive it was for the Almighty to save us. What is lost is the high stakes for which this game was played. What's lost, if we think our salvation comes vaguely from an eternal characteristic of God without the historical events of cross and empty tomb, is the "strange and dreadful strife" in which it took all that God had, his only Son, to overcome the vast nastiness of all humanity's sins. After we lose that, we are left with a trivialized estimate of our sins and a discount gospel. God still saves us, but at a bargain rate. How little love that manifests to us, and how little love that evokes from us in return back to God.