With our next conference coming up, where the theme is “Back to the Basics;” I figured it would be best to take a look at some of the basics. Now when thinking of getting back to the basics there is one concept that needs to be dealt with before any others. We can read Scripture and study the Bible, have a quiet time, and even attend church but unless we have given our life to Christ it is useless. The first basic that needs to be dealt with when getting back to the basics is the question of “Are you a Christian?”

So what does it mean to be a Christian?

I know those of us that are Christians, and even some that are not, are well aware of the vocabulary we use when trying to find out whether someone else is a Christian. We use phrases like “given your life to Christ,” “asked Jesus into your heart,” or “are you saved.” You see to be a Christian means that we are saved from a life of sin and spiritual death. So now the question is not what is a Christian but how are you saved? Paul probably puts it best when writing to the church in Ephesus, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Saved by Grace Through Faith

The first thing Paul tells us is that we are saved by grace through faith. So what is grace; some people will use the phrase “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” to describe what grace is. Essentially it is receiving something that was not earned or deserved. You see God bestows upon us salvation not because we have earned it or deserved it, but because since we believe and trust in Him He desires to give it to us. Paul told the church in Rome that while we were enemies of God Christ came to die for us. You see would you willingly die to save the life of someone you know that hates you? Would you lay down your life for someone that would rather have nothing to do with you? This is what God did for us.

Not by Works

As I previously mentioned God’s grace is not earned or deserved, so Paul following up his statement about being saved by grace through faith with it being a gift of God and not by works is to help explain how we are saved. You see it is not because we said a prayer, got baptized, feed the homeless, give to charity, or even attend church whenever the doors are open; our salvation is not the result of anything we can say or do. Our salvation is freely bestowed upon us by God because of our faith in Him. Paul explains it earlier in Ephesians 2 by stating that we were dead in our trespasses. Think of it this way before Christ we are each laying on a gurney dead, Christ walks up with a defibrillator charges it up and then discharges it into our dead body to bring it back to life. This is much like how God gives us the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins and turn us towards God in faith.

Now we cannot just leave it with that we are save by grace through faith and not by works, because Paul didn’t leave it there. In Ephesians 2:10 he continued, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” So we are not saved by works but we are created for good works. What this means is that while works do not save us, our salvation does get proven by the good works we do. In other words our Christian faith should result in a changed life, which we will dig into next time.