Can we talk too much about what Christ has done to save us? Should we talk 50% of what He has done, or is doing, and then talk 50% of what we must do to be saved? That 50/50 balance sounds quite reasonable, doesn't it? Yes, and millions who say they are Christians view the gospel that way. And they are lukewarm in their devotion to Christ!
Paul didn't buy into the 50/50 idea. When he came to Corinth he said, "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). Wait a moment, Paul! Aren't you unbalanced? Sure, preach the cross--but surely not as "everything"? If you talk too much about what Christ has done to save us, aren't you afraid that your listeners will get lazy and stop keeping the commandments of God?
No, says Paul: "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing; but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ... We preach Christ crucified. ... Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1:18, 23, 24). Then he adds in vs. 29, "No flesh can glory [boast] in God's presence." Now if you are saving yourself 50/50, if you are "trusting" to your "sanctified obedience for salvation," if you believe that "sanctification ... in us ... [is] part of the means of our salvation," you have plenty to boast about. (I am quoting word for word from a publication produced by scholars who tell us how to be saved.)
In contrast, Paul says that Christ saves us 100% and that the believer's part is to LET Him do it, to cooperate with Him, to respond to the constraint of His love, thankful every step of the way that Christ is the one who is his Savior TOTALLY. Paul sees no co-saviors on the believer's horizon. And if we will listen to Paul preach in Corinth about the cross, and believe what we hear him say, our lukewarmness will be finished.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 16, 1998.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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