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Q. Can I perfect myself morally, or perform enough good deeds, or obey God's commands so well, that God will look at my record and say, "Now, there's a righteous person"?
A. No. You can never do anything to remove your own guilt or to cause God to view you as one who truly deserves divine acceptance and reward instead of divine rejection and punishment.
Q. Am I then without hope? May I never have peace with God, enjoy his forgiveness, and be truly accepted by him?
A. Do not despair, I have good news! Although we all have broken fellowship with God by our self-will and our rebellious attitude toward the Creator, a brokenness that manifests itself in a multitude of shortcomings, wrong deeds, improper choices and distorted priorities, God has taken the matter into his own hands. In Jesus of Nazareth, God himself has done all that was necessary to reconcile us to himself and to set us in right relationship with himself.
Q. How did God possibly do that?
A. We can never fully understand or express this divine grace, but somehow he did it through Jesus' perfectly-obedient life which he lived in our stead, and in his atoning death, which he offered as our substitute. God climaxed this saving work by raising Jesus back to life from among the dead, showing his victory over death and evil in a powerful and dramatic way.
Q. Are you telling me that I can contribute nothing to the work which forgives my sin and makes me acceptable to God?
A. That is exactly what I am saying. God did the saving work outside of us, but for us. God accomplished that wonderful work almost 2,000 years ago, long before we were born and certainly before we ever heard of it.
Someone objects: "All this talk concerning justification by grace through faith is largely theoretical. When we talk to real people, they want to know what they must do to be saved." I respond that nothing us more practical than the reality that God saves us, apart from anything we deserve, attain or accomplish, for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ and on the basis of Jesus' finished work of redemption. (Let's listen in on the following conversation in progress.)
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Q. How, then, can I relate to this saving work which God has accomplished, if nothing I do is any part of it?
A. Because it is finished, you can only accept it. You cannot supplement it, improve on it, or make it any more complete or perfect than it already is.
Q. Nothing I do can make that more real and true than it already is?
A. That is correct.
Q. Rather overwhelming! Yet somehow I feel strangely drawn to believe it. I find myself wanting to trust in this message you have told me. The more I read and hear about Jesus, the greater my desire to follow him. Yes, I do rely on what he did to set me right with God. I do believe in Jesus Christ and trust him as my Savior and Lord! What do I do next? I am eager to do whatever he tells me!
A. Jesus himself said that those who believe in him are to express that inner faith outwardly by being baptized in water in his name. That is the way you "step across the line" before the whole watching world. This simple ceremony also declares the basis of your salvation, which is the perfect doing and dying of Jesus long before you were born, which God approved and attested by raising Jesus back to life and giving him glory at his own right hand in heaven.
Q. One more question. In the future, shall I remember that I was saved at the moment when faith first dawned in my heart? Or did it happen when I obeyed Jesus and expressed that faith publicly in baptism?
A. No, no, no! Your believing was not the saving work, nor was your baptism. Never forget that Jesus fully accomplished the work which set you right with God, almost 2,000 years ago. That is why you can entrust yourself to God in Christ for salvation. And that is what you are picturing and proclaiming by being baptized in water. Don't ever take your eyes off that saving work to focus on anything you ever learn, experience or do.
For more about experiencing grace, click here.