Grace or Works?

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9).

A preacher who had long-departed from the truth of the gospel, told the following story to summarize "the faith" he taught.

"It seems that a frog one day fell into a pail of milk, and though he tried every conceivable way to jump out, he always failed. The sides were too high, and because he was floating in the milk he could not get enough leverage for the needed leap. So he did the only thing he could do. He paddled and paddled and paddled some more. And voila! His paddling had churned a pad of butter from which he was able to launch himself to freedom."

The preacher's conclusion was "Just keep paddling, keep on working, keep on doing your best, and you will make it." You may smile at this exaggerated simplification, but this actually describes the false "good news" being preached by many churches and by every non-Christian religion in the world.

It is amazingly sad that "Amazing Grace" is one of the favorite hymns worldwide and yet most of these same people reason that if you just do your best you will somehow make it to Heaven. The truth is that mankind is lost in sin and deeply hostile to the truth of justification by faith alone through God's grace. Sadly, most people are much more comfortable with the false notion that: "We get our salvation the old-fashioned way. We earn it!"

"And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace" (Romans 11:6).