Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Hi, Pastor Bob here. Welcome back to the Men of Valor podcast. The verse for today is from Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. And it states, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Imagine Larry moved here from a foreign country and never saw a large retail store that you needed to join to shop there. He hears your town has one, and besides great prices, they actually give you free food to eat while you're in the store! And then he hears you have to be a member so you can get in to shop. So he shows up at sunrise with trash bags in hand, and as soon as the daylight comes, he starts collecting all the papers and trash in the parking lot. The store opens up at 10, so around 9:30, he drags his bags to the front door waiting for them to open. And when the doors open, he grabs his bags full of garbage to Mary the check in person and says, “Here's what I did to get in! Please give me one of those cards like the other people have so I can start shopping.”

Imagine his shock when she says, “We cannot accept the work you did to earn your way in here.” And then Larry starts boasting about what a good job he did, and how hard it was. And he boasts about all the time he spent doing all this good work.

And then Mary says to him, “So you're saying you did a lot of good work picking up all the papers?”

“Absolutely! I did a good job - I mean a very good job.”

And Mary goes, “Alright. You want me to judge whether you get a membership to get in the store by your good works...let's walk around and see if we find any papers.” Sure enough, there's some paper still in the parking lot. And when she goes, “I can't let you in since you wanted to be evaluated on being a good paper picker upper - and I still see some papers! So I have to say you're not good enough based on the evaluation standard you chose.”

And Larry replies, “But no one could pick all of them up!”

And then Mary says, “Exactly! That's why we don't use that standard! Our standard is: There's a price to pay to get in the club, and that price has to be paid before anyone can become a member and enter. It's not based on how good a job you do in your life!”

"If I could earn it myself, then Jesus accomplished nothing!"

"...what does your membership cost? It cost Christ His life!"

Father, thank You for sending the Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, to pay for the penalty of our sins. We know we can’t earn salvation, it's only by Your grace and Your mercy, that we can walk with You on earth - as in some day we will walk with You in heaven. Thank You thank You Lord! What an amazing God we serve! God bless you all.