Three ways? Or only One?

2 Kings 16; Psalms 126–128; Hosea 9; Titus 2

Last night’s Bible study centered on the ways that people consider how to become right with God. One is that they don’t care because for them it is a non-issue. Another is that they care and go about it by trying to be good enough that God will accept them. The third is the Gospel which says all fall short and the only way is to rely on the grace of God putting faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for sin and freely offers eternal life to those who trust Him only.

Today I read about Ahaz. He was in the second category. He built an altar where even a pagan king could offer sacrifices to his idols yet “the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by” because he realized those pagan idols had no ears to hear. His ‘faith’ was not true.

The psalmist was closer to the third category. He knew the true God and how to live under His care:

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. (Psalm 128:1–2)

Yet even knowing the fear of the Lord does not automatically produce people who walk in His ways. In the time of Hosea, Israel knew what was necessary to be God’s faithful people yet knowing it was not enough. They had to choose whom they would serve and they waffled between God and idols. The Lord would have none of it. His prophet told them what was going to happen and why . . .

The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins. (Hosea 9:7–9)

Just as the pagans fell short, so did the people God who were called to represent Him to the world. They needed more than they were able to do on their own. Right from the beginning, God knew that. He told them He would send a Messiah. Trusting that promise was their salvation. Demonstrating that trust meant godly living yet so easily the godly living became their pride, their way of being right with God instead of the result of it.

The NT continually warns readers that we are not saved by what we do but by faith in what God has done:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11–14)

 This is the third category, the glorious good news for those whose sin has overwhelmed them and whose efforts have fallen short. Pride disregards it. Self-righteousness mocks it. Those who love their sin laugh at it. Yet those who believe the Gospel experience new attitudes and changed lives that honor and glorify God. I love the way Titus 3 describes some of those changes. Here it is, slightly paraphrased:

Older men are sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They teach what is good and train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, the younger men are self-controlled. Leaders are a model of good works, and in their teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so opponents are put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are submissive to their own masters in everything; well-pleasing, not argumentative or pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:2–10)

APPLY: Because of God’s grace, I’ve been called to the third category and can now choose how to respond to the wonder of being in His kingdom, His family. Before, my only choice was sinful unbelief and the actions that go with it but now I can choose to live for Him. The Bible tells me how and the Holy Spirit enables obedience. This is salvation by grace — amazing grace!