Did you know that there are two halves to the gospel? We all know the first half, because it’s clearly given to us in Ephesians 2:8-9.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
The word “gospel” means “good news,” and that’s good news–that God has given us the gift of salvation, and we do nothing to earn it.
When my kids were little, I used to play “Daddy Bounce Me” with them. I would hold them in my arms and bounce them on the couch. But, inevitably, they would cling to my arm in desperation, afraid that I would drop them. But their feeble attempts at security actually made it harder for me to hold them. It was much easier for them to just trust me to do the work.
That’s what salvation is—trusting God to just crawl into the arms of His grace and let Him do the work. If we could do something to earn salvation, we would have something to boast about. But we can’t. Our only job is to believe and receive.
That’s why it is good news. We can’t earn it, so God gives it to us. He’s offered it to us by His grace, and we receive it by faith. That is all that is required for salvation, but it’s only half of the gospel message.
No one wants only half of a good thing. If you ordered the ten-ounce steak at Logan’s, you wouldn’t be satisfied if they came out with just a five-ounce cut. “Hey—I want the whole thing!” After working all week, you expect your whole paycheck—not only half of it, right? But too often we do that with the gospel message. We only give half of it.
How can you only give half of the gospel? Isn’t faith all you need to apply God’s grace to your life?
Yes, but as they say on the infomercials—“Wait, there’s more.”
The first half of the gospel is how we become saved, but that’s only half of the whole picture. We like to stop there because it’s all we want. “I’m saved, I’m going to Heaven, so I’m good. Now leave me alone!”
But, there’s more, because salvation is not about us. It’s not about escaping Hell or even experiencing forgiveness. Those are the results, not the purpose.
Salvation happens for a specific reason, just like everything else—to bring glory to God. The fact that God would save anyone manifests His greatness. That’s why we can’t earn it. If we could, then He would owe it to us, and it doesn’t show that you’re such a great person if you just pay back something you owe.
We miss the second half of the gospel because we tend to just focus on Ephesians 2:8-9 by themselves. But we only get half of the story until we include verse ten.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
So, we are saved BY grace THROUGH faith, but we are saved FOR works.
That is the other half of the gospel: that we are saved for works. We are His “workmanship” (something He made).
When you make something that doesn’t work, it makes you, as the creator, look bad.
In the 1950s, the Ford Motor Company came up with what was supposed to be the car for middle class Americans. Ford was so sure that it would be a hit that they named it after Henry Ford’s son, Edsel. However, the car turned out to be an absolute fiasco. It was wracked with problems and people thought it was ugly. Over three years, they produced 84,000 of them, and it cost Ford $350 million. It was a dismal failure and an embarrassment for Ford.
When we create something, we expect it to work. And when God saves us, He expects us to work. When we don’t, we bring shame on God’s reputation.
We should ask ourselves, then, why, as Christians, sometimes we don’t have good works. It might be because we have a misunderstanding of salvation and think it’s all about us. “I got what I want, so I’ll go my own way and see you in Heaven.”
Sometimes we may think we know better than God. We don’t say it, but that’s how we live. We trust God to handle our salvation, but not our everyday lives.
I think, however, the primary reason many people don’t have works pleasing to God is that they don’t really believe. James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Without faith, you can’t become saved, and without works, there is a good chance you are not saved. If a butterfly can’t fly (I guess we would have to call it a buttercrawl), we know there is something wrong with it. If a Christian doesn’t please God, there is something wrong.
So, is there enough evidence in your life to prove that you are a believer? If not, you really should pay attention to the other half of the gospel.
