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"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ep.2:8,9). These are words that define the path of salvation, telling us that God gives it to us on the basis of grace or a favour that we don't deserve, and that we can receive it freely through our faith. But these are also words that some people twist to imply that salvation is entirely a work of God and that there is nothing we can or need to do from our part. They think that God determines whom He will save, then regenerates them from His side at some point in their life and causes them to have faith in Him. The assumption here is that faith is also something that God causes people to have, and not something that people choose to have when they get to know God. They also believe, following the same line of thought, that when God chooses to give someone grace, no one can resist it.

This assumption about grace based also on the phrase here 'that no one may boast' places the whole of salvation on God and takes away any idea of man's own responsibility for his salvation. It appears to exalt God overall in the frame of things, but what they do not admit is that at the same time it reduces man to a mere robot who has no ability of his own to receive or reject this salvation. If it were so, then why would this God punish man for rejecting this great salvation (He.2:2,3)?

In general, 'religion' seeks to attain 'salvation' by man doing different things that ultimately qualify him to be acceptable to God. What God did through giving the law of the old covenant was to demonstrate the total failure of this approach by letting people realise that no matter how they tried, they could never achieve salvation. Then He came with the offer of salvation by grace to people who were willing to admit that only in that way could they ever hope for salvation! That is the meaning of grace.

At one point, Adam and Eve who had the freedom to choose between a life of complete dependence on God or independent of Him made the wrong choice. Now God is offering us the choice between restoration to God and continuing to be independent. That is the choice we make by faith. So, once we see this, we can see that this is not entirely up to God, but our response to His grace also comes into the picture. That explains why many are not getting saved even though God has made the offer open to all, and why many are going to receive punishment for rejecting this free offer from God (Jn.3:19).

Once we bring the free offer of God and our choice into the picture, everything begins to make sense. But those who imagine they are giving glory to God by exaggerating the grace of God and removing the responsibility of man find themselves with many inconsistencies for which they have to find inconsistent explanations!

We can glorify God by recognising the glory of His grace, and then submitting to Him.

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