For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves.
It is a gift from God, not by works so that no one can boast.
Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.
I love to revisit this scripture.
On days when I am tempted to believe, it is all up to me.
By grace, through faith, not by works.
And many of us understood this when we first came to Christ, right?
We knew we couldn't earn our way to God.
We received his grace and it changed our lives, right?
But somewhere along the way, many of us pick up performance again.
Not necessarily with our salvation, but with everything that comes after it.
We try to earn our peace.
We try to earn our joy.
We try to earn our identity.
We try to earn God's approval.
It's like we accepted grace to get in the door, but then switch back to works to try
to stay in the room.
It's as if God saved us by grace and then suddenly started keeping score.
And Paul saw this too when he was writing the Galatians in Galatians chapter 3, in verse
3 he says, are you so foolish?
After beginning by means of the spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
And that's a question for believers, people who have already received grace, but are quietly
going back to striving.
Paul is saying the way you started is the way you continue.
By the spirit, by faith, not by your effort.
Good behavior is not the doorway to a new life.
Faith is.
And you don't become new by first acting new.
You become new by receiving what God gave you.
And you keep walking in that newness of life the same way you received it.
Not by performing, but by believing.
So how do we actually believe new?
We stop negotiating with what God already settled.
When we see in his word that it says you are righteous in Christ, you say yes I am.
When God's word says you are free indeed, you say yes I am.
When he says you are his and nothing can separate you from his love, you say yes and amen.
Belief is not a feeling that you need to wait for, it's an agreement that you make.
And every yes you say rewires something inside of you that performance never could.