Nowadays Grace and my mother do facetime once a week. It’s a language exchange. Grace tells her a story in English, and in turn my mother in Korean. A story-telling is a very effective way to teach and learn new languages, but also new concepts and truths. In fact, Jesus always used stories and illustrations in order to make his message clear to people. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress teaches us so many biblical truths by telling a story. One of the major lessons we can learn from this great story is this: salvation is not a one-time event but rather a lifetime journey. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, defines salvation this way:[1]
By salvation I mean, not barely deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature, the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth.
Becoming a believer (conversion, passing from death to life) may be a miracle of a moment, but becoming a Christian (follower of Christ) is a process of a lifetime. God’s salvation begins and ends with grace – a free gift, unmerited love of our loving Father. We are being drawn to God by grace. We are forgiven and reconciled to God by grace. We are shaped and transformed into the beautiful image of Jesus Christ by grace. It’s all one grace, but we can see grace working in three particular ways – prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. We can see all these three expressions of grace as the full salvation in today’s scripture.
Prevenient Grace
First, prevenient grace. Prevenient (preparing) grace means that God is always and already at work in our life, even before we are aware of it. Paul diagnoses our spiritually hopeless condition in this way: “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived” (v. 1). It’s impossible for us to seek God, know God, love God. But God is taking the initiative. God always makes the first move toward us, going before us, seeking us, nudging us, calling us. God called Adam “Where are you?” when he was disobedient and hiding himself behind the trees. God called Moses when he had killed an Egyptian and was living as nobody without hope. God called Elijah when he was depressed and suicidal and hiding himself in the cave.
God is always at work in our life. And his (prevenient) grace is working to stir us and bring us to the place where we recognize our hopeless spiritual condition and acknowledge our sin, and begin to realize we cannot save ourselves and need a Savior. God stirred Zacchaeus, while he was dead in his sin. And Zacchaeus was being drawn to Jesus. He became hungry and thirsty to know more about who Jesus was. So he ran ahead and climbed a tree to see him. Jesus came to him, calling him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down!” God is always at work in our life, seeking us, calling us, inviting us in so many ways, often through a life crisis. In my case, God allowed me to have some major sickness along the way since I was very little, that I might be drawn to Him. In your case, God may nudge you through financial hardship, or loss of a loved one, something else. God’s purpose is one: our salvation. God’s prevenient grace gently and powerfully leads us to the point where we come to realize how hopeless, how helpless, how sinful we are and we need a Savior.
Justifying Grace
But God’s grace is working in our life much more than. Not only does grace lead us to a vulnerable place, but also it leads us to our Savior Jesus Christ. God’s grace enables us to repent (meaning a radical turn to God) and believe, so that we may have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1). This particular expression of God’s grace is called justifying grace – grace that actively leads us to believe in Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord, that we may be counted as righteous and be at peace with God. In today’s passage Paul declares, “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved” (vv. 4-5). Justifying grace is the forgiving love of God, making us alive together with Christ.
When John Wesley didn’t run away from this grace but chose to accept it, something amazing happened that day (May 24, 1738). Wesley described later what happened in his own life: “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Amazing, justifying grace! For me personally, my conversion, passing from death to life, was a gradual and cumulative process rather than a radical one. After I was miraculously healed from Dengue Fever, I was drawn to God, thirsty to know more about who God was. And for the first time, I read the entire Bible from cover to cover. God changed me profoundly – my worldview, my values, my purpose of life – over the next few years. Some people (ex. John Wesley) remember exact date and time when they were converted; others don’t (like me). But whether it is radical or gradual, we find that true conversion has one thing in common. Jesus Christ is at the center of our conversion. And we all share the common fruit of our conversion – “blessed assurance” – the assurance that we are forgiven and reconciled to God, others, and ourselves, the assurance that we are beloved child of God and enables us to cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:15), the assurance that we are created for God’s glory.
Sanctifying Grace
God is always at work in our life, seeking us and calling us (“prevenient grace”). God enables us to respond to his grace, repent and believe, that we may have peace with God through Christ Jesus (“justifying grace”). But there is more! God dwells in us, transforming, restoring and shaping into the beautiful, perfect image of God. It’s called sanctifying grace. In verse 10 Paul says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” When we embrace God’s sanctifying grace and join him in his work, we are being formed and growing up into Christ – thinking, talking, acting like Christ. In this context Paul encourages us in this way: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Then, how do we work out our salvation? Our spiritual ancestors practiced “means of grace,” the channels through which God’s grace is conveyed to us. The means of grace include, but not limited to, prayer, scripture, the Lord’s Supper, fasting, and gathering with other Christians. The means of grace itself have no power within themselves. But as we use them by faith, we create a room for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.
Salvation is a lifelong journey. So is God’s sanctifying work in us. For me personally, 2020 was the year of spiritual transformation. The death of George Floyd reflected where we were as a nation and raised the question of racial justice. Covid-19 pandemic also exposed and even magnified social divides. Then, the presidential election came. God somehow used all these three major crises to disturb my comfort zone and complacency, nudging me, shaping me, stirring me up with questions like, “What does it mean to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, at such a time as this? What does it mean to live a life of congruence – congruence between my beliefs and my actions, between my inside and my outside – without deceit and hypocrisy?” God has been reshaping my theology (beliefs), my thoughts and actions, my whole being.
Long Obedience in the Same Direction
Salvation is a lifetime journey. It begins and ends with God and his grace. Our part is to repent and believe from the beginning to the end. As I close, I would like to share the starfish story. Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. One day, after a big storm had passed, the man found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see. As he was walking along the shore, he saw a young man picking up small objects and throwing them into the ocean. He asked, "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?” The young man paused and replied, "Throwing starfish into the ocean." “Why?” asked the wise man. The young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die." The old man said, "But, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!" At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. And he said, "It made a difference for that one."[2]
On our salvation journey, we often struggle, we doubt, we backslide, we go through dark nights of the soul, failure in relationships. We make a wrong turn and bad choice. But still, God’s grace is greater, more powerful than our sins. God’s grace is always actively working in our life. Our part is to say “Yes” to God’s grace by faith. Our part is to daily repent (turn), daily renew our faith. It’s a “long obedience in the same direction.” So, let us start with one starfish at a time. The one who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Th 5:24). The one who began a good work (of salvation) in you will bring it to completion (Phil 1:6). Amen.
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[1] John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, Volume 11, 106.
[2] The Starfish Story, https://pawswakefield.rescuegroups.org/info/display?PageID=9457
Long Obedience in the Same Direction
Salvation is a lifetime journey. It begins and ends with God and his grace. Our part is to repent and believe from the beginning to the end. As I close, I would like to share the starfish story. Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. One day, after a big storm had passed, the man found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see. As he was walking along the shore, he saw a young man picking up small objects and throwing them into the ocean. He asked, "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?” The young man paused and replied, "Throwing starfish into the ocean." “Why?” asked the wise man. The young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die." The old man said, "But, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!" At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. And he said, "It made a difference for that one."[2]
On our salvation journey, we often struggle, we doubt, we backslide, we go through dark nights of the soul, failure in relationships. We make a wrong turn and bad choice. But still, God’s grace is greater, more powerful than our sins. God’s grace is always actively working in our life. Our part is to say “Yes” to God’s grace by faith. Our part is to daily repent (turn), daily renew our faith. It’s a “long obedience in the same direction.” So, let us start with one starfish at a time. The one who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Th 5:24). The one who began a good work (of salvation) in you will bring it to completion (Phil 1:6). Amen.
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[1] John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, Volume 11, 106.
[2] The Starfish Story, https://pawswakefield.rescuegroups.org/info/display?PageID=9457
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