“There is no work that earns my salvation. But for my salvation, I will work.”
It seems fair to say that we can get a little touchy about what is and is not commanded in the Bible for the followers of Jesus. I am one of them. Of course, we must acknowledge the life-giving truth that because of the wondrous grace of God, there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. Consider this beautiful refrain by Elvina M. Hall, “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
I thank God for my salvation every day. We all should. Yet, the older I get, the worse my physical vision seems to get, almost daily, but my spiritual vision becomes more precise as my shortcomings fall into focus. The closer I get to Jesus, both in knowledge and time, the more wrecked I become in my own eyes. This is not a pity party of self-loathing, just the reality of my human condition. Oh, how I long to be with my Jesus. But until then, I have stuff to do, so I work diligently for the kingdom of God. For yes, Jesus paid it all, but now all to Him I owe. Jesus is my everything.
As I seek to serve God, the reality of my fallen nature helps me relate deeply to Paul when he writes, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:21-25a)
I am so grateful to Paul that he answered this question. Jesus is the one who has, is, and will save those who receive Him (John 1:12). I know with my mind I should be serving God with my all, but there are times in my flesh I do not feel like it. Even today, in my flesh, I can get bent out of shape when someone tells me what to do because my pride gets wounded. Can you relate? Yet to Jesus, we truly owe everything with unwavering loyalty. Will you serve Him with your all?