In the parable of the prodigal son Jesus gives us a picture of salvation. The prodigal son takes his inheritance, leaves home and goes off and squanders it in a strange land far away from his family. He is reduced to tending pigs and eating their food. He comes to his senses and resolves to return home, i.e. repent of his sins. "I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like one of your hired men." But, and it is a great 'but', "while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." The father calls on his servants to take care of his son and prepare a feast. "Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again." (Luke 15:11-24)

This is what Paul is trying to describe in Ephesians 2:4-10. We, as children of God, have been dead in transgressions - away from the father squandering our inheritance - as he outlines it in Ephesians 2:1-3. "It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ." (The Message)

He saved us from the pigsty. He saved us literally from hell. He saved us from rejecting our birthright. He saved us from denying our origins. He saved us from refusing love. He saved us from insanity by enabling us to come to our senses. We are senseless if we think we can flourish as a human being away from God. When we distance ourselves from God we distance ourselves from the source of life. We are spiritually dead. But - He made us alive with Christ. He raised us up to live in the spiritual reality of heaven. All this is because of the riches of his grace, his undeserved gift, because of his incredible love and mercy.

John Newton, the former slave-trader knew all about God's grace to him when he wrote his famous hymn, Amazing Grace, which is a personal testimony to his own conversion. Philip Yancey, in his Foreword to Jonathan Aitken's biography of Newton writes, "Grace, like water, always flows downward, to the lowest place. I know no one who embodies this principle better than John Newton... This book recounts in agonizing detail the early descent of its author. Pressed into service in the Royal Navy, John Newton attempted desertion, was beaten senseless and dismissed for insubordination, then turned to a career trafficking in slaves. Notorious for cursing and blasphemy even among his fellow degenerates, Newton served on a slave ship during the darkest and cruelest days of trans-Atlantic slavery, finally working up to captain. A dramatic conversion on the high seas set him on the path to grace.... I have visited the beautiful stone church in the small town of Olney, England, where Newton began his ministry, a bucolic setting far removed from the vile stench of a tropical slave port. He never forgot, nor did he ever deny, the sense of undeservedness that marked all that followed. As he wrote in his diary soon after moving to Olney, 'Thou hast given an apostate a name and a place among thy children - called an infidel to the ministry of the gospel. I am a poor wretch that once wandered naked and barefoot, without a home, without a friend: and now for me who once used to be on the ground, and was treated as a dog by all around me, thou hast prepared a house..." For his memorial epitaph Newton wrote: "Once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy."

But Jesus and Paul knew that there would be good people who would not identify with the prodigal son. What does salvation mean for them? So Jesus told the story of the elder son. He was angry that his father would throw a feast for his younger brother. He was not gracious, loving or kind. His religion was that of hard work, duty, and earning your rewards in life. He did not see that his brother deserved any feast for all that he had done squandering the father's property with prostitutes. He had no time for grace - undeserved gifts. He could not see that he was as lost as his brother. He lived emotionally and spiritually distant from his father, alienated from his love and mercy. His pride was in his achievements. He was a self-made man, or so he thought. He saw his life as serving a sentence in a prison of his own making. "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders." What anger and resentment lie under those words? He too was dead in transgressions. He lived by the law. He thought that he could earn the right to his salvation through the sweat of his brow. He overlooked the love of his father and lived to himself alienated from his brother. He was proud of his self-righteousness and goodness.

Paul knew all about this attitude. It was his before he was converted to Christ. He boasted about his achievements. "I have worked much harder... I have labored and toiled, and have often gone without sleep..." (2 Cor.11:23ff.) He had confidence in the flesh, faultless. (Phil.3:6) So the attitude of deserving salvation by what one has done, by the good works we have accomplished on our own, by being a good person, was very familiar to Paul. That is why he wrote: "For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Mercy and grace are undeserved. They cannot be purchased, they cannot be earned, but only received with thanksgiving. Faith is the empty hand of the beggar receiving the gift of the king. Faith is receiving what God offers us in Christ.

"We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute; until we get there Our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter into His Kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us." (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, p.333)

"We neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do." (The Message)

We are not saved by our own good works but we are created and saved to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. God has work for us to do, but we do it out of gratitude and not out of duty. We live by grace and not by law. We pray for wisdom and guidance to know what good works God has prepared for us to do each day. We do it gladly and joyfully knowing that we are created and saved for this purpose, thus fulfilling our destiny. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

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