Many Christians begin to feel anxious, insecure and confused due to a failure to keep in mind some fundamental facts about the nature of Christianity. The first fact is that it’s all about Christ, it’s not about you. Paul confirms this when he writes, “By grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” When Paul writes, “not of yourselves,” he means that salvation (your relationship with God) is not something you produce, earn or even maintain.
Christianity, as the name implies, is all about Christ and his work. (If it were about you and your work, it would have your name on it.) If Christianity is all about Christ and his work, then it cannot be about you and your work. It cannot be both at the same time. I like the Message translation of Ephesians 2:8. It says, “Saving is all his idea and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it.”
Either Christ is the savior and does all the saving, or you save yourself by your own work, but not both. Imagine yourself swimming in the ocean, caught in the rip-tide, being pulled out to sea. As you’re going down for the last time, the lifeguard shows up, takes hold of you and pulls you to safety. In this illustration, all of the saving was accomplished by the lifeguard. The only thing the drowning person can claim to have done was to relax and allow the lifeguard to do his job. This is exactly the way Christianity works: Christ does all the saving. All we are supposed to do is relax and let him do his job.
This fundamental principal of Christianity governs the entire Christian life, from beginning to end. At no time do we take over and try to improve on his work. It’s his work from start to finish. This is why Paul wrote to the Philippians, “He that began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” All we do is trust him enough to let him do it.
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