Whom Is It That Saves?

"The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient." ~Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 AD

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6

Is it I that saves myself? Indeed if we could save ourselves, His horrific crucifixion was a waste and completely unnecessary. I can no more save myself than a drowning man in icy waters out in the middle of nowhere can through paddling harder! The more I focus that I'm drowning, and try with every ounce to save myself, the more I'm going to wear myself out, and eventually drown anyway. It is the buoy of Christ whom God graciously sends along to me, whom will hold me up, and save my otherwise sorry (as in wretched!) drowning soul.

There is not a spark of goodness in any of us, and the more we proclaim there is, the more there truly isn't!

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24

"Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!...." ~Romans 7:25

It is HE, not I, that gives me the victory!

We are justified by faith:

“Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

“To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness." (Romans 4:5)

(click here, or here, to read about justification by faith)