There was, perhaps, no greater or more powerful revelation to God’s people than that of salvation by grace. The freedom and assurance provided by a Savior who paid the price in full is invaluable and indispensable to any healthy Christian walk. My own father, who was converted to Seventh-day Adventism in his early twenties, remembers months of dressing in black and refusing to laugh as a form of painful penance before the bonds of legalism were loosed by the discovery of Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace you are saved, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

Centuries after Martin Luther’s epiphany that salvation is a free gift purchased on the cross, Seventh-day Adventism itself struggled painfully to accept the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice. Where salvation is concerned, there is no room for works and there are no points awarded for personal merit.

However, the freedom of the gift of eternal salvation can become a tranquilizing agent in our daily lives, where we run the risk of abdicating responsibility and disengaging from a calling to be constantly pursuing a life of excellence and action, as modeled by the biblical followers of Christ.

The concept of salvation by grace rests upon the premise that humans have no merit and no ability that would ensure their eternal redemption. Although this is certainly true, to conclude therefore that all human achievements and abilities are of no value is a huge mistake. Christ, after all, entrusted the building of his church to a small group of followers, commanding them to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20).

Jesus promises continued support and aid, but he trusts these men and women to do the daily work of spreading the word, and he predicts that they will do this well enough to carry it into the far reaches of the known world.

God is never more pleased than when an individual recognizes his or her need and chooses to accept the free gift of salvation. However, God must also be gratified by a decision to be engaged and empowered by that grace.

In the act of salvation the responsibility and work are all God’s. However, to extend that theme out of its context and assume that we can transfer all work and responsibility heavenward, even where our daily lives and Christian walk are concerned, is laziness, not faith. Of course, I am not suggesting that each believer has crawled into bed after accepting Jesus and ignored his or her family, church, or job. However, there are more subtle ways in which we allow a misinterpretation of the grace of salvation to erode other responsibilities or achievement.

We misinterpret and misapply God’s saving grace when we suggest that prayer alone can substitute for careful planning, creative problem solving, and fiscal responsibility. We do not live grace-empowered lives when we suggest that a mistake or pain or loss is always God’s will and we are helpless in both its construction and consequence.

We are disabled by a passive concept of grace when we fail to place adequate emphasis on personal excellence and achievement, not holding our leaders responsible for mismanagement, and failing to encourage our students to excel, to attend elite schools such as Yale or UCLA, to become best-selling authors, to become presidents, CEOs, senators, and scholars, and not applauding loudly enough when they do achieve this success.

The Bible says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" (Eccles. 9:10). We are also encouraged to "Do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). Whether a plumber or a president, it is the responsibility of each believer to take his or her daily achievements seriously, as they are meant to reflect the nature of heaven and the character of our God.

Joseph was vice president of Egypt and Esther the queen of Syria. God chose Moses, educated in the courts of Pharaoh, to lead his people, and he has called each one of us to go powerfully into all the nations, examples of his excellence and empowered, not pacified, by his grace. Grace and excellence are not competing virtues.

We also sell short the gift of communion with God that salvation brings when we do not engage his word with hunger and passion, questioning, searching, studying, and growing daily through our own curiosity. We sell it short when, in our own churches, week after week, we offer nothing more to engage the minds of thoughtful attendees than the most basic of messages and ideas.

After all, in Martin Luther’s revolutionary vision of redemption was a concurrent desire that all men should have access to the Scripture to study the word for themselves—to engage in the dialogue on their own, without an intermediary, and to be powerfully involved in their own spiritual growth.

Salvation is the gift of God, but the choice to accept that gift, particularly where it coincides with the choice to become part of a community dedicated to Christ’s example, should then motivate us to heightened awareness, broadened curiosity, and increased responsibility.

By making us in his image, God has given us the power of choice and enormously capable minds, and we must respond to these gifts, to the assurance of salvation, by being responsible, grace-empowered people.

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