48. Who, then, can be saved?
With mortals it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
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The language of this question and answer recalls Matthew 19:25–26. Jesus had just posed a great challenge to the rich young man who, though conscientious in regard to keeping many of the commandments, still fell short of loving his neighbor as himself—since he was unwilling to part with his abundance so that others might be relieved of their necessity. The rigor of the righteousness for which Jesus calls leaves his disciples asking, “Who, then, can be saved?” Faced here with the human inability to open our own hearts up to, and spend ourselves for, God and our neighbor as God merits and commands, we, too, might well ask: How can we be delivered from our predicament?
The good news is that God has taken the initiative to make a way forward for us where we could not make headway on our own, first in reaching out to us in reconciling love in the person of the Son and, second, in gifting us with the Holy Spirit to guide us into and empower us for living righteous and holy lives pleasing to God. In the words of Paul:
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:2–4 ESV)
Keep walking by the Spirit, and you will surely not consummate the impulsive promptings of the flesh. (Gal. 5:16 DST)
The Holy Spirit is the divine solution to the problem both of human waywardness and human inability where righteousness is concerned.
Above all, the question and answer here remind us that the entirety of our salvation from beginning to end, from the first prompting to repent to the last moment of perseverance in love and holiness in this life, relies on God’s initiative and intervention.
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Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. . . . For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:5, 16 NIV)
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8 ESV)
See also Matt. 19:26; John 3:36; 6:40; 8:51; 11:25–26; Gal. 2:21; Eph. 2:1–10; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5
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This is an excerpt from Christian Faith and Doctrine: An Annotated Catechism for the Global Methodist Church. Seedbed is pleased to partner with The Global Methodist Church to offer this companion resource to A Catechism of Christian Faith and Doctrine for the Global Methodist Church.
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