“But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” (2 Timothy 1:8-9)
This verse was quoted in class on Wednesday night and something about it just jumped off the page for me. The thing that struck me so strongly was what Paul says about our call to a holy life.
One of Paul’s biggest purposes in much of his writing in the New Testament is to combat any idea of a “works gospel” in which our good works become the foundation and means of our salvation. But Paul is no libertarian who says, “so just do whatever you want in your life since you aren’t saved by works.”
There are two things about which Paul is always equally clear: (1) you can’t save yourself by your own holy lifestyle, and (2) living a holy lifestyle is a necessity for Christ followers. This verse highlights how Paul navigates the need to hold both these truths in a harmonious unity.
Notice what Paul says about this holiness of life. Such a life course is something we were called to by God, but we didn’t receive that calling because of anything righteous we had ever done. What this signifies is that living a holy life is not the means to being saved, rather living a holy life is what it means to be saved. Another way to state this is that such a holy life is what it looks like to be saved from/delivered from/ rescued from our own self-centered existence. If we understand that our sinful, selfish existence is something from which we needed to be rescued, then the gracious call to follow God in His holiness is a deliverance from a destructive existence from which we couldn’t free ourselves. A holy life is what it looks like to be rescued from the natural course each of us would choose on our own. And the invitation and power granted to help us live this kind of life is only given by God’s gracious choice to make it available to us in Jesus. We didn’t deserve this opportunity to become apprentices to this Holy King, but He graciously gave it to us.
So here it is, Paul clearly teaching that a holy life is important, but that life itself is a gift from God to which we are called by His grace. A holy life is not the means to salvation. Paul’s language in this verse makes it impossible to put a holy life before salvation. To be abundantly clear, we must affirm that our own holy works don’t precede salvation; and that means that we must also affirm that our own holy life doesn’t precede the holy life to which God has graciously called us. Rather, what precedes this abundant life is a gracious invitation to such a life that we didn’t deserve.
May we always speak with clarity equal to Paul’s in maintaining both that salvation comes by “grace through faith and not by works” AND the fact that we are “called to a holy life – not because of anything we have done.”