the only hope of salvation

Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!

Psalm 60:11

If we are in need of salvation (and we definitely are), we can only find it beyond ourselves. Humanity is beyond helpless. Our most noble notions of morality, truth, and civil society are hopelessly warped by sin. It is foolish to think we can save ourselves. A court composed of criminals has no authority to impose penalties or to declare innocence and reprieve for a world of criminals! We are that broken. Vain… worthless… impossible… is the salvation that comes from man.

Our only hope is if God saves us. Imperiled as we are by the endemic evil of our sin, we need God (Whom we have offended in every way) in grace and mercy to intervene in our mess. He must help us. He must save us. And in Jesus, He has!

Human efforts at salvation sink us lower in the mire. We cannot sustain enough “good works” to counteract our desires for selfish promotion, prideful rebellion against God, or independence from God’s sovereign control. We cannot do “works of righteousness” to match up to God’s holiness. A theocracy demanding morality will never produce a holy society for this very reason: we spiritually are dead! Dead people cannot do anything.

This is where the gospel is our only hope. Only the grace and mercy of God as mediated through Jesus’ completed sacrifice to atone all sin can help us. His resurrection to defeat the power of sin and death will bring real and complete salvation in a new life that He must give to us. Only when we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness (one that is given to us and not manufactured by us) can we be taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. That is our only hope when all of mankind’s efforts fail.