The creation of heaven and earth
The First Step of your Salvation
To create means to bring things into existence from nothing. In the beginning God created the things which were not there. God did this to find what was not there. It was a work of redemption. God redeemed the creation from a state of nothingness by offering His only begotten son as a lamb slain.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That was the first step of your salvation. God did it in Christ for you before the creation of the world. God did it purely by grace. You couldn’t work it out. You were nowhere to work it out. You couldn’t make yourself anything. You were nowhere to make yourself anything. It is God who made you what you are, and only God can make you anything more. The only thing you have to do is to believe His word.
Therefore, if the very first step of your salvation was a work of pure grace and grace alone, without a particle of your effort, then any other work upon you can only be done by the same grace. Anything else apart from what grace does for you is only an interference in God’s work. Settle it within yourself therefore, that your perfection is the work of God’s own hand upon you. Yours is to hear and believe.
So, as the salvation of all starts off with pure grace plus nothing, its perfection ends in pure grace plus nothing. Notice, the salvation at its beginning stood on the grounds of pure grace, later on the law was added because of unbelief. Now, salvation is going to end on the grounds of pure grace again, with no law or human works.
2Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Echoes From Paradise 