Over 6 weeks ago, at the beginning of Lent, I set a big jar next to a basket of marbles.
I included an invitation to put a marble in the jar anytime someone in the family (a) practiced their Lent fast (if they’d chosen one), (b) did the suggested fasting/giving/prayer activity for the day, or (c) saw someone doing something Christ-like.
I told them that on Easter, the marbles would be replaced by candies.
I intentionally chose a big jar and set out a LOT of marbles. Honestly, I didn’t know how many we’d get in the jar. I doubted it would get anywhere near full.
My youngest was very involved, remembering to check the daily activity and reminding me to put a marble in each morning. (I fasted from sleeping past my alarm…ridiculous, but needed.) Each Sunday, we added 5 free marbles to the jar as a reminder that the Sundays in Lent are a mini-Resurrection.
After 6 weeks, this is how our jar looked:
The youngest was also the one tempted to count how many marbles there were, reminding everyone to add more whenever they could. He was worried there wouldn’t be enough candies for all three of them. Saturday night, he was scheming how to get 7 more marbles in the jar by the morning. 😆
Unbeknownst to him, I had already purchased more candy than could even fit in the jar. So when they got up in the morning, this what they saw:
On the note: “Remember how full the jar was? Even after 6 weeks we could not fill it with our good deeds…God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ENJOY YOUR GIFT”
It’s hard to walk in the tension of grace and works, isn’t it?
We just walked through the season of Lent, where many of us intentionally practiced fasting, giving, and prayer. And while these actions draw us nearer to God and help us live into the reality of the Kingdom of God, we always have to remember that all our good deeds don’t save us.
His grace does.
And THIS, my friend, is the Gospel. The Good News.
The Good News is that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”1. It’s also the truth that “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”2
The Good News is also the truth that “by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast”3 not forgetting that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”4
Death AND resurrection.
Grace AND good works.
Not one or the other, but both.
May you discover the freedom of living in both truths this next season.
🌱 Growing with you,
Christie Thomas
- Romans 5:8
- 1 Peter 1:3-4
- Ephesians 2:8-10
- Ephesians 2:10
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