“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV
“What’s the good of being good If everyone is blind And you’re always left behind? Never mind, Cinderella, Kind Cinderella...” -Into the Woods
Audiences often equate Cinderella with the virtues of goodness and kindness. She serves her stepmother and stepsisters without complaint, and at least in Disney’s version, she cares for those less fortunate than herself, including talking mice. In Into the Woods, Sondheim’s Cinderella sings about how her mother and her father instructed her to be good and nice, yet she finds herself questioning this approach. What, after all, is the point of being good if no one ever acknowledges the good things done? If one doesn’t see the results of being good, why bother?
Cinderella does the right thing, and she should be rewarded for her behavior, right? Isn’t morality transactional? I did the right thing; therefore, I deserve the reward. However, the Bible and Christian theology teach differently about the nature of humankind and the supposed transactional nature of goodness. As the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2, salvation comes because of faith in Christ and not because of any work on our part. In fact, the Apostle Paul writes specifically that this faith is a gift of God. In other words, we don’t build up a collection of good works that we then cash in for God’s favor. Unlike the ways of this world, grace isn’t transactional in the same sense.
The well-known Protestant reformer Martin Luther stated the idea this way: “Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved.” Our sin is so deeply embedded in our nature that good works simply aren’t enough. God is completely holy and righteous, and we can only hope in the completely holy and righteous life of Jesus Christ. If we place our faith in any other source of salvation besides Christ, we are ultimately depending upon ourselves. Quoting Luther again: “The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands.” We cannot take salvation upon ourselves and hope to please the Lord. We must fully and wholly lean upon faith in Christ and His work on our behalf in His life, death, and resurrection.
Does this faith negate the need to live a holy life? On the contrary, the Apostle Paul implores believers to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12, ESV). Our response to the gift of faith in Christ is a life lived before Him with reverence and thankfulness. When you are given a gift, you generally respond with appreciation and love for the gift-giver. Likewise, when we are given the gift of faith, we hopefully respond with great joy and gratefulness that our lives demonstrate each day.
While Cinderella might earn her reward through her own goodness, the price of eternal salvation comes at a much higher cost: the very life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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