Why Faith? The Rope and the Log

“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)

Why did God choose faith, and not love or patience or good behaviour, as the way we receive salvation? Spurgeon is careful — God doesn’t owe us explanations — but he offers some reasons. The first is simple: faith is made for receiving. If you give a poor man a coin, you put it in his hand, not his ear or on his foot. Or picture holding out an apple to a small child. “The child’s hand does not make the apple, nor improve the apple, nor deserve the apple; it only takes it.” Faith is like that. He quotes an old saying: faith is “the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it.”

Second, faith gives all the credit to God. God can’t stand pride, and he won’t save people in a way that lets them strut. A hand that takes a gift doesn’t expect to be thanked for taking it. So faith, Spurgeon says, “sets the crown upon the right head.”

Third, faith actually connects you to God. Here is the picture he says he couldn’t improve on. Years ago a boat overturned above Niagara Falls and two men were swept toward the edge. People on the bank floated a rope out, and both men grabbed it. One held on and was pulled to safety. The other saw a huge log floating past and let go of the rope to grab the log, because it was bigger and looked safer. The log went over the falls with him on it. It was big, but it wasn’t attached to the shore. That, says Spurgeon, is what trusting your own works or religious rituals is like — impressive, but not connected to anything. Faith can look like a thin cord, but the other end is in God’s hands, and he is the one pulling.

Fourth, faith is the mainspring of everything we do. Spurgeon notes that he only walks across his study because he believes his legs will carry him; people go to work because they believe in wages. So when God creates faith in us, he takes hold of the very thing that moves us — and from there love, prayer, holiness and courage follow. He quotes an old line: “What oil is to the wheels, what weights are to a clock, what wings are to a bird, what sails are to a ship, that faith is to all holy duties and services.” Faith also works through love, and it brings peace and joy. And he finishes with an old preacher’s picture. One servant throws his shoulder at a locked door and pushes with all his strength, and it doesn’t move. Another comes with the key and walks straight in. Trying to be saved by works is pushing at heaven’s gate. Faith, the old preacher said, “is the key which opens the gate at once.”

Now — what is this actually about? Faith saves not because it’s impressive but because it connects you to the One who is. The log is everything we’re tempted to cling to because it feels bigger: being a good person, doing more than others, going to church, keeping the rules, being right. Those things aren’t worthless, but they aren’t tied to the shore. What gets you out of the current is being joined to Jesus.

This also kills two opposite problems. If you’ve been proud of your own goodness, faith gives you nothing to boast about — you only took what was handed to you. If you’ve felt you have nothing to offer, faith doesn’t ask you to offer anything. An empty hand is exactly the right shape.

One thing to do this week: make two lists. On one side, write the “logs” you tend to rely on to feel okay before God — your grades, your reputation, your church attendance, your niceness. On the other, write one sentence about the rope: what Jesus has done for you. Then pray, specifically, letting go of the first list and holding on to the second.