NOTES for Luk 18:26-27

Everything Jesus says to the people listening to Him inevitably leads to this question: "Who then can be saved?" All the maximalism of the Sermon on the Mount, all His parables that overturn habitual ideas about righteousness and piety, all this, if received not complacently but seriously, can plunge us into the darkness of despair: I cannot do this, it is beyond my strength! I am a sinner, and there is no salvation for me. All this is because we still think not of salvation but of self-salvation; inwardly we try to deserve salvation, to earn it, and constantly run up against our own inadequacy. But two thousand years ago Jesus said that our salvation is not our work and valor, but the gift of God's grace. It is possible for God to save us, not for us! Our task is to entrust ourselves to His salvation, not to persist in our own understanding of the paths of righteousness; to let Him intervene in our life at the stage of making decisions, not at the stage of "dealing with" the consequences of our actions. In fact, this is the faith-trust in God that proves saving for us.