Quick and Easy Salvation

Is salvation quick and easy that we don't have to do anything?

No, that isn't the right question. 

Do we have to do anything to be saved?

That isn't the right question either. The fact is, salvation is costly. Yes, it costs a lot. But God paid the hefty price. He sent His son to die on the cross, to be punished for our sins. And He, out of no obligation, freely saved us.

It's not like we can ever talk about salvation as if were cheap and easy, as it its effortless and costs nothing. Because it cost God a lot. Just because it cost you nothing in a sense doesn't it costs God nothing, and that anything can talk about it like that. It costs God, and it should cut us to the heart when we think about how much it cost Him, and make us grateful and willing to do anything for Him.

It cost God, there it is costly. Therefore it costs us, in a way, because it puts us greatly in debt to God, with a debt we can never repay.

We should never speak lightly of salvation. We should realize how much it costs God, and thus, because of how priceless it is.

Salvation causes us to follow after Christ. We who have been bought at a high price now belong to God and not to ourselves and our sin. We live as debtors to God and His grace. His demands of discipleship will cost of our lives, our lives which are worth far less that His, which He deemed worthy of His sacrifice.

"We don't have to do anything to be saved". Here's my second point. It is so quick and easy to be saved, if it requires not even a molecule of effort, or desire, or repentance, or confession on our part, how come the whole world isn't saved, at the blink of an eye? If there's no difference between the life and attitude and action of the saved and unsaved, then why isn't everyone saved? And why does anybody need to be saved?

If salvation is such a free gift, given to us indiscriminately, that we don't even have to ask for, simply receive (and even receiving musn't be considered something so heretical as an action), if salvation is so passive a state, then why isn't everybody in this whole world already saved? 

The fact is, this has a lot to do with Calvinism, or more likely, misinterpretation of Calvinistic principles, because the logical answer would then be, "because not everybody is predestined."

I believe in active salvation, not passive. I believe God didn't just randomly choose some to be saved and others not, regardless of action. That will result in the following:

Firstly, if you're chosen to be saved, no matter what you, no matter how sinfully you live, you will be saved. Secondly, if you're not chosen to be saved, no matter how righteously you live, no matter how much you seek God and etc., you will not be saved.

I believe that anybody who calls on God shall be saved, because the Bible uses the word "whosoever" or "whoever" a whole lot, and "whoever" means "anybody". 

(Rom 3:22)  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
(Rom 10:13)  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

(Mat 7:7)  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
(Mat 7:8)  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

That being said, of course nothing that we can do can save us, that's why we need salvation. That's why we need God. We cannot save ourselves. I'm simply saying that grace is costly, and those who have truly received cannot speak of it in a disrespectful way, and that salvation is active, meaning, it translates to action. It's not something we just passively "get". God saves us beyond and in spite of our actions, that is true. God saved Saul, who was not seeking Him, that is also true. But salvation does not make us inactive and lazy. And God does honor those who call upon Him, who ask, who seek, who knock, who show mercy, who are humble, who are meek, who are poor in spirit, who are weak, while at the same time regarding all men as fallen, all as undeserving, all as unworthy.

How can we understand all this? How can it make sense to us, who want to seek everything in black and white, when God is so far beyond comprehension? One thing I know, truth can never be known apart from God. If we want to know the truth, if we want to understand, we must know Him. He is above and beyond us in every way, and yet, makes Himself accessible.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
(Rom 11:33-36)