No, there’s nothing we can possibly do to save ourselves.  It is God Who graciously enters into covenant with His people (Exodus 34:10), in spite of our rebellion against Him (Exodus 33:3).  It is only the mediation of Christ which prevents God from abandoning us altogether – a mediation which Moses models for us in Exodus 33:17.  Or as the Reformers summarized it, we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

But once we have been saved, how should our lives reflect our gratitude to God?  In today’s passage, all the people whose spirit moved them brought contributions so that the Lord’s Tabernacle could be built.  They brought expensive things:  objects of gold, silver and bronze and precious gems.  The women who were skilled at spinning brought all kinds of yarn.  And then Bezalel and Oholiab oversaw the work of many other craftsmen who did the metalsmithing, the weaving and the carpentry needed to construct the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:20-36:1).

Now, we aren’t called to do exactly the same things.  It’s no longer necessary to conduct all those animal sacrifices in the way the Old Testament people did, so we don’t need to construct this sort of movable worship space.  Moreover, we know that Jesus lives within all His people – all who trust in Him now make up the Temple of the Lord (I Peter 2:5). 

But God has given all of us different gifts and abilities.  God has entrusted each of us with a certain amount of material wealth, and He has given everyone the same 24 hours in each day.  So, how can we use all of these gifts – our time, our talent, and our treasure – to show our gratitude to the One Who has saved us and blessed us and made us His own?  The Reformers put it this way – how can we live our lives for the glory of God alone?

Exodus 35:20-29 (ESV)

 ²⁴ Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the LORD’s contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it. ²⁵ And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. ²⁶ All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats’ hair. ²⁷ And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastpiece, ²⁸ and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. ²⁹ All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD.