Last Friday I spent a few hours — about seven — putting together three new living room tables my wife and I received for Christmas. Am I ever glad that’s over!

As my wife will affirm, the words “assembly required” are practically anathema to me. I know that many people enjoy the challenge and sense of accomplishment they derive from putting things together. To be frank, I’m not one of those people. This stems largely from the fact that I am one of the least “handy” men on God’s earth. Tools are not utensils in my hands — they are weapons of mass destruction. Because I am a verbal and not a visual learner, I am practically incapable of interpreting and following diagrams, no matter how clearly presented. Any assembly task I undertake is invariably complicated by my ineptitude — I always end up taking apart and redoing some part of the project I’ve put together incorrectly.

Many people struggle with the Bible the same way I struggle with building furniture. They open the Scriptures expecting to find a set of sequential, paint-by-numbers guidelines to follow. Instead, they discover that God has provided a document requiring considerable assembly by the reader. The inspired instructions God has given us are not inordinately difficult — yes, there are difficult concepts in the Bible, but the directions pertaining to our obedience are for the most part straightforward and simple — but one has to assemble them from various portions of a substantial body of work.

Take salvation, for instance. The Bible identifies many components of salvation:

• The word of God (James 1:21)
• Grace (Acts 15:11; Ephesians 2:5, 8)
• Belief/faith (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9)
• The message of the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:21; 15:1-2)
• Baptism (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21)
• Calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13)
• Continuing in the doctrine of Christ (1 Timothy 4:16)
• Hope (Romans 8:24)
• Verbal confession (Romans 10:9)
• Love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
• God’s mercy (Titus 3:5)
• The name of Jesus (Acts 4:12)
• The blood of Jesus (Romans 5:9)
• The life of Jesus (Romans 5:10)
• Jesus Christ Himself (1 Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 7:25).

As you can see, many things save us, according to the Scriptures. As you can also see, one has to read pretty much the entire New Testament to identify them all. There is no single passage that says, “Here’s a specific list of steps to follow — do exactly this, and you’ll be saved.” We have to assemble the recipe from the entirety of God’s written plan, making certain we include everything He requires while adding nothing He has not mandated.

This is why, when we hear someone say, “We are saved by [fill in the blank] alone,” we know his or her view of God’s instructions is incomplete. If there is any one entity to which we can attribute salvation, it is God Himself, but His word tells us God has enabled that salvation by the combination of several elements. If we leave any out, we fall short of the desired result.

God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). We must search His Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11) and assemble them correctly (2 Timothy 2:15), so that we may by them become complete in Him (2 Timothy 3:16-17).