Hello and Welcome to Faith, Love & Grace. If you are like me perhaps you have been a Christian for many years and have struggled with the idea of faith. Maybe you aren’t quite sure what faith really is but, after a little over 20 years of Christianity, I am starting to get a clue about faith, love & grace.
God’s Love Is The Anchor Of Faith
How can you have faith that God will provide for you if you don’t know that He loves you? How can you have faith that God will protect you, take care of your family, heal your sickness, answer any of your prayers if you don’t know that He loves you?
Here is something you should know about how much God loves you. We have all sinned. We were born in sin and we can’t meet the righteous requirement of God’s law (10 commandments, 650 or so laws added by the Rabbis). God, however, has made a way. He sent his Son in the form of man (fully God and fully man), who was able to keep His law perfectly, enabling him to be a representative of all men and women and therefore, He was a suitable sacrifice for our sin. All of the sin of man, past, present, and future was done away with in the body of Jesus Christ, justifying all men before God.
We Have Been Made Righteous
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:19-20)
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Romans 3:21-22)
For if, by the trespass of the one man (Adam), death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (Romans 5:17)
As you can see from these verses in the book of Romans God has done everything for us, and, all of this was done out of love. I am sure you have heard this verse of scripture from the book of John:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Jesus came into this world to make it possible for you and I to have a relationship with the living God. He didn’t come to condemn the world. However, the Bible is clear that if we don’t believe in the Son of God that we are condemned already. (John 3:18) This is because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Just as Jesus could represent all of mankind as a sacrifice for our sin, Adam represented all of mankind as a sinless being when he chose to disobey God, bringing sin and death to us all.
These truths are the beginning of faith. The more you understand the love God has for you the more faith you will have.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesian 2:8-9) Even the faith is a gift.
Even your desire to believe this message is not your own. No one is thinking about God. Again in Romans…
“As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “ Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “ The poison of asps is under their lips”; “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “ Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3: 10-18)
Jesus says..
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)
If you are reading this there is no doubt that you have felt the urge to believe the message about Jesus Christ at some point in your life. The fact that you have read this far says that you are being drawn into life with God through His Son Jesus. Don’t resist. Receive by faith – believe the message that you are hearing. Go to the Bible and read it for yourself. Just don’t resist Him any longer.
It is my desire to encourage readers and listeners to begin studying the Word of God for yourselves. Don’t take my word for anything you read or hear at the Faith, Love & Grace. You need to search for the truth yourself.
Faith, Love, & Grace 