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We have all been blessed by God’s gift of life to us. It is through His Grace that life was given to us. Every birth is an act of God. Because of God through Christ Jesus, everyone who is born has the potential of being saved through God’s Grace.
We don’t know for sure who will be saved. We read a lot about works in the Bible, but we are also wary of passages like Ephesians 2:8-9 which says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works...” But then there is also Matthew 25:31-40 which says that those whom God has blessed, who help the least of His flock, will be saved.
If you help someone else who doesn’t have the resources you have, is that not a matter of works? James tells us in James 2:24-26 that a person will not be justified by faith alone unless they also have works. And some may say that this is confirmed by Matthew 25:31-40. But what if a person goes about their business not believing in God, not believing in anything for that matter other than themselves, but they perform works that are associated with people whom the Bible says can be saved in accordance with Matthew 25:31-40? And perhaps what about people who in accordance with 1 Timothy 5:8 provide for their household but do not believe in anything other than themselves? Is believing in yourself a bad thing if you were created under God’s Grace?
We read of Jesus’ Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-8 in which a judge who “neither feared God nor respected man” gives justice to a Widow against her adversaries. We read that he gives justice to her in order that she wouldn’t keep bothering him. But at the end of the day, has he not done what God would expect anyone to do who believes in Him? In the context of Matthew 25:31-40 and the passages that follow, would the judge be lined up on the right side among those whom God chooses to save, or will he be lined up on the left even though he did help someone less fortunate than him? And forget what Dante says about purgatory if the Bible doesn’t address it. So the choice the judge has is to be lined up either on the right side or the left.
And remember, in terms of being blessed through God’s Grace, we were all blessed just by being born. In that regard, God is already in our hearts. We will either act in the way that puts us in God’s favor, or we won’t. As we’re “wonderfully made,” as it says in Psalms 139:14, we determine our own path, with God in our hearts and looking over our shoulder.
We don’t know for sure who will be saved. We read a lot about works in the Bible, but we are also wary of passages like Ephesians 2:8-9 which says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works...” But then there is also Matthew 25:31-40 which says that those whom God has blessed, who help the least of His flock, will be saved.
If you help someone else who doesn’t have the resources you have, is that not a matter of works? James tells us in James 2:24-26 that a person will not be justified by faith alone unless they also have works. And some may say that this is confirmed by Matthew 25:31-40. But what if a person goes about their business not believing in God, not believing in anything for that matter other than themselves, but they perform works that are associated with people whom the Bible says can be saved in accordance with Matthew 25:31-40? And perhaps what about people who in accordance with 1 Timothy 5:8 provide for their household but do not believe in anything other than themselves? Is believing in yourself a bad thing if you were created under God’s Grace?
We read of Jesus’ Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18:1-8 in which a judge who “neither feared God nor respected man” gives justice to a Widow against her adversaries. We read that he gives justice to her in order that she wouldn’t keep bothering him. But at the end of the day, has he not done what God would expect anyone to do who believes in Him? In the context of Matthew 25:31-40 and the passages that follow, would the judge be lined up on the right side among those whom God chooses to save, or will he be lined up on the left even though he did help someone less fortunate than him? And forget what Dante says about purgatory if the Bible doesn’t address it. So the choice the judge has is to be lined up either on the right side or the left.
And remember, in terms of being blessed through God’s Grace, we were all blessed just by being born. In that regard, God is already in our hearts. We will either act in the way that puts us in God’s favor, or we won’t. As we’re “wonderfully made,” as it says in Psalms 139:14, we determine our own path, with God in our hearts and looking over our shoulder.