More and more I am convinced.
Faith..is not a thing we have.
But an action we preform when we truley believe.
Many say you just have faith and your saved.
But that suggests you believe and then do nothing.
But If I believe and do nothing how do you know I am not just pretending to believe? It is easily feigned .
But You know Because of the course of action I take.
The first being the action of repentance .The action of ceasing from the activity of sin and instead ,doing the activity of rightousness.
Jesus our Lord,did not save us by what he had. He did not have some mysterious "thing" hidden under his robes called faith that he pulled out and did magic tricks with. He believed the father and so he made the way of salvation available to us by what he Did,by the action he took based on his knowing (believing) the fathers word. The Action he preformed was an action of obedience .the action is called "faith" .
Now read again what we call the faith chapter.. By faith they did this and that. Which simply means by the action they chose to do because they believed...they achieved treatments in the Lord.
Just so we were saved "through the faith of christ" .salvation is made available to us through the obedient action the Lord Jesus took.
And again , folks favorite ditty.to excuse ourselves from any responsibility for our actions... "For by Grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves ,it is the gift of God ,not of works lest any man should boast..."
But let's pause a moment.. What is it that is not of works ?..it is salvation by Grace .that is to say, the opportunity and Way out of the coming judgment has been made available to us throught Christ's action. and how is the unearned favor applied to us .?.through what we Do in response to truly believing it ..ie through faith.
Note, the verse states "through faith" through the action we do motivated by the fact we truly believe . for BY Grace are yet saved THROUGH faith . to begin when we truly believe the word of truth ,the gospel of our salvation,-we repent . we act on what we believe..our first step of faith.
Where there is no out working action of righteousness based upon a claim to believe the word of God.There is no true belief and hence ,no faith is actioned.no salvation is then obtained. Saying we believe is one thing, but faith is acting like we really do believe .not just saying it.
And then we note the text does not stop at the words "lest any man should boast" ..but continues with ...for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works(things we DO) which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.."- it's not a new topic Its a continuation of the same point.
We are created to be and do (works of )righteousness NEVER to do unrighteousness .there is no neutral ground where we are excused from responsibility .so when we are reconciled to God We immediately begin (and increase in) FAITH .That which we DO because we have truly believed.
Allow me to finish with a very old (imperfect) analogy .
If the Lord made a chair for you and said .."sit in it and your legs will have rest " ,You did nothing to earn that chair .He ,out of Grace(unearned favor) went and made it for you.At what point will your legs get rested ?when you say thank you for that chair I believe it's a good chair..? Or when you take action that displays both belief and gratitude ..and you take action by "sitting in it " ? It is the latter.
Just so God sent Jesus to graciously make salvation available to us. When we truly believe on him we will take action which displays it is so.
We will -have action of righteousness .We will walk in (Do) Faith. Not stand about idle saying we have faith as if saying it 20 times a day will achieve something.
The heroes of faith did not "say" they "had" Faith.
They Did Faith .
And it makes me read these final words in a whole new light......
"Without FAITH (the action we do when we truly believe) it is impossible to please God.
Faith..is not a thing we have.
But an action we preform when we truley believe.
Many say you just have faith and your saved.
But that suggests you believe and then do nothing.
But If I believe and do nothing how do you know I am not just pretending to believe? It is easily feigned .
But You know Because of the course of action I take.
The first being the action of repentance .The action of ceasing from the activity of sin and instead ,doing the activity of rightousness.
Jesus our Lord,did not save us by what he had. He did not have some mysterious "thing" hidden under his robes called faith that he pulled out and did magic tricks with. He believed the father and so he made the way of salvation available to us by what he Did,by the action he took based on his knowing (believing) the fathers word. The Action he preformed was an action of obedience .the action is called "faith" .
Now read again what we call the faith chapter.. By faith they did this and that. Which simply means by the action they chose to do because they believed...they achieved treatments in the Lord.
Just so we were saved "through the faith of christ" .salvation is made available to us through the obedient action the Lord Jesus took.
And again , folks favorite ditty.to excuse ourselves from any responsibility for our actions... "For by Grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves ,it is the gift of God ,not of works lest any man should boast..."
But let's pause a moment.. What is it that is not of works ?..it is salvation by Grace .that is to say, the opportunity and Way out of the coming judgment has been made available to us throught Christ's action. and how is the unearned favor applied to us .?.through what we Do in response to truly believing it ..ie through faith.
Note, the verse states "through faith" through the action we do motivated by the fact we truly believe . for BY Grace are yet saved THROUGH faith . to begin when we truly believe the word of truth ,the gospel of our salvation,-we repent . we act on what we believe..our first step of faith.
Where there is no out working action of righteousness based upon a claim to believe the word of God.There is no true belief and hence ,no faith is actioned.no salvation is then obtained. Saying we believe is one thing, but faith is acting like we really do believe .not just saying it.
And then we note the text does not stop at the words "lest any man should boast" ..but continues with ...for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works(things we DO) which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.."- it's not a new topic Its a continuation of the same point.
We are created to be and do (works of )righteousness NEVER to do unrighteousness .there is no neutral ground where we are excused from responsibility .so when we are reconciled to God We immediately begin (and increase in) FAITH .That which we DO because we have truly believed.
Allow me to finish with a very old (imperfect) analogy .
If the Lord made a chair for you and said .."sit in it and your legs will have rest " ,You did nothing to earn that chair .He ,out of Grace(unearned favor) went and made it for you.At what point will your legs get rested ?when you say thank you for that chair I believe it's a good chair..? Or when you take action that displays both belief and gratitude ..and you take action by "sitting in it " ? It is the latter.
Just so God sent Jesus to graciously make salvation available to us. When we truly believe on him we will take action which displays it is so.
We will -have action of righteousness .We will walk in (Do) Faith. Not stand about idle saying we have faith as if saying it 20 times a day will achieve something.
The heroes of faith did not "say" they "had" Faith.
They Did Faith .
And it makes me read these final words in a whole new light......
"Without FAITH (the action we do when we truly believe) it is impossible to please God.
