God's Grace and Our Faith

If you check the many occurrences of the word “grace” in the Bible you will find expressions like these:

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. (Acts 6:8 NIV)

When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13:43 NIV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:3 NIV)

Continue your search and you find that grace belongs to God. Now do the same with the word “faith.” Here are a few examples:

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints… (Ephesians 1:15 NIV)

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. (Acts 20:21 NIV)

So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. (Acts 27:25 NIV)

As you continue your search you will find that faith belongs to man to be placed in God. I am not saying that faith is not a gift from God. I am saying that the Bible says that faith is something that man can have and that it is placed in God. Grace is something that God has that He gives to man.

Here are two verses, Romans 5:1 and 2a, to meditate on.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. (NIV)

When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. (Acts 18:27 NIV)

(An excerpt from On Being a Christian by Jim Wilson)

Comments

Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today. A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg. Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it. Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...

Marriage Counseling, Part 2

Dear Friend, This letter is long overdue. It has been in my head for months. First, I think you know that I both love you and like you and respect you. If you do not know that, please take my word for it. You know that I am willing to be confronted without dissimulation. In the many years we have known each other, I have assumed you were a Christian. I do not have to know absolutely (God knows those who are His). You have had an interest and an education in Christianity. Even if you were not, or are not, a Christian, this does not affect my love, like, or respect for you. The last few times we have been together, you have assured me that any adultery was in the past and that you were ready to get right with the church and with your family and that you had repented toward God. You assured me that you loved your wife and your children and you were committed to them. I recognize that Christians can (and sometimes do) sin repeatedly. I also understand that it is possible for Chri...

Roots by the River

Search This Blog