The starting point for my journey is the Grace of God. Everything in our faith must flow from the grace we received through Jesus' death and resurrection. What does that mean? Because our nature apart from Christ is that of disobedience and sin, it is impossible for us to pay for our disobedience without eternity in hell. this is because God is Holy, and nothing that is not holy can have eternal communion with Him. And since we cannot ourselves pay for our disobedience, a substitute was required.
Jesus willingly became that substitute. It is imperative that Jesus was sinless, for He could not have been a substitute if He deserved the same fate. Now Jesus has paid our price, and all that is required from us is our faith in Him as our Savior. "By grace you have been saved through faith."
The important question then is: What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 states: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." The two applicable definitions of conviction are: being "compelled to admit the truth" and "the state of being convinced." Our assurance then is in the eternal life with God in Heaven that Jesus promised us. And, as faith is also conviction, we are convinced that His Word is truth-from Creation to the death and resurrection of Jesus, to the end of the world and His return. Now, because we are convinced of this, we are compelled to admit this truth. "By grace you have been saved through faith." All the work of Grace was done by Jesus' death and resurrection. our role is to put our faith in God, Jesus as our Savior, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This is not "salvation by works," rather it is a conscious, determined choice that comes from being convinced of the truth of what God's Word says.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God." Since we are convinced of the truth of God's Word, our actions should be a natural outflow of what we know is true. If we are truly convinced of the truth of God's Word, then our faith requires we live this out. This is accomplished through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and his encouragement and conviction as we learn and grow in our knowledge of God and discernment of His Word.
We are made righteous through our faith in the Grace God has given to us. "The righteous shall live by faith." This does not mean that our action make us righteous, rather we are righteous by God's Grace through our faith And the result of this is that we live according to the Word of God that we are convinced is true.
This is the starting point from which Christians view and live in this world. It is from this perspective that I will write what I observe, learn and experience. I pray this will help anyone who reads it to grow in their faith in God.
