WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.

Salvation is man’s most imperative, crucial and urgent need… “for all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” (Romans 3:23)

If we expect to become righteous by our own achievement or justify ourselves by an attempt to keep God’s law perfectly we are reminded by God through His inspired word in Romans 3:10 “there is none righteous, no, not one” and in Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Without Christ, a sinner is estranged – separated from God’s people, a stranger to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God. (Ephesians 2:12).

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a

“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.” Ephesians 2:8-9 Grace means a free (not cheap) and unmerited gift or favour. God bestows favour even upon the ill-deserving and grants to sinners pardon of their offences and bids them accept eternal salvation through Christ. Grace is God’s part in our salvation. Faith is our response to God’s grace.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 God’s grace offers salvation to all people regardless of their race or record.

Salvation By Grace Is Conditional.

God saves us by grace; God’s offer of grace is conditioned on our faithful response to His will. “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” Ephesians 2:8a. If salvation were by grace alone, since grace is extended to all, literally all would be saved: even those who did not wish to be – such universalism is untenable.

God has determined that we play a part in our salvation by exercising choice and faith (not works). Man’s part is to have faith or to believe on the Lord. We are  justified freely by his grace…through faith...

Repentance and faith are not vicarious but are the free acts of men.  Men, with their own mind, heart, and will must renounce sin and receive Christ. Turning from sin and reaching out in faith to Christ are the acts of man, and every man who so responds does so because he honestly wishes to do so.  He wants to be forgiven and he can only be forgiven by repenting and believing.  No one can turn from sin for us, we must do it.  No one can trust Christ “in our place,” we must personally, knowingly, and willingly believe, trust or have faith in Him in order to be saved. God doesn’t repent and believe for us, we repent and believe.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:23-28

What Is Saving Faith?

God paid the price and offers us salvation freely (not cheaply but extremely costly). Obedient faith does not attempt to earn or merit salvation. It is evident that we cannot save ourselves.

Biblical faith is living and obedient. “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,” Hebrews 5:9. We see a Biblical demonstration of saving faith in Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

Noah and his family were saved from destruction because he, “moved with godly fear, prepared an ark…and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith “ The same kind of faith saves us today. Faith is Faith in action.

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5

God is Love and God is Holy. The holiness of God is directly related to His righteousness. The Holy and Righteous Judge of the Universe cannot overlook wickedness and evil – sin. If we, who are mere humans demand justice (and rightly so) on planet earth against those who do evil, etc, what more of The HOLY GOD.  We cannot emphasise on love of God alone without emphasising that God is Holy and Righteous too. Therefore at the Cross of Calvary where Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, God’s holiness, justice and love intersect and met.

Some of the attributes of God.

GOD IS OUR POWERFUL, MAJESTIC, SOVEREIGN CREATOR (Genesis 1:1-3, Psalm 115:3. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16) 

GOD IS LOVING, COMPASSIONATE & PATIENT  (Psalms 36:5-7, 2 Peter 3:9) 

GOD IS PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS & JUST (Psalm 7:9-11, Deuteronomy 32:4,  “God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day” Ps 9:11)

GOD IS HOLY & PURE  (Isaiah 57:15.Psalm 99:5, Isaiah 6:1-3)

BECAUSE HE IS HOLY, GOD
IS A GOD OF GREAT WRATH (Romans 1:18-20, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9)

An insight into the Triune God, ONE GOD in “3 Persons”**

**”..The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” Deuteronomy 6:4

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me.” Isaiah 45:5 Notice it is not no God besides us.

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5

God refers to Jesus “But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;” Hebrews 1:6-8

Jesus said to His disciples. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19 Jesus spoke clearly of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, if you read this verse attentively, you will see that the Three have just one name. It says, “baptizing them into the name” (not names) “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” There are Three with one name. This is the Triune God, the Trinity. ONE GOD in 3 “Persons” not and NEVER 3 Gods. We cannot understand the Trinity fully but that is how God reveals Himself to mankind – both “I and Us”. Don’t forget we are finite and God is infinite – we may not fully comprehend God. BUT what God has revealed is sufficient for our salvation.

On each Valentine’s Day, statements of affection, devotion and love are exchanged by humankind all over the world.

There’s no greater love for us than God’s love for us.

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.” 1 John 3:16a

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

An acrostic of ‘valentine’ may be formed from John 3:16

It is not the desire of God that any humans should  perish but to come to repentance.

“….God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. “1 Timothy 2:3-4

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

Living with ignoring God’s existence ..a deceitful trap with horrifying eternal consequences.  -> http://goo.gl/BtFres 

God’s handiwork is evident – sun, moon, stars & all of creations, proclaim His wisdom and power that reverberates through the corridors of time. ~ Cheong Kok Weng

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.”~ C.S.Lewis (page 32 of The Case for Christianity.)

Two researchers have demonstrated that DNA harbors information in both digital and analog formats. These two types of information appear to be coupled intrinsically through DNA nucleotide sequences to form an irreducibly complex system. This new insight reveals the elegant sophistication of genomes and advances the case for intelligent design by highlighting the remarkable analogy between the structure and operation of biochemical information systems and the information systems produced by human designers.

…. The implications of this insight are also far reaching when it comes to the biochemical case for intelligent design. In The Cell’s Design I describe numerous ways in which the structure and operation of biomolecules and biochemical systems parallel human designs. I argue that these close similarities logically compel the conclusion that life’s most fundamental processes and structures stem from the work of an intelligent Agent. ~ Dr. Fazale Rana  See-> http://goo.gl/ufNvFx

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”  Psalms 14:1a

God gave us a mind, to reason (and not to commit intellectual suicide), in fact God appeals to our mind to reason and says “Come now, and let us reason together,” in Isaiah 1:18

This  image’s taken from a space probe Voyager 1, of Earth from a distance of 6 billion kilometers – a mere pale dot, less than a pixel against the “vastness of space” of the Solar System.

The streaks are bands of sunlight scattered by the camera’s optics. Earth was caught in the center of one of the scattered light rays.

The Solar System in the Milky Way Galaxy.

A colossal supercluster of galaxies known as Laniakea, the home of Earth’s Milky Way galaxy and many other.

God is the author of Christmas.

The Bible says that all have sinned. We are all born with a sin nature. Through the sins of Adam and Eve, we have all inherited that sin nature. We need to have that removed – the Antidote to Sin.

God is Love AND God is Holy. The Holy God cannot tolerate sin and the only way for man who has sinned and be reconciled to God is through Jesus. Jesus came so He could die on the cross for ALL of our sins. If we believe that Jesus died for our sins, we can ask Him to come into our hearts, be our Lord and Saviour and forgive us; then, we are reconciled with God. And have eternal life in heaven – when this life on earth is over, heaven will be our eternal home one day.

In the death of Christ, God cancelled the record of debts that we can never repay, and nailing it to the cross. The choices is ours now – whether to receive God’s offer of redemption or reject it.
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John‬ ‭3‬:‭36‬

God, by His very nature, cannot die. But the God-Man, Jesus Christ, could die. Jesus is fully God and fully man – in His nature as God, He is immortal but as human, He’s mortal.

Although Jesus became fully human (“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5), He retained His status as God (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-3 ).

Christ Jesus is God “Incarnate” – means that God the Son, took on a fleshly, bodily form. (And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14)

How Jesus is able to be both God and man (has two distinct natures, Divine and human) simultaneously is one of the great mysteries, and that’s how God revealed Himself to us. Jesus, while remaining fully God, became fully man.

Jesus as man:

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4:2-3a

The Bible teaches the Incarnation—Jesus became fully human by taking on human flesh. Jesus was conceived in the womb and was born (through the virgin Mary. Luke1:26-38), had natural physical needs, human emotions, died a physical death and He was resurrected with a physical body (‘Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” ‘ Luke 24:39). Jesus was human in every way except for sin; He lived a completely sinless life (“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus as God (God can never stop being God because He is immutable and infinite.):

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Revelation 1:8

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “ Hebrews 13:8

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” John 8:58 Jesus is saying that He pre-existed before Abraham and that He is the great I AM – God.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23

Jesus Appears to His Disciples after the Resurrection.

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?  Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Luke 24:36–39

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” I John 1:9

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:10-13

Look at Christmas afresh, this is the season to invite Jesus into your heart & life. You will REALLY then have a “Merry Christmas… And Eternal Life”

Jesus Is The Reason For Christmas! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!