As I am working on my new book, “I am a Simple Man with a Simple Faith”, I felt it important to get this excerpt out today.
Grace.
Grace is important for our eternal future because we can not save ourselves. Yet you may ask, “saved from what?” And that brings us to the law. God has standards that He expects us to live by. “What are they?” you may ask. Therein is the problem with the “new” Christianity being preached today. Most teachers and preachers have stopped teaching about our need for a Savior.
We, all of us, have and continue to break the laws of God. Start with the 10 commandments. Have you ever broken even one of them? Yes, you have and so have I! Before we can ask for Grace we must face our sin and repent. The reason God sent John the Baptist ahead of Jesus was to convict the people of their sin so they would understand the Good News Jesus preached and would accept the Grace of God by accepting Jesus and His sacrifice as the only way to get right with God and be saved from the wrath to come.
Faith
For by Faith we are saved. You and I have to accept the free gift of God, salvation from the wrath to come, and we do it by having faith in God, that His gift is sufficient to cover our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Only the sinless will stand in the presence of God, and nothing we do will make us sinless, only the Blood of Christ can do that.
Trust
When we acknowledge our sin, ask for forgiveness through faith in God, then we are to Trust Him in all we do and the path He has directed us to follow. Just as Christ showed Saul of Tarsus, now Paul the Apostle, the things he would suffer for the name of Jesus, and faith in His name, so we must surrender to the will of God in our lives, and rejoice in that Jesus Christ will be by our side to bring us through this life and into His arms when we leave this temporary sojourn.
Grace, Faith, and Trust. It is as simple as that. Don’t make it too complicated with your traditions.
Blessings
John