Living By Faith Blog

"Whenever we don't obey, it's always because we are not trusting some promise."

That was an eye-opening statement for me, found on the Living By Faith Blog.

The blog features the opportunity to subscribe to a weekly newsletter filled with spiritual growth resources.  I subscribe.  It's pretty great, and I encourage you to subscribe also.  This has been one of the most reliable and helpful resources that I've come across in a long time.

May our Lord Jesus bless you.

JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Part VI

A Relationship with Jesus
and God, His Father

Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ means that we enter into a new, positive relationship with Him and with His Father, who is God. We are saved from the wrath of God, and we have peace with God. And we finally acknowledge that Jesus, who is already Lord of all, is also our personal Lord, our Master, and that He should govern our lives from here on out.

If we believe in Jesus, God will no longer hold our sins against us, because His Son paid our debt in full by His death. But we must trust in the name of Jesus and depend fully on Him, not on what we have done. As we've seen, our actions, whatever they may be, can never earn us peace with God. Only Jesus could, and only He did.

What does the choice to believe look like? The Apostle Paul explained it in these words:

…you
turned to God
from idols
to serve the living and true God,
and to wait for His Son from heaven,
Whom He raised from the dead,
Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

(1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)

Notice here: We must turn "to God." In order to do this, we must turn "from idols"— anything that we think can earn us salvation other than the One Whom God has appointed and sent. Our idols include our misdeeds, our sinful lifestyles, and also our misguided attempts to save ourselves. Only One can deliver us "from the wrath to come": Jesus.

Jesus alone is our peace with God, and God vindicated His Son by raising Him from the dead, which the Apostle Paul here points out. When we believe in Jesus, both as a one-time act and as a continuing lifestyle, we "serve the living and true God."

Moreover, we "wait for His Son from heaven, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come." One day in real history, Jesus will return to judge the wicked and take the righteous to Himself. The wicked will be judged for their own sins, and the righteous will be saved in spite of their sins because Jesus paid for them in full on the cross. Therefore, the Apostle Paul states that Jesus "delivers us from the wrath to come."

For unbelievers, Jesus will come to execute the wrath of God, but for believers, Jesus has already taken the wrath of God upon Himself. Therefore, He is our peace with God and our deliverer. We wait for Jesus to return, so that "our joy may be made complete" (paraphrase of 1 John 1:4) as we enjoy the peaceful presence of God and our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. All these things go together as one package, but the key is Jesus.

The Apostle John addresses this as well:

And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us understanding,
so that we may know Him who is true;
and we are in Him who is true,
in His Son Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

(1 John 5:20-21)

If you confess Jesus, you confess that He is the Son of God and that God is His Father. And in so doing, you repent—you turn away from idols that cannot save you, as well as from your other sins, and you turn to Jesus, who can save you completely, assuredly, and eternally. And you are accounted to be “in” Jesus, like a part of His body. And only in that way can you have peace with God, because God loves His Son.

Do you still stand in expectation of God’s judgment? You may be saved if you turn from your sins and trust Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is ready to forgive all who humbly come to Him.

Romans 10:9-13

...if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the Scripture says,
"Everyone who believes in Him
will not be put to shame."

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
bestowing His riches on all who call on Him.

"For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved."

Notice: "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." It does not depend on our background, our education, our money, our age, our ethnicity, or any other criteria. If we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, He will save us.

Notice, though, that calling on His name does not merely mean uttering the words, "Lord Jesus," without any inner conviction. The passage makes clear that we must believe and confess:

• We must believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. In doing so, we implicitly acknowledge that Jesus was a real man who died for our sins -- that is, the Christ -- and that God approved of His Son enough to raise Him from the dead.

• We must confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Once God raised Jesus from the dead, He made Jesus the Master of everything and everyone. Therefore, if we confess Jesus to be Lord, we admit that we are not our own masters. We admit that we are not capable of saving ourselves. We're not good enough to earn peace with God, but Jesus is, and He did. Instead of trusting ourselves any longer, we trust Jesus alone. Moreover, we agree that we will turn from the sins that Jesus died for.

When we believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for us, was raised for us, and presently reigns as Lord, and turn from our sins to ask for His forgiveness and help, we can call upon His name in prayer and tell Him so. There is no magic formulaic prayer that you must pray in this regard. Simply come, and confess that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is Lord.

Some may feel unworthy to call upon the name of Jesus for salvation. Well, none of us are worthy. But our salvation does not depend on us; it depends on God, who has mercy. And He gives mercy to all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus.

Some think that we must make ourselves more presentable to God before asking for salvation, that we must 'clean ourselves up' or be completely perfect before daring to pray for redemption. But this isn't true.

The whole point of this series is that we cannot clean ourselves up; we are hopelessly unclean in and of ourselves. Jesus alone can clean us, and He will. He simply asks that we turn to Him as children, acknowledging our imperfections, but agreeing to trust Him instead of our own efforts.

We are commanded to turn from our sins, but the power to do so does not come from our own strength or wisdom. Rather, once we ask Jesus to save us, He will give us His Spirit, who will equip us to live better lives. But that comes later. For now, let us take an initial step of faith and trust the One who died for us and lives for us.

If you have read this far and are convicted to act, I am convinced that God is for you, and He wants you to take this step. God says:

"Those who were not My people
I will call 'My people,'
and her who was not beloved
I will call 'beloved.'"

"And in the very place
where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,'
there they will be called
sons of the living God."

(Romans 9:25 b - 26)

So, call on the name of the Lord Jesus! If you trust in Jesus' name, God accepts you as His own adopted child. It’s all thanks to His only begotten Son, Jesus!

The Apostle Paul rejoices with us:

Romans 5:1-2

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through Him we have also obtained access by faith
into this grace in which we stand,
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

I pray that you have taken the step of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, beginning your new relationship of peace and life with Jesus and God. If you have done this, whether recently or in the past, you may be wondering what's next. Well, if the Lord wills, in the next section we will look at some of the things that believers are supposed to do.

---

All emphases are mine.
All Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
All pronouns for God and the Lord Jesus Christ are Capitalized.

For the previous part of this series, go here.
For the next part of this series, go here.
To go to the beginning of this series, go here.

Was Jesus really crucified?

The Christian Thinktank is a site packed with helpful articles. It helped me extensively when I was searching for logical support for my faith during college.

The site's creator, Glenn, has written a series directed toward Muslims, which concludes with this article. I think it is quite a helpful article, not just for Muslims, but for believers in Christ Jesus as well. For one thing, it clarifies what faith is and what it isn't.

Article excerpt:

All the work required to be done for our redemption from the penalty of our sins, for our forgiveness, for us to be given eternal life, and for us to be adopted as children of God was done by Jesus, on the Cross, in His death--at the command of God the Father.

We receive all this bundle of gifts (forgiveness, eternal life, new relationship with God, ransom from penalty) by simple faith or trust. We do not work, obey, or submit to God to earn forgiveness or to merit eternal life --we work, obey, and submit to God because He has already given to us (for free) this forgiveness and this eternal life.

In fact, as odd as it sounds, we do not ASK God for salvation--we TRUST Him for salvation. We take Him at His word, that He paid the penalty for our sins and that therefore, there is no penalty left for us to pay when we die. We believe His message that He has done this for us for us on the Cross, and the moment we begin to understand, realize, and then rest in that fact--He gives us our new status as forgiven, our new spirit with eternal life in it, our new 'name' before the angels as His adopted children.

Let me be clear what this faith or trust includes (or requires):

1. Faith includes a confidence in God that the death of Jesus did exactly what it was meant to do--pay for our sin-debt
2. Faith includes a heart-to-heart trust in Jesus (and God the Father through Him) as the One who will take us to heaven someday
3. Faith includes the recognition that our rescue from punishment is solely the work of God through Jesus
4. Faith includes the understanding that our rescue does not depend upon anything good we are or do--it only depends upon the perfect work of God in repairing the problem our sin caused in our relationship with Him. We 'turn to God' for our salvation, and 'turn away from' trusting our own good deeds or character for our hope for the future.
5. Faith includes a 'change of perspective' (repentance) toward God--we take His judgment seriously, and we take His provision for our salvation seriously.

Faith does NOT include (or require):

1. Prayer (People can pray to God without actually trusting Him)
2. Public confession of Christ (There are people who make public profession who do not actually trust God; and there are 'secret disciples' who are called believers in the New Testament)
3. Joining a Christian church, or leaving the synagogue or mosque
4. Enduring persecution when there is a different option (e.g., the bible talks about prophets of the Lord hiding in caves to avoid being killed by evil rulers, and Jesus taught us to 'flee from a city' when persecuted)
5. Commitment to 'be good' (this can be something we do AFTER we come to faith, and will result in service to God and others--but it is a result of trust, not a part of trust).
6. Sorrow or guilt over the past (this is an emotional experience that often comes BEFORE faith--helping us realize we need the rescue from penalty that Jesus provided on the Cross--but it is not a part of trust or faith in Christ.)

All of these are good things--many of which God desires for us to do after we have trusted Him for salvation--but they are not part of the faith or trust that God requires of us for eternal life and for forgiveness.

Trust is an internal attitude, a choice or realization one comes upon. When you realize and begin to believe that Jesus was who He (and God the Father) said He was, and that He did the things for our salvation that He (and the prophets) said He did, then your confidence (that this is true) is the core of biblical faith.

Here, again, is the article quoted above.

If you're looking for the rest of the series, it begins here.