Bible study — Some thoughts about Faith
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote that “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). But what does this mean, all this faith and grace stuff? And don’t we have to do anything at all ourselves to get to Heaven? Paul writes again, this time to the Romans, that “much more will these who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
So, it seems to me (although I’ve read more than these two verses to get to this conclusion) that grace is the way in which God can love us — through Jesus’ death, he is able to give us amazing gifts, all totally undeserved, that we would not otherwise have been able to receive, simply because He loves us. And salvation through faith is one of these; something we could never have got through our own actions.
But how does this faith affect our lives, then? My dictionary defines faith as “confident belief in the truth, value or trustworthiness of a person, idea or thing”. So I believe in God. Okay, can I just sit here and say, “I believe in God, that’s good enough for me,” and get into Heaven that way?
NO! Faith must be an active thing — it must mean something to us and change the way we live. James 2:18 says, “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works and I will show you my faith by works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder!”
Clearly, our belief in God must change our lives. Faith cannot be passive. Though we don’t have to rely on our own deeds to be saved, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, if you find someone who claims to believe in God but doesn’t love Him enough to do anything about it, be very suspicious indeed!
What should we do with our new faith? What form can these works take? There are whole other Bible studies waiting to be written about that, but in the words of Paul (Romans 12:1), “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” Amen.