Faith and Grace
The subject of faith has been so badly abused that we have a world full of faithless people who call themselves Christians. Is salvation by faith or is salvation by grace? Doesn’t salvation come through repentance and obedience to God’s word? Doesn’t the Bible teach that those who do the Will of God will abide forever and enter the kingdom (1 John 2:17; Matt. 7:21)? Don’t you have to keep Christ’s words to overcome and never see death (John 8:51; Rev. 2:26)?
The whole subject of faith and grace cannot be clearly understood unless you understand the subjects of faith and works. Without the works of faith, faith is dead, being by itself (James 2:14-26). Jesus Christ’s faith had good works, so His faith was not dead. Jesus was always imitating the Father daily, just as we are admonished to do (Eph. 5:1).
If you say that you know the Lord, you must keep His word (John 8:55). You keep the Lord’s word by doing the works of the Father daily. You show people how to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ and you are ready to tell them, should they ask you, how to become a true disciple (Psalm 51:13; John 10:37).
Jesus did not come to the earth to do His own Will, but to do the Will of the Father daily as it is done in heaven (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). Jesus did good works to glorify God in the Father’s name (Matt. 5:16; John 10:25). We, today, are to do good works in thought, word and deed, in the name of Jesus, giving thanks through Him to the Father (Col. 3:17).
We need to be filled with the knowledge of God’s Will and have our minds renewed (Col. 1:9; Rom. 12:2). We cannot remain fools if we want to do God’s Will from the heart (Eph. 5:17; 6:6). We must diligently serve the Lord by happily practicing righteousness at all times so we can be blessed by Him and changed by Him (Rom. 12:11; Matt. 11:30; Psalm 106:3).
If you keep Christ’s faith, you will engage in good works (Titus 3:8). You can rightly say that you believe because you are obeying the gospel and are a doer of the Lord’s word (James 1:22). Then by grace, God will forgive all your sins, past, present and future. He will then give you the free gift of eternal life because you repented and brought forth good works to prove it (Acts 26:20).