Faith is essential. The book of Hebrews says, without faith it is impossible to please [God]. (Heb. 11:6a NKJV)
But the concept of faith is hard to understand. By itself, faith saves no one unless it’s grounded in God’s grace. In fact, faith—believing—in the wrong thing is useless, vain, and harmful. By ourselves, we can’t come to the right type of faith. Our sin nature keeps interfering. Our reality is that we can’t even come to God and talk with Him unless we have faith.
That’s why we need grace. And grace isn’t easy to understand, either.
A common definition—one ‘oft repeated—is, Grace is God’s ability to do in us what we can’t do by ourselves. And because God desires faith, He gives people who come to Him the ability to receive faith. He sent the Holy Spirit to create the miracle of faith in our hearts.
Paul said, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God . . . . (Eph. 2:8) God’s gift of faith and God’s many other gifts are His grace.
Originally published August 17, 1990.
Picture: Daffodils, Patty's garden. Photo by Solveig.
But the concept of faith is hard to understand. By itself, faith saves no one unless it’s grounded in God’s grace. In fact, faith—believing—in the wrong thing is useless, vain, and harmful. By ourselves, we can’t come to the right type of faith. Our sin nature keeps interfering. Our reality is that we can’t even come to God and talk with Him unless we have faith.
That’s why we need grace. And grace isn’t easy to understand, either.
A common definition—one ‘oft repeated—is, Grace is God’s ability to do in us what we can’t do by ourselves. And because God desires faith, He gives people who come to Him the ability to receive faith. He sent the Holy Spirit to create the miracle of faith in our hearts.
Paul said, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God . . . . (Eph. 2:8) God’s gift of faith and God’s many other gifts are His grace.
Originally published August 17, 1990.
Picture: Daffodils, Patty's garden. Photo by Solveig.
4 comments:
Yes! Our ability to have faith is a gift from God--it is not just something we muster up. It is meaningless to have faith in faith itself, for its own sake. Our faith is only as good as the object we have faith in, meaning Jesus Christ. We can trust Him--we can put our full weight on Him.
Thanks Carla. And thanks for stopping by.
Grace -
G od's
R iches
A t
C hrist's
E xpense.
Good article.
WB
Thanks. Your acrostic is greatly appreciated.
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