Faith and Grace

Spiritual salvation comes as a gift of God's grace, but it can only be received and become personally effective in individuals' lives by the response of faith. To understand the process of salvation, we must understand these two words - "saving faith" and "God's grace".

Saving faith: Faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition for receiving God's free gift of salvation. Real faith is an active response from the heart of a person who truly desires to accept Christ as Savior and to follow Him as Lord. This means that faith is more than intellectual acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is God's Son who died to pay the price for our sins. True Biblical faith involves an active trust by which a person surrenders complete control of his or her life to Christ and commits to following His purposes. The New Testament description and pattern of faith includes four main elements:

1. Firmly believing Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead to bring us life, then trusting in Him as our personal Lord and Savior. It involves believing with all our hearts, surrendering our wills (our desires, choices, plans and motives) and devoting ourselves completely to Jesus Christ and His purposes as revealed in the Bible.

2. Faith involves repentance and a complete turning toward God in order to follow Christ. True Biblical faith always involves sincere humility and repentance (Acts 2:37-38).

3. Faith includes obedience to Jesus Christ and His Word. Such obedience must become a way of life, inspired by our trust in Christ, by our gratitude to God and by the life-transforming work of the Holy Spirit. It is an "obedience that comes from faith (Romans 1:5). For this reason, faith and obedience go together. They cannot be separated when it comes to serving God and following Christ. True saving faith is not possible without the commitment to sanctification (the ongoing process of spiritual purity, separation from evil and growth to a maturing faith.)

4. Faith includes a passionate, personal devotion to Jesus Christ that expresses itself in complete and selfless trust, love, gratitude, and loyalty. In a personal relationship with Christ, true faith cannot be separated from love. The two completely work together. Both faith and love represent a personal act of surrender and self-sacrifice directed toward Christ.

5. Faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior is both the act of a single moment and an ongoing attitude of action that must continue to grow and gain strength. Because we have faith in a definite person who loves us and gave His life for us, our faith should become greater. Trust and obedience - two of God's primary requirements in our lives - develop into loyalty and devotion. Loyalty and devotion then develop into a strong sense of personal attachment to and love for the Lord Jesus Christ. This king of faith in Christ brings us into a new relationship with God and spares us from His final judgment against sin. Through that new relationship, we become "dead to sin" and live in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as a God of grace and mercy who showed love to His people, not because they deserved it, but because of His own desire to have a personal relationship with them and to be faithful to the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Justice could be described as getting exactly what e deserve. Mercy could be described as God sparing us from the consequences and judgment we deserve. Grace could be described as God granting us favor and benefits we do not deserve. The New Testament focuses on the theme of God's grace in the giving of His Son, Jesus, who willingly gave His life for undeserving sinners. Christians today continue to experience that grace through the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit conveys God's mercy, forgiveness and acceptance, and He gives them the desire and power to do God's will. The whole process and progress of the Christian life is dependent on this grace.

God's grace must be desired, pursued and accepted. Some of the ways by which God's grace is received are: studying and obeying God's Word; hearing and responding to the preaching of the gospel; praying; fasting; worshiping Christ; being continually filled with the Holy Spirit; and participating in the Lord's Supper.

God's grace can be resisted and rejected, received in vain and without lasting effect, set aside and disregarded and abandoned by people who, at one time, truly believed and accepted Christ (Gal. 5:4)