Ephesians 2:8-10 NLV “8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Grace. To many, believers and unbelievers, grace is a confusing concept. But what is it really? Grace is an unmerited gift. Grace is favor and mercy that cannot be earned. Grace is a wholly undeserved blessing. A lot of the time I find myself working for my salvation, trying to be good enough for God. Recently though, the Lord revealed to me that I am wrong in doing that.
Here’s the gist of it: Jesus was the only one (and is going to be the only one) to live a blameless and sinless life. He did not deserve any punishment, but he was sent as the ultimate sacrifice to the cross. When his blood was spilled, he paid the price for our sin. He paid the ransom that sin was holding against us.
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We, who have sinned against God a countless number of times, are the ones who deserve death. We deserve destruction. But Jesus, who had done nothing wrong against God, took the blame for our mistakes. He took the punishment for the sin of the world upon himself. He felt the shame that we should have felt by carrying His own cross to the place of His execution, a public humiliation. He felt the pain that we should have felt by being nailed to the cross, painfully beaten, whipped, and mocked (Mark 15:16-32). Jesus made a selfless sacrifice because of His love for us.
If it was possible to earn our salvation, we wouldn’t need a savior. We could have given offering, volunteered, prayed, attended church regularly, acted like “good” Christians, and done a number of good works in order to be saved from our sin. But it was impossible to be saved by our own strength and by our own doing. God gave us an undeserved gift, grace, through our Savior Jesus Christ so that we can have salvation and be considered right with Him.
Romans 3:23-26 NLV “23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood…God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”
This week my prayer is that we would know and experience God’s unending grace. I encourage you to look deeper into the scripture that I’ve left at the bottom of the post. If you have prayer requests, questions or comments, you can email me at myakubik3@yahoo.com or just leave a comment.
Mya Kubik
Titus 3:4-7 – New life found through God’s mercy and grace
Romans 4 – Justification through Faith alone
Romans 5 – Faith triumphs in trouble
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/crucifixion-of-jesus-christ.htm - Gift of Salvation
Hi, I'm a non-believer, but I still want to understand Christianity at least. Don't be offended by my questions, please, I'm only honestly wondering.
ReplyDeleteSo if faith is the only requirement for God's grace, and our "works" have no effect, then what motivation do we really have to do good? Like, if we don't have the strength to to save ourselves, why should someone try?
Also, semi-unrelated, but do you believe in evolution?
Thanks,
Alethia
Hey Alethia!
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you commented. I've been compulsively checking to see if anyone is actually reading it, so it's nice to know that at least one person is!
I'll do my best to answer your questions, but keep in mind that I definitely don't have all the answers. The true answers are in the Word of God. When you have faith that Jesus is your savior, scripture says that a changing of your heart will happen. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" This new person, being created from the Holy Spirit is a person with huge faith. Faith that can move the mountains, according to Matthew 17:20, "...Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." If your faith is genuine and your heart is right with God, the Holy Spirit will make you desire to do good things for Him. So, good works come as a result of faith in your salvation through Jesus; faith and salvation do not come as a result of good works.
In essence, you don't really have to "try" to be good and "save yourself," because our salvation and our good works come naturally once we accept Jesus as our savior and have faith in Him.
The two main "sides" to this controversy are 1) Salvation comes only as a result of good works, and 2) Salvation only comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus. I agree with the second argument, but more importantly the Bible does. (Romans 2:8-10)
To answer your second question, no I do not believe in evolution.
First, Alethia is the ancient Spirit of Truth, which is what we are pursuing in our discussions. I don't think it sounded strange enough for you to look it up, so I just thought I'd let you know.
ReplyDeleteI have a blog too, by the way, so I TOTALLY get what you mean about compulsive checking :D
Now to business:
1. If faith changes a person, why do they still sin?
2. Why is it that those who are still benevolent, but do not believe, are still punished? Why should those who, without any prodding or need for change, are so generous be punished? Shouldn't or Couldn't your god give them another chance after death by seeing if they will convert? I understand your scriptures say that your god will be angry and whatnot, but no credit to generous people? That's harsh.
I mean, I understand your god only wants people to believe in 'him', but I really don't understand why :(
It seems extremely selfish of your god to base salvation purely on faith in him...
And why can your god not change his opinion in the last 2000 years? Why can't he have conversed with humans, got to know them better in heaven and then changed his mind? Is God really so strict? You say your god is forgiving...so why no chance after death?
I sense this argument to come to stalemate considering the enormous lack of evidence on both sides, regardless of how much we both believe we have.
Also, I believe you need to dedicate a post to evolution now too.
Also, please describe your "turning into a christian" point. Unlike many christians I know who were just born and raised christian, you seem to have some sort of revelation. Maybe not a miraculous change, but to not be a compulsive sinner you must have thought SOMETHING.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious.
sup,
ReplyDeletejus quickly gonna point out that your last line "He says love is not selfish" is kinda nice.
i agree with that.
now:
gay people love too. why bar them the right to profess their selfless love for another?
i wud go more in depht but i guess thats for your other post.
think bout it tho.
Dear Anonymous who asked about gay love (is there any other way to specify? I'm liking the Spirit names, or whatever they are):
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to do a post about why being gay is sinful soon. I'm still learning about it myself, so once I feel like I have a good understanding I'll do a more extensive post in explanation. But, in the mean time check out Romans 1, and 1 Corinthians 6. They cover the topic pretty thoroughly, but I understand that there's still a lot of confusion with interpretation and stuff. Hopefully I'll get around to writing it soon.
Hello I am new to this blog but I know Bradley and I think this is a great place to talk about our beliefs and doubts.
ReplyDeleteI was not raised christian and had that turning point in my life when I accepted God into my life. It changed the way I experience and look at life. Grace as I understand it is like an invisible blanket that God gives to us when we give our life to him. It is his way of helping us live our life in the way of Jesus Christ. Grace shows us the path God wants us to take, the path that is filled with love and good deeds. I don't believe that grace can protect us from sadness or pain, but rather help us deal with those things in a holy manner.
May God be with all of us.
Red
Oh geez, I'm gone for a couple days and comments rack up. Warning beforehand, I have 6 AP tests in May, and while this this discussion is extremely interesting to me, AP tests will be coming before this often enough.
ReplyDelete@Mya 1: Your creator selfless argument is eloquent. Congrats. I will muse over that a little more. However, I still am not convinced _at all_ that the Jesus Door is the ONLY way.
How do you know the Bible is right? Or even conceding that the Bible was inspired by God, how do you know it is expressed correctly?
"The continually progressive change to which the meaning of words is subject, the want of a universal language which renders translation necessary, the errors to which translations are again subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the possibility of willful alteration, are of themselves evidences that the human language, whether in speech or in print, cannot be the vehicle of the Word of God. The Word of God exists in something else."[Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]
@Josh:
1. I agree with you that our nature is "sinful" by your definition. Like you too, I believe that complete liberation from sin is impossible. HOWEVER, I think that it is also generally human nature to attempt to improve ourselves, with or without the faith of your god. Any other religion will tell you not to sin either, this is nothing unique proving your god is THE God (still assuming monotheistic. It _could_ be Gods.)
Also, many people follow in-built morals and are very ambitious. I think your goal should be more towards being as successful as you can, without being tainted. You do not have a duty to succeed, but you do have a duty to your future family, and you SHOULD try to get as much as you can so you make sure to distribute/donate to those who need it.
2. Don't worry about it; Mya's allegory was pretty excellent.
Also, keep your Facebook profile closed.
@Mya2: Lol they're not _all_ spirits, they're gods ranging from Greek, Norse and Egyptian beliefs. Probably going to research indian gods sometime too for names haha
I also encourage you to talk to a gay person before you write your post. I think that is really the only way you can really gain a true understanding of the matter. If a gay person would talk to you.
Again more in depth on your post on the actual subject, but this is one of the main reasons I do not like Christianity. Your views have driven one of my best friends to attempting suicide. Depression. Repression. I cannot express how damaged their lives are, living in fear. I KNOW they tried with all their hearts, with the entirety of their souls to change their preferences, but they remain the same.
@Red: Interesting. YOU definitely must explain what made you choose Christianity. Many people accept God, but I always wonder what drives them towards Christianity from a non-Christian background.
Let me know if I missed any points. Do not take dropping points for conceding the issue.
4. Its not about being good enough in terms of accomplishments. It's just about trying to do what you can with all your heart.
ReplyDelete5. Nevermind, I think I got the wrong verse. Forgot which one...but I believe the Bible claims the Earth is the center of the universe, and that the sun revolves around us somewhere? Yeah, that's kinda wrong.
7. Thanks :) And I forgot to say thanks for the luck on AP Tests haha, so thanks there too :)
Sorry, I'm rushing this post....Bradley's latest post....I literally shudder. If you share the view, which I assume you do, I'm sorry, but I lose all respect for you. :-/
I will resume this argument at a later time. Until then, I died a little on the inside reading Bradley's post. See you there, once I know where to begin...
hey mya, i have a question.
ReplyDeletebtw, i was raised in the christian faith, but have in the past few years decided that it wasn't for me.
That being said, what do you think about totally selfless, generous, kind, genuine, loving, empathetic people who do not follow the christian faith? (hahaha not saying that IIII am one of these people; i am actually DEFINITELY not one of these people.) I know many people like this, and they are better people than many christians i've met. I think what is so special about these people is that they do the right thing solely because that is what they believe in, whereas christians have the incentive of being "saved" if they are good people. I feel that some of these people have more of a right of going to heaven (if there is such a place) than some christian believers.
that being said, i was wondering if you felt the same way? is there no possible way non-believers can go to heaven even if they're more genuine, generous, kind, and empathetic than anybody i know, including christians?
You have some good points. I actually recently asked someone about this because I was really confused too. How can good things and good works come from a person who doesn't know God? Here's what I was told: We are all made in God's image. God is goodness in and of itself, so obviously we're going to have some good characteristics just like He does.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes down to it, none of us (believers and non-believers) deserve heaven. Heaven cannot be earned by ANY amount of good works. God loves to see us working for Him, but when we aren't working for Him, we're working against Him (I think that's in scripture someplace, but I can't find where right now). So no, I do not think that people who aren't Christians and are perfect examples of a 'good' person deserve heaven any more than the rest of us. And, unless they accept Jesus as their savior, I don't believe that they're going to heaven, just like it says that Jesus is the ONLY way. It's in scripture so many times, it's obvious that God wants us to know that it's true and have no confusion about it.
John 14:16, 3:16-18
Acts 4:12
Romans 5:21
1 John 5:11
so...can totally horrible people go to heaven, just as long as they believe in god?
ReplyDelete