Jun 8, 2006

...so that no one may boast



If I love you, I desire to please you. Not out of duty, but out of love. If I love you, I will seek your pleasure, your happiness and your joy. If I love you, I will sacrifice my time, my life, and my heart for you.

This is how the Christian heart lives. It does not seek God out of duty. It seeks God out of love. The Christian heart loves to please God, it loves sacrificing it's time, it’'s life, and it’'s whole being for God.

I believe we are saved by faith alone. "“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God..."-–Eph. 2:8 (my emphasis added)

I take this verse literally. Some don't, and I am not sure why.

When God chose to save His sheep, He did so in a way that would eliminate boasting. There is nothing by our own efforts that can possibly save us. It is purely a gift from God.

To those who say, "“If we are saved by faith alone, that would give us freedom to sin! After all, we don't have to obey His commandments if it is only by faith that we are saved!"”

This is a lie! A complete misunderstanding of the Good News Paul was preaching:
"Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”" Paul asks in Romans 6:1,2 and answers, "“By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" "Those who are born of God and love Jesus cannot walk up to Jesus as He hangs on the cross and say, “I know that you are suffering for my sins and that it is your dying wish that I sin no more. But there i’s this one need that I have that I can only satisfy by sinning and so I hope you understand as I thrust this other sword into your side. There now. I sure am glad that every time I do that your blood forgives me.” " Those who have been born of God cannot think like that.
(Quote taken from John Piper)


If I love God, and I do...it is my greatest desire to please Him, to love Him and to give my life to Him. I cannot justify my sin, so that “grace may abound.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!"” 2 Corinthians 5:17

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Stuff Thanks Samantha!

Correy said...

"I was found by them that sought me not" Romans

In my many chats with people I have never heard anyone say "Now that I am under grace I can start sinning"

However I have been accused of this over 90% of the time for saying something like:

"because of grace my sins are covered from now until forever apart from anything I do. For nothing can seperate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus"

If a man has even 0.000001% of a part in their salvation by their will or something they did then they were saved by "grace which is no longer grace"

Samantha said...

puritan belief: In my many chats with people I have never heard anyone say "Now that I am under grace I can start sinning"


No one has said this to me either...it's actually an accusation I've heard when I say, "I was not saved by something I did, I was saved by grace through faith."

And some people believe that to mean that I continue to sin, knowing that I can just confess and be forgiven.

Just thought I should clear that up. :D