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Tag Archives: Salvation
The Meaning of Christmas for Those Who Mourn
"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" Matthew 20:28
Dear Grandma,
This past year you have lost a son. I share your pain, for I have lost a father, and my mother has lost a husband.
There is a story from the bible I want to share with you:
When Jesus’ good friend Lazarus dies the bible records this simple and emotive verse, “Jesus wept”. And in this way we know that God feels our pain when we lose someone we love. But in the same passage Jesus also extends to all of us this hope: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies…. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25)
As you celebrate the birth of Christ this year (for that is what Christmas is all about – so Linus reminds Charlie Brown), remember that God gave his Son Jesus Christ to die the death of criminals so that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Jesus asks “Do you believe this?” Dad believed this grandma, and so do I.
Yecenia and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Love,
Derek & Yecenia Ouellette
An Epiphany of Faith
While contemplating writing a series of blogs on “faith”, I was struck with an epiphany. To the question of how faith relates to “works” – or for that matter, to grace – I want to suggest that there is a simple way to understand that relationship (especially if we leave the archaic battles of Rome and Calvin Reformers behind and turn to the scriptures as our source for authority).
As we saw in the last post (How To Rest In God), God created man on the last day of his work while man was still dead, then He placed man in Eden (the Rest of God). But Adam’s disobedience resulted in his being removed from the rest of God and into the curse of work. The only way then to get out of the curse of “work” [Genesis 3:23] and back into God’s “rest” is to accept Jesus’ invitation:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. [Matthew 11:28-29]
My epiphany then is this: Faith is that act by which we believe that God did all of the work so that we can enter his rest! Faith is never conceived in the scriptures as a “merit of earning salvation”, faith by definition is accepting the fact that God did all of the work necessary to make salvation possible.
The invitation to “come” and to “take” are not merits of salvation, but acts of faith, the act of recognizing that God performed all the merits or works required for salvation. I’ll say it again:
- FAITH IS ACCEPTING GOD’S INITATIVE!
- FAITH IS RECOGNIZING THAT GOD DID ALL OF THE WORK REQUIRED FOR SALVATION!
- WE ARE CALLED TO HAVE FAITH!
- WE ARE CALLED TO ACCEPT GOD’S INITATIVE!
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourself, it (grace for salvation) is the gift of God – not by works (but by the faith of accepting Gods gift of grace), so that no one can boast. [Ephesians 2:8-9]
Tagged Ephesians 2:8-9, Faith, Genesis 3:23, Grace, Matthew 11:28-29, Salvation, Works
