By Grace Through Faith
Notes
Transcript
For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
Jesus led the way. He was the first to raise Himself from the dead and be seated at the right hand of the Father. Now His offer is to raise us from the dead so we too can be seated at the right hand of the Father. Not equal to Jesus at all. He still gets the glory and honor because we didn’t do anything to get ourselves there. It’s all because of Jesus. We are the bride of Christ. Basically we are a trophy of His goodness, mercy, and grace. It has nothing to do with us at all. It’s all Jesus.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 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.
I keep telling you that the Bible is jewish meditation literature. This makes the writing style very different than what we are used to. It is not as linear as english.
In english we explain the idea, most of the time, as we are presenting it. Here, and idea is shared then revisited in depth.
What is grace? It’s often very confusing. Most of the time we think of it as a muligan. To fully understand grace, there are 2 other concepts we need to go over.
Judgement- getting the consequences and repercussions we rightly deserve
Mercy- not getting the consequences or fallout that we deserve
Grace- getting what we don’t deserve, getting something better
(Difference between common and saving)
God’s grace is His underserved favor, love, kindness, help, and spiritual enablement poured out on us. Grace shows up in different ways.
God gives grace to unbelievers
No one deserves salvation
We were all unbelievers at one point
God gives grace to believers
Freedom from the power of sin
Desire and power to please God
Helps us pray, grow in relationship with Him, share the Good News with others
Grace must be desired, pursued, and accepted
Do this by:
Studying and obeying the Word of God
Hearing and responding to sound, Biblical preaching
Praying
Fasting
Continually being filled with the Holy Spirit
Participating in communion
Grace can be resisted and rejected
It is a willful, continual action
Not an accident
The Christian life, from beginning to end, is wholly dependent on God’s grace. And it can only be recieved by the response of faith.
So what is faith?
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
We cannot see grace, so we need some faith. Faith is the only condition for receiving salvation.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
It makes sense, right? Why would you ask God to save you if you had no faith to show the reality that He exists?
So what does saving faith look like?
Faith is firmly believing Jesus dies for your sins and rose from the dead to bring you life, then trusting in Him as your personal Lord and Savior.
Complete surrender of your will
Complete devotion to Jesus and His purpose
Faith is repentance and complete turning towards God in order to follow Jesus.
Repentance- admitting, expressing true sorrow and turning from our sinful, God-defying ways towards our loving Father
Takes sincere humility
Faith is obedience to Jesus and His Word
You can say you have faith without obedience. It’s impossible
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
We are not saved by our good deeds. We are saved from the power of sin by Jesus, therefore we doo good deeds.
Faith is passionate, personal devotion to Jesus that expresses itself in complete and selfless trust, love, gratitude, and loyalty
In our personal relationship with Jesus true faith and love are inseparable.
Faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior is both a the act of a single moment and an ongoing attitude of action that must continue to grow and gain strength.
We do not deserve salvation. We cannot do enough good to wipe out the bad. We aren’t even smart enough to determine true good and bad.
If I walked up and stole your wallet because I wanted your hard earned money, is that good or bad? It’s bad right? According to who? I think it is perfectly acceptable. You have more than me so I should be able t o take some of yours. Even against your will. I am sure you would feel different. So we must appeal to a higher power right? Because we can’t agree. Cops get involved and it goes to trail. Take it all the way to the supreme court if you want. No matter how high up the chain you run, there always has to be something/someone higher that hands down the judgement. Our very nature reveals that God exists.
By the grace that only comes from God, we can experience Jesus fully. We can experience true, deep forgiveness. We can have peace and joy and hope. There is no one higher, no one stronger, no one better, and no one gooder than God.
