Grace through faith.

[Cobus]

GRACE through FAITH!​

The question is: Are there grace WITHOUT faith? Does God show or give grace to people that has no faith? Can I even be forgiven without FAITH? Nope! The answer is a BIG NO!!!!
When we read about the righteousness of men throughout the Bible, their righteousness was because these men ALL showed FAITH! It as their FAITH IN GOD that made them righteouss before God. Our righteousness is in God forgiving us, but we have to have FAITH! What is this faith we have to have?
Let us look at GRACE THROUGH FAITH. It looks like we have to have faith before the grace would be shown. Look what the verse says in Ephesians 2:8…. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:


We are saved by grace through faith…. If God does not give us the FAITH there will also be no GRACE. And if God does not have grae on us to give us faith, we will not have the grace of God on us. What is FAITH?


FAITH: From the greek word “pistis” meanning: persuasion, truthfulness of God. The system of truth itself:- assurance, belief, believe. Etc.
Faith is to have assurance in the TRUTH ITSELF. Faith is to believe God’s truthfulness. God is FAITHFUL. That means we can TRUST GOD! For what? For faith! If God can give me faith, I would be a believer! And If I will believe, God can be the system of truth itself in me!
If God’s Word is the Truth, as Jesus says it is in John 17:17, then the system in that Word would be the operating system in me as the believer. And that is EXACTLY what the verse we are receiving from God today says…. The system of Truth (God’s Word) will be the operating system in all believers. God said only the believers shall be saved. So no non-believers will ever have grace or faith. And is FAITH is part of the saved ones then the saved ones are the ones with the system of Truth in them… God’s Word.

Ok our verse says…. It is NOT of ourselves but it is THE GIFT OF GOD! How big is this GIFT? This Faith and grace? Remember if grace it the DIVINE INFLUENCE ON THE HEART, and Faith is the operation of God’s Word on our lives, it is ALL GOD’S DOING, and NONE OF US.

With this knowledge we have to know SALVATION IS OF GOD! And everything God doe, HE DOES AS HE WILLS. God does not ask us to help, He does not ask us advice or permission. God does as HE WILLS when He saves a person. If we are save through God’s graciousness to give us grace AND faith, then HE gave us the gift HE had for us even before the earth was made. And this is VERY important to know what this gift does to us and why God gives some people this gift.

Who determines who will receive this gift? God does! It is God’s decision to choose whom He will give this gift too! That makes salvation a GIFT! And God gives His gift to whom HE wants! What is the GIFT of God to us….. Jesus Christ is the GIFT. God’s Gift to a saved person is Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Hat does the gift do for us? It cleanse us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, it gives us HOLINESS in God! It makes us PERFECT and keeps us PERFECT! It gives us a NEW LIFE that will NEVER END!

God’s gift is a PERFECT gift from God Himself. It is not a gift that was made on earth, that gift was with God before the foundation of the earth was formed. God had this PERFECT gift ready for ALL whom He wasts to give it too and He already knew all who would live out this gift. God wrote the book of life with ALL the names in that book before the earth was made. This gift God gives to a person makes the person a NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST, and CHRIST JESUS IS THE GIFT IN THAT NEW CREATURE.

In God’s gift is:
1. Perfection of character. (1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:18) (2 Cor 5:17) (1 Titus 4:4)
2. Everlasting GODLY life in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim 3:12)
3. A perfect deliverance from evil. (2 Peter 2:9)
4. Hatred in the hearts of the world towards you. (John 15:18) (1 John 3:12)
5. Hatred in you towards evil. (Amos 5:15) (Jude 23) Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.Now with this knowledge we can see how God gives grace and faith to accomplish the END OF SIN in all HE SAVES.

1 John 1:8, 9 and 10, is not an excuse for us to justify our sins, it is a poweful Scripture to put us in line to believe 1 John 3:9 and 1 John 5:18.

Let us read these Scriptures and agree with God that He is able to accomplish in us what He commanded so many times in the Bible…. Sinneth not! Be perfect! Be Holy! All these things God commanded would not be achiveable without the GIFT of God. But, if God does give His gift, all these things ARE MANEFEST in the person whom God does gve the gift too. It is the GIFT that accomplish this, and no person without the gift will EVER accomplish this.


The opposite is ALSO True, every person that did receive the gift will are PERFECT, HOLY and WITHOUT SIN. That is why it is easy to know this…. 1 John 3:6… Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Looks like there is another sureness that comes with the gift… All who receive the gift will ABIDE IN HIM….

Clearly, the ones that has received the gift, are the ones who ABIDE IN HIM. And it looks like HE ABIDES IN THEM. They SINNETH NOT! Every one that sins are still in need of the GIFT!
So let us look at 1 John 1 and 1 John 3 and 1 John 5.

1 John 3:9… Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1 John 5:18…We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.


1 John 1:8 to 10…. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.


If we look at the Scriptures in 1 John it seems there is a contradiction. But NOT if we look with the knowledge of the gift. We ALL are sinners and in need of the gift.

1 John 1:8 says if we say we do not need the gift we decieve ourselves. BUT! If God gives us the gift, He starts by SHOWING US THE SIN WE NEED GRACE FOR! Let me assure you NO MAN will confess his sins if God did not show the man that God wants him for HIS GLORY. And God’s glory is not in the OLD MAN OF SIN, but IN CHRIST JESUS OF PERFECTION. God calls ALL sinners to the same place…. IN CHRIST JESUS!

1 John 1:9 says… if we confess our sins…. Already the GIFT has started on us. NO MAN will confess sins if God does not give the man FAITH… This man confess the sins BELIEVING Jesus will FORGIVE HIM…. Grace at work. Please know this…. This is God’s GRACE that STARTS THE WORK OF THE GIFT!!!! To FORGIVE sins…. But God doe not STOP there! The verse says HE is FAITHFULL to forgive, but also TO CLEANSE us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS… WOW!

This has to be more than forgiveness. Not only does he forgive, HE CLEANSES. Ok grace is getting us clean and forgiven. What does FAITH do? If we believe God will forgive and clean us, what does God do AFTER forgiving and cleaning us? Does He throw us back into sin, so we can do the process all over again? Well then 1 John 3 and 1 John 5 would not have been written. And to know that there is an END to sin, God gave us the last verse in 1 John 1… VERSE 10:

1 John 1:10. If grace gives us cleansing and forgiveness, then Faith has to be the part that KEEPS US CLEAN. For now God says… If we say we have not SINNED, we make God a lier. God saved us from sin, and the ONLY reason we SIN NO MORE, is because HE SAVED US BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH!!! It was HIS salvation that STOPPED sin in us. And we were ALL sinners once. But by HIS grace and the FAITH He gave us He overcame sin in us.

The whole chapter of 1 John 2 explains how God keeps on giving grace and faith so we NO LONGER WALK IN DARKNESS… It is ALL about Grace and Faith. When God’s grace is fininshed ot forgive and cleanse, then His Faith gift will NEVER FAIL God. It says this in 1 John 2….. This is TRUE IN HIM AND IN YOU…

1 John 2:8…. Because the darkness is PAST and the TRUE LIGHT now shineth… When God puts you in His Light, the darkness is PAST, and the TRUE light then shineth. And God says there is NO DARKNESS in HIS light. NO SIN IN HIM, and by grace and faith NO MORE SIN IN YOU! Praise the Lord of holiness!

 

[RedTent]

I think it is perfectly silly, and not profitably, to pull each verse apart piece by piece without thinking of how each piece fits in the whole.

If we go to God and ask what do you mean by faith and how do we get it, we find that when the Hebrews said faith, at the beginning when Hebrew was written in pictures, it was written as a hammer and nail. So how does a hammer and nail mean faith? It means that something is so solid you can use it to hammer a nail into, it is completely dependable.

We look at grace, and find that it means that we are created by God, God is supreme and our destiny is in His hands. He decides if we are to live eternally or die at the end of this life. Scary. Frightening. We have nothing to say about it. Because the only dialogue we have with God is through the HS and through scripture we ask about God's intentions, and find His main desire is for us to live with Him eternally and not die, but we have sin among us and God's eternal world cannot have sin in it. So God sent Christ to take care of our sin, but it requires something of us to accomplish that. We need faith in Christ, and we need repentance.

We also need the Holy Spirit to understand all this, and it is God's decision and our opening ourselves to this that accomplishes this.

I don't think these things can be learned from the few scriptures you gave. I think it takes much, much more. This knowledge only starts when we accept Christ and what Christ offers. Using only a few scriptures can help us not see the entire plan of salvation as the whole.

 

[brmicke]

I think it is perfectly silly, and not profitably, to pull each verse apart piece by piece without thinking of how each piece fits in the whole.

I have to respectfully disagree with this a bit. I think a persons need to pull each verse apart while also thinking about how each part fits in the whole.

We have to "both" pull verses apart and also learn how they fit together. A fuller understanding of the whole comes from a deeper understanding of the individual doctrinal components. For instance, a "new Convert" must be encouraged to keep in mind that they have been chosen by God to receive eternal life (the whole). However if that Christian does not understand that they need to "repent" of sin (the process by which their faith is maintained and grows), they may think that all they have to do is give their mental ascent to inherit eternal life. Their understanding must be deepened by learning the processes by which they inherit Eternal life. Understanding the individual and foundational doctrines or components of the whole concept of salvation is necessary, because then the whole concept of salvation can be explained and communicated from one person to another accurately.

Studying God's word allows us to see how intricately it fits together. My opinion is that Biblical illiteracy is the reason for so many distorted doctrines. Most people can't scripturally explain doctrinal points. Honestly people like us who study the bible should be the norm, but in reality we are not. Most Christians struggle just to regularly read the bible, let alone study it. Pulling each verse apart teaches us to define what we are speaking about. For instance look at the theme of this thread.

Ephesians 2:8….

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

First we have the word Grace - and that is defined in Titus 2:11-12 as that which teaches us to abstain from ungodliness.
The we have the concept of being "saved". Well we have to be saved from something. So what is it that we are saved from?
Answer - we are saved from the wrath of God which is visited against all ungodliness, Rm 1:18.

So already a theme is seen, and scripturally validated - We are saved from God's wrath by cooperating with the teaching of "Grace" and learning not to behave in an ungodly manner. If we act in an "ungodly" way the "wrath of God" (which is revealed against ungodliness) corrects us, 1 Cor 11:32.

So next we have the words "through faith". So our faith is the avenue through which we receive "grace" which teaches us to repent or abstain from ungodliness or sin. So the grace of God teaches us to "repent".

So now we can see that faith is required so that through the conduit of that faith we can receive Grace. We can then be taught by God's grace, and to repent from sin and learn not to behave in an ungodly manner. This grace can however be resisted and even if we are shown how to abstain from ungodliness we may not want to learn as the following verses illustrate.

1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
2Co 6:1 ¶ Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain.
(RSV)

Most Christians cannot explain what I just wrote. This illustrates how important it is to understand basic doctrinal points and definitions.

I agree that we need to know the "whole plan" of salvation . A correct understanding however begins with basing our knowledge on the individual definitions of these concepts like "grace" and "faith" and "salvation" etc.

Many of the problems with differing doctrinal understandings begin with the unscriptural definitions of scriptural concepts. For instance, if the word "Grace" is not understood in the same way by two individuals they could be having a conversation about "grace", but if person defines "grace" differently they don't really understand each other, and ultimately they disagree, and thus confusion reigns.

Respectfully - Brian

 

[Elin]

It's "through faith by grace." (Eph 2:8)

Faith is an unearned work of grace.

 

[RedTent]

I have to respectfully disagree with this a bit. I think a persons need to pull each verse apart while also thinking about how each part fits in the whole. Respectfully - Brian

Brian it is called rounding out a thought and making it clearer! Thank you for this.

 

[BeanieD]

It is not that we sin no more, it is that we are no longer slaves to din. There will always be sin in our lives, but when we refuse to give in to temptation, and when we realize a sin we call on God to forgive and to keep us from giving in to the temptation. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We have an awesome God who is always with us and helps us to overcome.