Going back to salvation once again. Faith is a recognition of what He has done. Your altar call moment did not save you. You were saved because Jesus responded to the altar call! Religious minded people have a great deal of problems with this because it is too easy. The scandal of the gospel has always been the fact that it is too good. It’s just too good to be true.
Notice Romans 10:9,10. First in the KJV.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
So confess the Lord Jesus. It didn’t say confess that you believe in the Lord Jesus. Confess him as Lord. The Message translation says it this way. “It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us.
This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation.”
WOW!!! That says it so clearly. It’s God going to work, it’s God setting things right for us, it’s God doing a work in us and it’s the same work God did in Jesus when He raised Him from the dead. It’s the finished work of the cross. SHOUT!!!
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Again, the Message translation. “With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” So we embrace or trust God setting things right, and then we say it right out loud or declare it.
The ridiculous, radical, inexhaustible grace of God is troubling to those bound in legalism and religion. It just gnaws away at them, because they are focused on what their part is to play in this whole scenario. They ask the question “What is my part? Jesus finished the job, but I still have a response to make!”
Here’s the good news. Jesus Christ the God-Man became our full response to God. He fulfilled our side of the covenant relationship. Nothing is dependent upon you. God never intended that you should fulfill your side of the covenant relationship. This is the gospel of grace. Grace is not justice, because it’s above fair.
Again, your part is nothing, and therefore, your part is everything. Since Jesus stepped in and died for you, as you … He carried the full responsibility for your salvation, healing, deliverance and prosperity. And since He took your place … that means you have been replaced! Selah.
Your entire life is now a response to God, because you’ve been “replaced” and woven into the very life of Christ! There is no more Jesus plus me. It is Jesus, therefore all of me! We are one.
The gospel was never about your faith – it was always about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. It has always been about His faith and His faithfulness. Just look at these scriptures.
Romans 3:22 – “… even the righteousness of God which comes through the faith/faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction” .
Romans 3:26 – “… for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus”.
Galatians 2:16 – “… nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith of Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified”.
Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith/faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me”.
Galatians 3:22 – “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Gal. 3:22).
Ephesians 3:12 – “… in whom we have boldness and confident access through His faith/faithfulness”.
Philippians 3:9 – “… and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith”.
As this truth becomes more and more a revelation to the many who get set free from the bondage of religion and legalism, we will see increases in the experiences of His Glory and power like never before.
What that means is that it is simply a revealing into reality of an already existing truth. The truth of His completed work and total provision for our lives which He fully secured before the foundation of the world. With that revelation, we simply enter into His rest through faith or trusting in all His promises that are yeah and amen.
Faith is not about us trying to build a path that we then strive to walk, but rather faith is how we walk the path that He has already built. It’s all about trusting in Jesus and the finished work at the cross.
Grace and Peace.
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