Living by Faith

Romans 1:14-17 ESV

“I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

I find that there is a lot of confusion these days over two specific words here, one of which is the “gospel,” and the other of which is “faith.” And so we have a lot of people claiming to believe in Jesus Christ but they are still living in sin and not in righteousness and holiness. For their “faith” was something created in their own minds as to what that should look like. And many of them were taught a distorted, altered, and diluted version of the true gospel, and so they ended up with wrong concepts of those two words.

Now the gospel is the Good News of our salvation from sin and of eternal life with God. But the true gospel teaches that Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness. It teaches that Jesus died that we might now live for our Lord and no longer for ourselves, and that Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of sin so that we will now honor God with our bodies (see 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and Romans 6:1-23).

And Jesus said that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For in essence he said that if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self that we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we die with him to sin and live to his righteousness, then we have eternal life. For if we are ashamed of him and of his Word in this life, then when he returns he will be ashamed of us (he will deny us because we denied him by our lives).

And he also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven. For many will stand before the Lord one day and they will claim all the things they did in his name, but he will say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” because they would not obey him, but they went their own way, instead (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And then we read in 1 John that if we claim to be in fellowship with the Lord while we walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, we are liars. And if we claim to know God but we do not obey his commands (New Covenant), in practice, then we are liars. For it is those who practice divine righteousness who are righteous in the sight of God. And those who continue living in sin and not in righteousness, and not in obedience to the Lord, they are of the devil, and they are not born of God (1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10).

So, all of this above and much more is the gospel of our salvation. It is not that we can pray a prayer to receive Christ, and profess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and now all our sins are forgiven, and heaven is secured us for when we die, but regardless of how we live. We must walk (live) by faith. So, what is faith?

Well, the word “faith” means to be persuaded, and in this case to be persuaded by God. The faith is authored and perfected by Jesus Christ, and it is gifted to us by God, and we can’t even come to faith unless God draws us (persuades us) to Christ. And this faith is not of our own doing, so we don’t get to decide what this faith looks like. God does! So, what is God going to persuade us to do? What is his will and purpose for our lives? He is going to persuade us of his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent (forsake our sins) and to follow him in obedience to his ways.

[Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Acts 5:32; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Eph 4:17-32; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Lu 9:23-26; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15,21; Matt 7:21-23]

And it isn’t just something we profess one time in our lives, done deal, and now we are good to go. We have to walk in that faith. We have to walk no longer according to the flesh but now according to the Spirit in living holy lives, pleasing to God. And we have to continue in that faith until Jesus returns if we want to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God. It is what the Scriptures teach. For the righteous shall live by faith, meaning we must practice the faith we profess in God’s power day by day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG2HsliGl4o

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Just a Closer Walk with Thee  

Hymn lyrics by Anonymous/Unknown

Music by American Melody

“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (2 Co. 13:4 NASB).

I am weak, but Thou art strong;

Jesus, keep me from all wrong;

I’ll be satisfied as long

As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Through this world of toil and snares,

If I falter, Lord, who cares?

Who with me my burden shares?

None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.

When my feeble life is o’er,

Time for me will be no more;

Guide me gently, safely o’er

To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

Just a closer walk with Thee,

Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,

Daily walking close to Thee,

Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Ks49apflE 

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