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Faith in God seems complicated today. Religion even more complicated. So complicated we often avoid the conversation or discussion. In the following passage we read about a council meeting in Jerusalem where a complicated discussion was taking place about religious customs, rules, and laws.
Listen to Acts Chapter 15 
or read "Acts 15:1-41"
After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." (Acts 15:7-11)Is it really that simple? God purifies people's hearts by faith and through grace? Are we really purified by God through grace when we believe? You mean to tell me that a simple belief in Christ cleans our hearts through his grace? It can't be that simple, that straightforward. There must be more to it.
Peter as recorded by Luke in Acts makes it clear that it is that simple. God cleans our heart through grace when we believe in Christ! Here is how Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans.
... since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. ... (Romans 5:1-2a)There were those not long after Jesus came who wanted to attach rules and requirements to his message. Humans love to set up hoops for others to jump through. God has made it too simple so we must make it more complex to make it into 'something'.
Here we see Peter remind the others to keep it simple. Keep it Jesus. Since this point in history people have continued to complicate the message of Jesus. Humans over the past 2000 years have attached customs, traditions, rules, wars, denominations, nations, discrimination, doctrines, and politics to the message Jesus brought to us. I know even today there are things I have attached to the message. I pray that God would help me to strip my faith down to drop the religious baggage and keep it simple.
18 comments:
Brad this is a great posting.
"Keep it Jesus. Keep it simple."
This is a wonderful post! So many times we stumble over the simplicity of the Gospel. Our hearts are purified by faith in His grace! Amen!
Great post! I am so glad that God made His plan simple. You are right in that it is we who tend to complicate faith.
Amen! It is really as simple as that! But you know what sadly people still try to work for their salvation and try to earn it. this is the sad fact: our goal now or shall i say commission is to tell them how easy it is.
Thanks for your site and God bless you more!
Great! Keep it Jesus!ΓΌ
-Irene
http://lifelots.blogspot.com/
How simple He's made it for us!
=)
Sid
http://khaye-welcometomylife.blogspot.com/2009/05/lahat-payak.html
happiness is simple gift from god.
Came here through a comment you left on my blog. Your message here is exactly the message of the non-profit group I work for. It's by faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved! You might be interested in checking out http://faithalone.org -- there's lots of great info there.
Blessings!
BunGirl
Yes, we are being saved simply by the Grace of God, it is that simple :D
Enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work! Clicked some ads for you.
Kas
http://southernbellaswaystosave.blogspot.com/
Excellent reminder of the perfect grace God has given for the elect.
Is it really such an easy, one-step thing? Faith in Jesus is all that's required. But since scripture says the faith OF Jesus, is that different? His faith somehow imputed to us, placed in us? Or faith of a similar magnitude? And isn't it true that the word was actually faithfulness? The same faithfulness displayed by Yeshua is required of us? Not so simple then.
I'm not sure our words "faith" and "belief" carry the same connotations that the original words did. Seems there's evidence that the words are closer to "faithfulness" and "trust".
Too fine a distinction or an important one? I'm not sure yet.
My theme for this month...Keep it simple! I can get going in so many different directions the journey becomes burdensome. It does not need to be like this, simplicity in reading the scriptures, listening, praying, and reading more is all that is required. Why do I make it hard with all the to do lists? I will keep my to do list Jesus. Thanks Brad for this post.
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It's the very simplicity of the gospel that is both profound to believers, but offensive to those who do not believe. God's ways are not our ways, but the gospel is what it is: Good News. We don't need to add to it, and we must not take away from it.
You have a great blog.
I enjoyed reading it today.
Be sure and stop by my blog and sign up for the "10 Giveaways" that I will draw for on Wednesday.
Also, please pray for sweet Maggie as she returns to St Jude's this week. Would love for you to grab her button for your blog...
The Bible teaches that all of us are sinners, guilty before God, but that we can be justified or declared innocent before God by his grace and mercy.
I believe that we are justified by faith in Christ and the work he did through his death on the cross. Christ was sacrificed on the cross to pay for our sins. Truly accepting this and believing that Jesus is Lord justifies us before God. Through the blood of Christ God declares the believer innocent.
TLMinut, I very much appreciate the sincere question you have raised. I believe you are specifically referencing a different verse than I referenced in this post: Galatians 2:16. I have read before that the "in" could also be translated as "of". I don't think I have heard that "faith" could be translated as "faithfulness" here. I don't have much knowledge or experience with biblical translation so I can't add much to your knowledge about the original Greek words here.
I would say for me one of the most important things I try to keep in mind when I study the Bible is to keep my understanding of a verse in context of the whole. In other words it is important to keep each verse in the context of the entire Bible. This is not an easy task and one I struggle with all the time. It is one reason why a continual lifetime commitment to reading and wrestle with the words God has given us all in the Bible is so important in any believer's personal relationship with God.
When I study this verse I think it is important to keep it in the context of the whole of Scripture. Verses like John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, Romans 11:6, Ephesians 1:13, & Ephesians 2:8-9 and a handful others further explain and reinforce that sinners are justified by faith.
To me a sincere belief in Jesus is the beginning, the middle, and the end of my faith. God has declared me innocent thought he blood of Jesus. I am a sinner but declared innocent. It changes everything. It changes how I think. It changes how I see everything around me. It changes what I do how I live. I pray that God will continue to change me through the power of the Holy Spirit and his Son, Christ Jesus.
As a human I feel the pull of religion to complicate this declaration of innocence, to make it more complex, but when I read about the life of Jesus in the Gospels I am pulled back to simply see Jesus as Lord and my savior.
Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and comment, it is always very encouraging to me. I continue to pray that your faith in Jesus is encouraged here.
Thanks for sharing that with us! We love your
site!! Amen! (",)
May the Lord bless you and your family!!
•´.¸¸.•¨¯`♥.Have A NiCe Day!!.♥´¯¨•.¸¸.´•
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