SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/22/2018
1:46 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Salvation is Through Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
2:8-9
Message of the verses: “8 For by grace you
have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
I
suppose that this is two of the most famous verses in the book of Ephesians, if
not in the entire Bible, and so it is my pleasure to take a more indebt look at
them in our next two SD’s.
The
verse tells us that our response to salvation is faith, but that is “not of
ourselves, for it is “the gift of God.”
We cannot gather up faith in our own power when it comes to salvation
for we do not have adequate power or resources.
And there is more to that as God would not want us to rely on our own
resources even if we had them to be saved. If we did that or if we were able to do that
then we would have a part of our own salvation.
If we could do that then we would have grounds to “boast.” Paul wants to make sure that even faith is
not from us apart from God giving it to us.
John
MacArthur writes “Some have objected to this interpretation, saying that faith
(pistis) is feminine, while ‘that’ (touto) is neuter. That poses no problem, however, as long as it
is understood that ‘that’ does not refer precisely to the noun ‘faith’ but to
the act of believing. Further, this
interpretation makes the best sense of the text since if ‘that’ refers to ‘by
grace you have been saved through faith’ (that is, to the whole statement), the
adding of ‘and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God’ would be redundant,
because grace is defined as an unearned act of God. If salvation is of grace, it has to be an
undeserved gift of God. Faith is
presented as a gift from God in 2 Peter 1:1, Philippians 1:29, and Acts 3:16.” I think it best if I quote these verses:
“1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and
apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as
ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:”
“29 For to you it has been granted for
Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,”
16 "And on the basis of faith in His name, it
is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know;
and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health
in the presence of you all.”
I
have written about salvation in many of my Spiritual Diaries, and the way that
I understand it, and the way that I believe the Bible teaches is that first of
all God chose people even before the world was made for salvation, and then the
Lord Jesus Christ came to pay the price for salvation, and lastly the Holy
Spirit of God gives an effectual call to those that God chose in eternity past
and who Christ died for.
I
will close with a story from John MacArthur and then Lord willing, we will
finish this section in our next SD. “The
story is told of a man who came eagerly but very late to a revival meeting and
found the workmen tearing down the tent in which the meeting had been
held. Frantic at missing the evangelist,
he decided to ask one of the workers what he could do to be saved. The workman, who was a Christian, replied, ‘You
can’t do anything. It’s too late.’ Horrified, the man said, ‘What do you mean? How can it be too late?’ The work has already been accomplished,’ he
was told, ‘there is nothing you need to do but believe it.’” So if anyone reading this SD wants to know
what to do they must believe that the work for salvation is done.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Be
ready to tell others about the truth of how they can be saved.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me great wisdom in
order to teach my Sunday school lesson tomorrow. It is on the wrath of God from the 15th
chapter of Revelation, and it is two days before the celebration of
Christmas.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Judah” (2 Kings 24:12).
Today’s Bible question: “Who was described as ‘the voice of one
crying in the wilderness’?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/22/2018 2:13 PM
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