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What Must I Do? |
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It's against our nature to admit that we have failed. We want to do something to save ourselves. But God says:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV). What is faith? It is certainly more than just believing in the reality of this story. Faith has three facets: Believing, trusting, and surrendering. They are all portrayed in the following Scripture: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Romans 10:9-10 NIV). Believing is the first step. But if the belief is not sincere enough to cause us to trust, it is worthless. This passage indicates that salvation requires a faith that trusts in God to justify what we can not fix. We have just read where God says that we cannot do works good enough to save ourselves. Yet it is a shallow faith indeed that would say, "Yes I believe. Thank you for the gift. I will take it from here." The faith that God requires says instead, "I believe Jesus is my only hope. I have failed miserably. I cannot be good in myself. I am trusting the righteousness of Jesus to be placed in my stead. I trust him to begin changing me, so that same righteousness will begin to be produced by Him through my life." This leads to the third facet...that of surrender. No longer do I chose to continue on this path toward destruction. I repent and turn back toward Jesus. From this day forth I will call him my Lord -- for he is indeed the Lord Jesus Christ. I accept Him as my Lord and Savior. To the best of my ability, I will follow His plan for my life. Once again we have a choice. We don't have to face eternal damnation, for He has rescued us. Jesus, God's son, took our place! Please click Next to learn how you can avoid the greatest tragedy of the human race |