Grace + Faith = Love

  By Pastor Jeff,

These two verses have been used countless times by churches to explain how to obtains ones salvation. But we need to remind ourselves that this book written by Apostle Paul is being written to a people that already have obtained the Born Again experience by repenting of their sins, being baptized in Jesus Name, and having received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

I want to give some clarification so that we may see these verses in its proper contents. Grace has defined by many as being the unmerited favor of God, it is given to us no matter what we do, and all we have to do is accept it. When Peter speaking about how the Gentiles received the same experience as them, he said in Acts 15:11, “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”  

This Grace does not give us freedom to sin, but gives us the power to not enter into sin, James 4:6-7, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  We thank God for grace, but we need to understand that it is not rare nor is it just for Christians. Ephesians 4:7, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”  Titus 2:11,  “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,” 

The next part I want to talk of is “Faith” and this the bible is pretty clear on its explanation for in Hebrews 11:1-3, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”  Faith is what empowers us to accept the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives, for when you read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews you will notice that these men and women of faith did not just believe with no action, but in every instance acted on what God told them. James 2:29, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

To have faith does not mean we have blind faith in what God says, we have 66 love letters written to us to tell us how sin came into the world, how one cannot redeem one selves but we need to trust in our Lord Jesus Christ and what He told us to do to be saved. By Faith in God’s grace we can accept His love for us and what He did for us on Calvary. We become a “Whosoever” as mentioned in John 3:16.  By this Faith in His wonderful Grace we obtain our salvation by repenting of our sins, being baptized in the precious name of Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins and then we receive His Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

That’s Grace + Faith = Love and not works, and when we understand the love Jesus has for us, the grace He has given us, and the faith we can walk in, nothing will ever be to hard for Us!

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