THE WALK OF FAITH

Salvation is an act of faith... faith alone, whereby we are justified – the guilt and penalty of sin is removed and we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and sanctified – set apart and positionally placed into the body of Christ, the Beloved of God. It is at this point that many saints stop, failing to realize that sanctification – and by direct implication salvation --  is more than a positional act, and includes our transformation into Christlikeness, the process by which we will become holy as Christ is holy. Salvation is effected “by grace” -- made available by the agency of grace, apprehended “through faith” – understood and grasped as our personal possession through faith, and empowered by grace – brought to perfection by the power of grace. Grace is the totally undeserved kindness by which salvation is given, but it is also the power-word describing the Holy Spirit’s operational means, for grace empowers what it commands. Grace is a verb as well as a noun, and a force as well as a favor, exhibiting all the power and provision of the “fullness” of Jesus Christ which we receive “grace for grace.” Grace is more than God’s disposition of impersonal favor; it is the full power and provision of the Godhead meeting us at our point of need. And our great need, in reality our only need, is to be like Jesus…

We can picture salvation as the narrow gate accessing the road to eternal life. The difficulties we encounter on the road to heaven will teach us obedience – much as our Lord learned obedience through the things He suffered – and change us from children of God into brethren of our Lord. It is here on the road to transformation that our living faith produces righteous works for “The Way” is littered with detours to Golgotha as we allow the Holy Spirit to rip piece by piece the nature of the First Adam from our heart and replace them with the nature of the Last Adam. This is a progressive process by which the Holy Spirit eliminates Self and its sin nature from the saint’s experience, gradually conforming him into the nature of our Lord Jesus as we are literally – in a spiritual sense – crucified with Christ. The speed-bumps and washed out bridges on the road to eternal life are most effective at testing and approving our faith as we grow into Christlikeness. We human kind tend to prefer the known to the unknown, liking our independence and Self’s worldly attachments, so change will sometimes be hard... change will sometimes hurt. Saints, we need to understand this walk of faith is not only a progressive process of change throughout this earth life, but it will continue throughout all eternity and is never fully completed. You see, a finite creature can never equal an infinite one in any quality. We will forever be changing into the likeness of our Lord, absorbing His attributes and displaying His virtues, but never become fully as He is...

AND OUR GREAT NEED…

IN REALITY OUR ONLY NEED…

IS TO BE LIKE JESUS…

(Eph. 2:8; Jn. 1:16, Rom. 8:29; 1 Thess. 4:3; Gal. 2:20; 1 peter 1:6-7, 4:12-13)