I was visiting with one of my nurses who (in her words) serves Jesus “in the Catholic tradition.” We discussed the amazing truth of Ephesians 2:8-10:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.We are saved by grace.”
We’re saved by grace, through faith – not works. Yet, our faith leads us to good works. It is why we were created.
Life is tough. Sometimes we feel so beat up by the messiness of ministry and the tediousness of the daily grind, we might want to escape to a secluded place and just focus on growing our faith and prayer life – or just get away from it all! But that’s not why we were created. We were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works” that come though faith. We’re not exempted because of pain or sorrow, regret or self pity. Jesus says “I am the way.” So following him by bonding with others in his name is the way out of our own despair. It is the healing balm for our wounds.
Faith is the most important thing, if it expresses itself through love. (Galatians 5:6) But faith does not stand alone. Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:5-9 –
“… make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
When our faith is alive and active, it adds goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love. And our lives change from being “ineffective and unproductive” to being fruitful. You might say, “Well, this is how God made me so get over it!” God loves us too much to leave us where we are. We should expect God to change us to reflect more of these godly qualities in our daily life. These disciplines of living don’t come naturally, rather through faith that his is the better way.
Is faith enough? Yes, because if it is real it will mark your life with all kinds of goodness, self-control, perseverance, and selfless love. Isn’t this the legacy you want to leave? Your new legacy of faith, expressing itself through love, starts today.
