We are reborn with a purpose. But let us be clear; the purpose does not precede or cause rebirth. That purpose is the result of our being newly created.
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What will be the result in the future life for the way we have lived the present life? Left on our own, sin and death are terrifying.
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We should recognize in ourselves that we are disposed to fall back into old ways. But we should also consider that others are just like us.
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Good works are evidence that a person has been justified. For the Spirit who produces good works only indwells the justified.
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Why did the gentiles come to a state of righteousness when the Jews worked hard at it but never arrived? Why did the gentiles attain righteousness when they did not even try?
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What came first, the chicken or the egg? Some love to deliberate over such things; these questions wear out other people.
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The difference that precedes salvation is easy to determine. That distinguishing feature is trust in the one who saves.
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We are indentured servants, slaves to sin and death, and we can never earn our freedom. Either the master sets us free—and death and the devil are not going to do that—or someone pays our debt and sets free.
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The old nature believes that if one loves enough, is joyous all the time, at peace, patient and kind toward others, is good, faithful, and self-controlled, that person will have earned God’s grace.
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If a man was swimming in the ocean and began to drown, he would be quite correct to not trust his own efforts to save himself. But he would yell with his last breath to the lifeguard.
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There is faith and there is the fruit of faith. Faith ought to have results in this life, not just the result of an eternal life to come.
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God forgives us for the sake of his name. His reputation is at stake, so he will keep his promise. This is easy to understand.
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Behold, what importance some people place in their works. They value deeds so thoroughly that they distort the words of Christ. When he downplays works, they exalt them.
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When we think that we have earned God’s mercy and may therefore, demand it, we rob God of the glory that belongs to him alone.
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The First Commandment teaches us that God is faithful to deliver his people. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."
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Our sin leaves us indebted to God. This is why Jesus tells us to pray, “Forgive us our sins.” Matthew uses the word “debt," making it clear that we owe God for our moral failure.
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Pour some dirt into a cup of water and find out how many people will drink? Just so, we are not palatable; each person is just some good mixed in with the bad.
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We cannot make any offering for sin that produces mercy and forgiveness. Our virtue will not do it, nor will religious works, the right disposition, or remorse.
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Everybody sins. Anyone who claims otherwise, is kidding himself but God is not fooled. We were born into sin; it invades all of life.
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Some people have faith in their works. They believe that there are certain things they can do to earn God's grace. This imagined acquisition of grace is called condignity.
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The spirit is compelled to have faith in God but the flesh is weak. It is hard to stay awake and watchful against the accusations of the law.
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Those who consider themselves Christian would confess that Christ saves. But the later actions of some betray a different belief than what they confess.
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There is no good thing that we can do, or even a lifetime's collection of good works, that God would dignify as a righteousness worthy of eternal life.
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True faith in Christ is not shaken for long, since it remembers the source and object of its faith. Faith does not seek to appease an angry God.
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Faith is not a mere intellectual understanding of God. Many people believe there is a God but they neither know who he is nor put their trust in him.
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If you would be righteous, you must live by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38). For if you imagine that you can be righteous by being virtuous and religious, then you are misguided by conceit.
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Hope believes even when the situation appears hopeless. Abraham was confronted with an utterly hopeless situation.
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If you are looking for something that you must do, some righteous work that gains eternal life, there is only one thing necessary. Believe in Christ Jesus.
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Jesus took our sin upon himself and died with it on the cross. When our sin was transferred to Christ, his righteousness was assigned to us through faith in him.
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We cannot reason our way to God or become justified before him because we have come to some intellectual understanding of divinity.
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Surveys are often filled out by a person who marks the box, “Christian.” Often what this means is that the person thinks there is a God.
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