Selfless Faith

Looking back on life, before completely surrendering my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I was certain that I was alive. This deception is one of the many favorites that are used by Satan himself. Recall, in Genesis chapter 3, the serpent told Eve that surely she would not die, and surely she did. As I think of the words I say unto you, if not my eyes are fill are filled with tears, certainly my heart pours them out. I was blind, but now I see. I was dead in my sins, but now I am made alive through the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

It has been said that we should forget our past, live for today, and look forward to the future. I cannot completely agree with that. We must never forget our past. It is an essential part of our lives. It is a constant reminder of how our lives were when we ourselves were blind and dead in our sins. If we try to block out our past, then we may end up in our past, looking forward to the future. In all honesty, God doesn’t forget our past either, but through the blood of Jesus Christ who hung on a cross for our transgressions and iniquities, each drop of blood that hit the earth was the drop of blood that covers ALL of our sins: the ones we did, the ones we may be doing now (even while reading this), the sins that are to come, those known and unknown to us, and even the many sins we don’t know exist. The blood of Jesus Christ covers it all.

Living in the deceit of Satan has caused us to be born in the paradox we are born in. If we examine it, a sinner (which we all are, and always will be) is dead to God unless He believes in His Son Jesus Christ. In my perspective, when a mother gives birth, she does not bring in new life, but she brings in new death. However, as Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again. When we are born again in Christ, Christ has given us life, and we are then truly alive. The ultimate seal, victory, glorification of our risen Lord is our fleshly death, when we leave this world, and go to join our Lord in Heaven. That is the ultimate victory over Satan. That is why Paul can write in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then saying that it is written will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, I want to make abundantly clear, we are saved by GRACE through FAITH in Jesus Christ, and that alone. There is NOTHING that we can do (on our own strength) to attain the kingdom of God. Some religions believe they are on a score card with God and will face judgment and at that time God will make His final ruling on their destiny. Unfortunately, they are partially misled (which is not possible to be partially misled, we are fully led or fully mislead). Our good works will NEVER outweigh the penalty of sin, ALL sin, which is death. Many of the good works that we try to do to make up for our sin would never have been done because we would already have deserved to be struck dead … whether I was saying one curse word, stealing candy bars, or murdering thousands of people. Sin is sin and it is outright disgusting. You can pray on your knees forever, but God will not hear those prayers until it is in name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God for sending His only Son, and I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for staying on the cross, and washing my sins away and giving me new life make me alive in Him.

Just to reiterate the previous point, Ephesians 2:8-10 reads from the apostle Paul “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the GIFT of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Plainly stated, we cannot brag about what we were created to do, but should be ashamed of doing what we were not created to do. Jesus Christ removes that shame from us.

In the same sense, we are not alive through the good deeds that we do, or because we join a church, pray all the time, or go on mission trips. In all honesty God has no care for what we do for Him because He can easily do it Himself; his biggest concern is why it is done. If we do it to look good in front of our friends, then we already have our reward. We join churches, sing songs, and serve in the church; that is all a diversion from the devil for us not to truly have our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are still dead. God doesn’t care what it is that you do or where, it is why. Is it for the love of our Savior Jesus Christ? If it is not, it has no place before God’s eyes. Go seek your credit before men!

A very recent example is a few friends of mine found out some of the most prominent musicians are part of some secret society that glorifies Satan (or something to that extent.) One friend in particular deleted all the music by these artists which was out of fear of Satan, but foolishly justified it as awareness, and not out of the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Friends, if it is not done because of God, then it is just to better ourselves, but NOTHING to be boastful or proud about. It is amazing how we boast about not doing bad and doing things we should naturally be doing.

With all that being said, I can’t help but have tears of joy and be thankful to God. Just looking back on my life, I se where I was, where God found me, and where He took me to. My dad often tells u how He blames himself for not bringing us to Christ sooner, but I say there is no need to have fault in that. We are responsible after that age of atonement to believe and come to Christ on our own. If we are His sheep, we shall hear his voice when He calls. There is no one that can save us (especially not ourselves) but Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who died for our sins and rose again from the dead to give us true freedom and life. I am drawn to Genesis 47:8-9 where it reads “Pharaoh asked him, (Jacob) ‘How old are you?’ and Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.’” The Amplified Bible reds Jacob’s response as “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained to those of my fathers in their pilgrimage.” When I look back on my life, as I am sure many of you who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior will also attest, because w accepted Jesus Christ to take control of our lives, our days on this earth were difficult, filled with evil, deceptive, sinful desires. As soon as we were baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, our flesh died, and our spirits were made alive in Christ Jesus. It also reminds me when Moses lead Israel out of Egypt, how they wandered for 40 years, the same way we wander until we come to Christ Jesus. We can only rejoice that our God is such a loving and patient God.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a quote from the site of Reverend Mark Brown in his reflection of John 14:6. “Jesus is the ‘life’ which is zóé and speak of being alive. So focusing on Jesus I come alive! And this is very much my experience (and mine as well)! The more I focus on Jesus the more alive I feel. Energy and purpose as I seek God through Jesus. Passion and clarity about what I am to do, in seeking after God through Jesus.”