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Pastor's Blog April 30, 2020
"Faith and Acceptance I"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
If you've been following our weekly reflections on "Steps to Christ," you might be thinking, "If the secret to living the victorious Christian life is me NOT living it and, instead, me being in constant relationship with Jesus, how in the world am I supposed to do that?!" Our friend Ellen provides a very helpful response to that query in her chapter entitled "Faith and Acceptance."
Having realized that you can't live righteously or make yourself holy on your own, you begin to despair of achieving a godly life relying on yourself (32; 1977 edition). What you need instead is peace with God and the love of Christ pulsing through your soul - you need the resources of heaven (32)!
So how do you get those resources? Ellen states plainly, "You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised" (32; emphasis original). What YOU are supposed to do is confess your sins, desire to belong completely to God, and trust God to do what he has promised; what GOD is supposed to do is receive you, take you, accept you, wash away your sins, give you a new heart, and make good on his promises. YOU bring the sin and GOD provides the salvation.
But most of us still get tripped up here. How exactly do we go to God and trust in him? Ellen points us helpfully to the story of the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda. That man was powerless to do anything about his condition, but Jesus commanded him to get up and walk; the man could have argued that Jesus should heal him first - that Jesus should first heal the man so he can SEE the healing process, then he would get up and walk once he could SEE that he was healed (33). Instead, the man believed Jesus and, when he got up to walk, found out he could do so! So it is the same for our trust in God. "If you believe the promise - believe that you are forgiven and cleansed - God supplies the fact" (33).
Friends, if you have put your faith in Jesus, God has already begun this cleansing and sanctifying work in you. By the time you respond to the desire for holiness, God has already been in the process of making you holy. In Jesus, you already have the resources of heaven. So keep trusting in Jesus, friends.
(*) Steps to Christ 1977 edition; Chapter 6—"Faith and Acceptance”
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
