In God's Power We are Saved

As we discussed last week, this is the first theme statement for the letter of Romans. Paul must reaffirm his position that he is not ashamed to preach the gospel of Jesus. This is a technique or literary device called a (litotes - noun - ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its opposite - Concise Oxford English dictionary 11th ed.).

Paul uses this literary device to affirm his excitement in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is excited to bring the gospel wherever he goes. For what we know of Paul, he is definitely not ashamed of the gospel because it comes from the power of God and it also reveals the righteousness of God.

The bible teaches us that once we are saved, we will always be saved. We cannot lose our salvation. Why? Because our salvation comes from the Lord and the Lord alone. It is through the blood of Jesus when He was hanging on the cross that He secured our salvation once and for all. To make perfectly clear, the only way to our salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and want to spend your life serving Him then you will be saved. Salvation cannot haphazardly be conjured up by our own desires to make us feel good. There is no way of tricking God into thinking you are saved. It must be sincere and from the heart because God knows our hearts, the hairs on our heads and He knows each one of us before the beginning of time. There is of course, necessary action in order to be saved and that action is the choice you make to believe in Christ coupled with the desire to live in heaven. Salvation comes to all who believe, in other words it is universally available to all.

There are at least two views when it comes to faith, the first is the world view where we are taught to have faith in our selves. A self-perpetuating faith that we can conjure up whenever we need it. This is a false narrative from the world view that suggests the faith you have is from within not from God. This worldview faith will dissipate quicker than a puddle of water on hot concrete in sun blaring 120 degree temperatures. The other view is from the bible. The bible states that our faith comes from God. Biblical faith is a critical component to growing a more trusting, deeper loving relationship with God. This faith will be with us forever because this faith comes from God and God alone. From faith to faith means from the beginning of our faith when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ to the end when we are in our glory state. We receive faith by the righteousness of God and through the sanctification process our faith will grow. Paul understands this and he even quotes from the OT book of (Habakkuk 2:4 4 "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.) where scripture tells us that the just shall live by faith.

All of this will not become reality if we do not effectively seek the Lord and follow God so we may live for eternity. This is another key component to developing a robust relationship with Christ as we see from scripture in the Old Testament (Amos 5:4 4 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek Me and live;).

This is our journey and the road is set before us as we embark on our walk of faith with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through our faith that we become righteous and we truly live.

My prayer is that God will move in us deeply in building our faith and trust in Him. That we would become more righteous every day and that we will take on the characteristics of the Lord to become in the likeness of Jesus. I pray that God will truly bless His people and His land and through our repentance His grace will shine upon our faces and He will heal our land. In the Mighty Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray this Amen! Amen!