<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
Sometimes we say that we are saved by our faith in Christ, and we want
to emphasize this so we don’t lapse into the idea that we are saved by
our works. But again we want to be careful that we grasp the truth
accurately. Truth saves (John 8:32) and error produces the lethal
lukewarmness that permeates the church of the Laodiceans (Rev.
3:14-21).
God’s people in the last days are distinguished in Revelation as those
who demonstrate two great identification marks: they (1) “keep the
commandments of God and (2) the faith of Jesus” (14:12). The former is
not possible to “do” except by the latter. But it never was their
faith; it was something they have received from Jesus.
Thus we are not saved by OUR faith in Jesus, but by HIS faith. He
alone is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). That is,
in all the 6000 years of human history Christ is the one Man who has
totally believed the saving truth. His faith alone works by love (Gal.
5:6).
He is the one and only human being who has fully experienced what it
is to be “forsaken” of God (Matt. 27:46). No one else has been capable
of sensing to the full what that means; it was He alone who has been
“made . . . to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Therefore, no one else has ever “tasted” lostness as fully as He did
as He hung on that cross in the darkness. It was HIS faith that saved
Him from eternal despair! God saw fit to record the story in Psalm 22
(and also 69).
The faith that we are to exercise is therefore second-hand; we got it
from Him! Rightly defined, it is a heart-appreciation of what it cost
Christ to save us; it is to “comprehend with all saints what is the
width and length and depth and height--to know the love
[</x-tad-bigger><italic><x-tad-bigger>agape</x-tad-bigger></italic><x-tad-bigger>]
of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph. 3:18, 19). Our salvation is in
“comprehending.”
</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread"
again tomorrow.
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