Grace Through Faith

Several Scriptures that relay the true Gospel of Jesus Christ:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" (John 3: 16-18).

  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do " (Eph. 2:8,9).

  " the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes . . . " (Romans 1:16).

  "He [God] purified their hearts by faith. . . .We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved . . . "(Acts 15:9, 11).

" If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved " (Romans 10:9, 10).

  " By this gospel you are saved, IF you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. OTHERWISE you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our SINS according to the Scriptures,  that He was buried, (3) that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and  that He appeard to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more . . . . " (1 Cor. 15:2-6).

  " As for believers, you were DEAD in your transgressions and sins [before you became believers], in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air [Satan], the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. . . .We were by nature objects of [God's] wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in Mercy, MADE US ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved " (Ephesians 2:1-5).

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast."

" For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himeslf for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you " (Titus 2:11-15).

  " Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: . . . " (2 Peter 1:1).

" See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Falther. And this is what he promised us--even eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. " (1 John 2:25-27).

  " Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who had the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life " (1 John 5:10-13).

  " For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord " (Jude 1-4). 

(All scriptures are NIV)

Walking from Darkness to Light

This is the message HE has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in HIM at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth (1 John 1:5-6).
when we walk in the light, “the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin.” The verb translated as “cleanses” appears in the present tense in Greek. This tense shows that the cleansing by the blood of Jesus is an ongoing experience for Christians. John is not referring here simply to our initial experience of forgiveness when we first trusted Christ, but also to the repeated cleansing we experience when we sin. Although intimate fellowship with God precludes “living in spiritual darkness,” even when we know God and walk in Him, we will still sin at times and find ourselves in need of forgiveness. We are not sentenced to a life filled with sin, however, because our hearts will be cleansed through the forgiveness we have in Jesus. In time, even the desire to sin will diminish within us if we keep on walking in the light of Christ. From John’s point of view, ongoing fellowship with God will, over time, extinguish within us the desire to do that which dishonors God.
It transforms our walk, our lifestyle, our way of living. Before entering into intimate fellowship with God and God’s people, we can and we do walk in darkness. We do what is evil and we keep on doing it. But once we have true fellowship with God through Christ, we experience forgiveness and cleansing that empowers us to stop walking in darkness. Yes, we continue to sin, but we have new freedom to overcome that sin.
Christian life is not some grueling battle of self-improvement. Walking in the light of God changes everything. Freedom from sin comes through fellowship with God. When we fail to live by God’s standards – and we all will – we don’t grit our teeth and strain to be perfect next time. Rather we come before God with an honest admission of our failures. As John says, “if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” (1 John 1:9). The more we experience God’s forgiveness and cleansing, the more we will be strengthened to stop sinning. The more we receive God’s grace, the more we will live in freedom as the Spirit of God transforms every aspect of our lives (Gal 5).
Personally, I am thankful John mentions sin and forgiveness in this discussion of the Christian life. Even though my theology warns against it, my heart keeps on trying to turn the Christian life into a matter of perfect performance. A part of me thinks that I will finally live as a Christian if I only try hard enough, if I only do all of the right things. Of course I fall short of this unrealistic goal, both by failing to do many right things and by doing many wrong ones instead. Yet my shortcomings do not separate me from fellowship with God because the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses me from all sin. The Christian life is not a matter of perfection, but process, not performance for God, but relationship with God.