The Devotional – Fight the good fight of Faith (Part 8)

The Devotional – Fight the good fight of Faith (Part 8)

Comment: Are we not a bit over religious? There are so many influences and common beliefs within Christendom; how do we know which is Truth and which is just a faction of the truth? These groups claim truth and use TRUTH, we all use the same Holy Bible and what they proclaim ought to be common to all, yet it is NOT and is dangerously deceptive because these factions or groups have taken what is TRUE and turned it into a believable LIE. All faiths are not common, nor are all leading us to the ONE True God. Jude 1:3 indicates that in His day, right after the death and resurrection of His Savior and half-brother that he found it necessary to exhort his readers to CONTEND for the faith that was ONCE delivered to the saints.

Devotional: Jude 1:24-25 – We have spent several days looking at Jude’s epistle reviewing these groups of false teachers and how they manage to snare even ‘believers in Christ’ to submit to doctrines of demons and false beliefs. Today we should wrap up the challenge to every SOUL that Jude is speaking to and hopefully we will understand the severity of ‘contending for the FAITH’. 

While Jude gives us the answer in that God offers us GRACE, and that we can only respond to God’s GRACE by FAITH. It is Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians and specifically in chapter one that explains just what the GRACE of God includes and what FAITH in God does not include. First, (Ephesians 1:2) grace provides peace with God through the LORD Jesus Christ. We cannot produce this peace apart from Christ and we will see this same thought in every provision of God’s grace to us.

Verse 3, grace provides every Spiritual and heavenly blessing to us in Christ. Verse 4, We are chosen by God in Christ, this decision to choose is not produced by human wisdom, it was ordered by God through grace. Verse 5, goes on to say that this ‘predestined’ adoption into God’s family through faith in Christ alone is in ACCORDANCE with God’s plan and not at all directed or ordained by man. Verse 6, thus it is always to the PRAISE and GLORY of God’s GRACE that we are MADE acceptable to God through JESUS, God’s beloved SON.

Verse 7, thus it is in JESUS alone that we have redemption (we are redeemed by the Lamb; John 1:29), through Jesus we have forgiveness of sin (faith in Christ; John 3:16), grace is RICH in MERCY. Verse 8, so abounding in mercy that God provides wisdom and understanding. thus verse 9, He has given to us through this wisdom and knowledge access to the mystery of HIS will which He has purposed for all who believe. Faith is the only human source for understanding God’s mystery of grace.

The apostle Paul continues this offering of grace through faith, to Ephesians 1:14, this same ‘faith/trust’ that every apostle and disciple of Christ had with God from the beginning, even from the foundation of the world. This includes all of God’s chosen, from old to the new it is the same TODAY, salvation is the GRACE of God to anyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the gentile. The apostle Paul goes on in chapter 1:15-23 that he prays for people to understand ‘spiritual wisdom’ and to reject human wisdom.

Now in chapter 2 of Ephesians we see clearly that the gospel is provided to all who are dead in trespasses and sin, all of us. Yet for those who are saved, they are saved by FAITH in the unveiling of God’s GRACE to all who believe by faith. Ephesians 2:1-10 we are a workmanship of God’s grace and we are not a product of human works. This is Jude’s challenge to us in his last two verses – Jude 1:24-25.