Faith And Acceptance

"This is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith… he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1)

"As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence. You feel that sin has separated you from God, and you are in bondage to the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape, the more you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your heart is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin. You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him-what can you do to obtain it?

"It is peace that you need - Heaven's forgiveness and peace and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, 'without money and without price.' (2) It is yours if you will bet reach out your hand and grasp it. The Lord says, 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' (3) 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.' (4)

"You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of their diseases when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence in Him concerning things which they could not see - leading them to believe in His power to forgive sins. This He plainly stated in the healing of the man sick with palsy: 'That you may know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins' then He said to the paralytic, 'Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.' (5) So also John the evangelist says, speaking of the miracles of Christ, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (6)

"From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' (7) The sick man might have said, 'Lord, if You will make me whole, I will obey Your word.' But, no, he believed Christ's word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was made whole.

"In like manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise, - believe that you are forgiven and cleansed, - God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, 'I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised." (8)

1. 1 John 5:4, 5.
2. Isaiah 55:1.
3. Isaiah 1:18.
4. Ezekiel 36:26.
5. Matthew 9:6.
6. John 20:31.
7. John 5:8.
8. Steps to Christ, pp. 32, 33.