Tag: Faith

Our Two-Fold Problem: Sins and Sin

God makes it quite clear in His Word that He has only one answer to every human need; His Son Jesus Christ. In all His dealings with us, He works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place. The Son of God died for our forgiveness, He lives for our deliverance. It will help us greatly and save us much confusion, if we keep constantly before us this fact, that God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only, namely, by showing us more of His Son.

Our problem is twofold: sins and sin. To better understand this let us look at the first eight chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. It will be helpful first to point out a natural division of this section of Romans into two and note certain striking differences in the subject matter of the two parts.

The first eight chapters of Romans form a self-contained unit. The four-and-one-half chapters from 1:1 to 5:11 form the first half of this unit and the three-and-one-half chapters from 5:12 to 8:39 the second half. A careful reading will show that the subject matter of the two halves is different. In the first section, we find the word “sins” given prominence. In the second half, the word “sins” hardly occurs once, however, the singular word “sin” occurs repeatedly and is the subject mainly dealt with. Why is this?

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Our Task is Simply to Trust and Obey

Lord, give to me a quiet heart, that does not ask to understand but confidently steps forward in the darkness guided by thy hand. (Elizabeth Elliott)

As humans, we understand so little of God. God’s thoughts are as far above ours as the heaven is above the earth (Isaiah 55:8-9). But He knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11). It is enough that we know we are a part of God’s sovereign design and that we are important to Him. God thought of each one of us before the earth was even formed (Ephesians 1:4). Knowing this, we can trust God with our lives, for He only wants what is best for each of us. After all, He knows what is better for us than we do. He sees the big picture, we only see this moment in time. yet, it is a hard thing to do as we all want to have full control of our own destiny. But, if we just trust God and obey Him, then we can confidently step forward in any situation, knowing our Lord is already there. What a peace it is, knowing God is in control of every situation in our lives.

It Only Takes a Little bit of Faith

We will never behold the glory of Christ by sight in the next world if we have not in some measure beheld it by faith here in this world.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

The eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews lists many examples of men that had great faith and the things they accomplished.

Yet, it is not the quantity of faith that saves us. A little faith is just as real faith as the person with the greatest faith. A drop of water is just as real water as the whole ocean. A spark of fire is as real fire as a whole forest fire. A sickly man is just as real of a human being as a healthy man. So it is not the measure of your faith that saves you, but the blood of Christ. We all start out with little faith, but as we grow and see the hand of God in our lives and the lives of others, our faith increases astronomically. So if your faith is small, yet you seek Christ, He will not let you perish. The weakest hands may take the gift as well as the strongest. Christ is that gift, and a little faith is all it takes to begin a journey that will lead to a life of triumphant joy in our Lord.