- CHAPTER 13 -
What You Must Do

In the previous chapter, we established that you cannot earn God’s grace. No matter how many good deeds you do, you cannot earn it. This is a gift that must be received in thanksgiving, without trying to give anything in exchange for the gift. Love cannot be bought or it is not love. For example, one time I wanted to share my love with another person by giving him money to buy a tank of gas. The man was overjoyed being stuck many miles from home. At first, however, the man wanted to pay for gas. He offered me things that I did not need or want. I turned him down. He then asked, “What must I do then for this money?” I replied, “Just accept it with thanks.” This is all that was required: to take the money and use it rightly and joyfully.

God does not require anything more of us in accepting the gift of Jesus Christ. We cannot earn this gift, we must accept it. This, however, does not mean there is no action on our part. For the man to have obtained the money for gas, he first had to ask for it and then take it. And just the same, we cannot receive God’s gift unless we first ask for it and then take it. This is where faith comes in.

Faith, as shown, is not just belief. Many think that they have faith in God because they believe that He exists. The bible makes it clear: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19) If God wanted everyone to believe that He exists, then all He would have to do is display His awesome power. However, what God desires is our love. We love God through faith in Christ. By trusting in Christ, He is able to fill our heart with love that we may love God in truth. Faith is pleasing to God because it allows Him to work as He pleases, thus making it possible for us to love God. We trust in God making Him free to truly be God—the almighty, sovereign power of the universe. Otherwise, without faith, we prevent God from being God. We stop Him from exercising His love in us.

To simplify this: God is love. The only way we can love is if we have God is in us. This means we cannot love anyone truthfully, not even God, unless we have God in our heart. That is why we need Jesus. We trust in Jesus, lean on Him, to fulfill this truth. We can only love God by Jesus helping us. When Christ cleanses us of our sin, then God can enter, and then we can love God. This requires faith. It means trusting in Christ to cleanse us. When we have faith in Christ, we submit ourselves to His power and control so that He can be free to cleanse of our sin. By faith in Christ, and only faith, does God become our personal God, who rules over us in love.

Faith, however, is not just something locked up in the heart. True faith is followed through with action. When we trust in something, we depend upon it. When we have faith in a chair, we sit in that chair. When we have faith in a bridge, we drive across that bridge. When we have faith in our parents, we allow them to care for us. When we have faith in a friend, we confide in them. When we have faith in our spouse, we share intimacy with them. Faith is something we give that is displayed in our action. This means, there is something required on your part. Just saying, “I believe” is not enough. Your faith must follow through with action.

This is what we must do:

Prayer

The first thing you must do is call upon Jesus. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Before anyone can receive a gift, they must ask for it. In other words, you must reach out and grab it. To do this, fall on your knees in repentance and call out to Jesus Christ for forgiveness. Pray to Jesus and confess all your sins before God. Scripture says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) This must happen first and foremost if you are going to receive Christ. You cannot receive a most Holy gift unless you have first been cleansed yourself. So pray, and ask Jesus for forgiveness. Ask Him to deliver you, to help you, and to save you. Ask Him to cleanse your heart so that you can receive the Holy Spirit.

Once you have done this, you then need to ask Jesus for the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to come. Invite Him in. Jesus said, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13)

Christ is what you need, but you cannot find Christ unless you seek Him. Turn from your sin and seek the Lord. Seek Jesus Christ and do not give up until He answers. When He does, your life will be transformed. You will receive the Holy Spirit just as promised and then walk in confidence. You will know that Christ has come when (there are other indicators, these are only some):

1) You feel inner peace and joy. You feel complete and whole. The deepest longing of your heart is satisfied.

2) Your sins no longer burden you with guilt. You do not feel weighed down by God’s law. Rather, God’s law feels freeing. You agree with it and desire to fulfill it.

3) Your life will no longer feel isolated or alone. You feel connected to something grander than yourselves. You feel whole.

4) You have the confidence and hope of Heaven. In your heart, you know. No one has to tell you what to think or believe. You don’t have to reason with your mind about it. Instead, you just know.

5) You have an intimate love for God that is felt deeply. God doesn’t just exist; He is carved on your heart.

6) Jesus Christ is pleasing to all your senses. You want Him to reign over your life. You want Him to take control over you.

7) The Bible is refreshing. Reading it is like drinking from a fountain in a desert. The words come alive as though God were speaking directly to you.

The greatest indication of Christ in you is that you bear the qualities of God. You have peace, love, joy, and hope. These come to you, not from anything on earth, but from God who lives in you. They will be displayed in your everyday life. Your actions will display them. You will feel them swelling inside of you. Your heart will sing with them. And they will be lasting. They will endure through trials, hardships, and difficulties. You will have peace even in the storm.

Commitment

Faith is an investment of ourselves on something else in confidence of that thing. When we have faith in a bridge, we step onto that bridge and walk across. It is not enough to just say we believe; we must make take a step of faith. We must put ourselves out there into the hands of the Christ in whom we claim to have faith. If we claim to believe in Christ, then we must lean upon Him as our Lord and Savior. We must commit our lives to Him as our Lord and Savior. Christ claimed to be living water, in other words, the source of true life. If we want true life, then we must partake of Jesus Christ. In other words, we must be filled with His Spirit.

On the cross, Christ bought His people with a price. He paid the debt of their sin. He suffered and died for them that they may have new life. A person who wishes to receive this gift of forgiveness must also do the same. They must surrender their lives unto Christ in faith. They must step out and trust that Christ will save them as promised. Christ said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”(Luke 9:23-26) If we wish to have faith in Christ, we must follow Him. Christ carried His cross unto death. We must also carry our cross unto death by denying ourselves. We must stop seeking our own pleasure and seek to please God. This means seeking to make Christ Lord over us. He is our Master, the one in whom we let control our lives. He is the one in whom we place our confidence and trust. He is the one who to whom we confess. We do not claim to be God; rather, we claim that Jesus Christ is God.

This is the word of faith: “That 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 8:9-10) This is how we come unto salvation, by confession of Jesus Christ. We give up our lives unto Christ and commit ourselves to following Him as Lord over us. When Christ is Lord, He then has the freedom to work in us that which is pleasing to God. We can be saved, because Jesus Christ is working in us what is good and pleasing to God. Though we are weak, He is strong. We stand in faith of Him leaning on His power to make all things possible. We no longer depend upon ourselves, our own abilities, or our own flesh. These things can do nothing in relationship with God. Rather, we depend upon Christ to reveal God to us and to reconcile us to God so that we may live to our fullest potential.

Christ said that if we are ashamed of Him and His words, He will also be ashamed of us. If we truly want to follow Christ, we must confess Him. We must proclaim His name to the nations. We must boldly say openly, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” When we do, our faith becomes real. We are acting on our faith. It is not the confession alone that saves us. If a person says, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” but doesn’t have faith then they are lying. No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ truthfully unless they have faith because faith is what gives Christ the freedom to be a loving God. Christ cannot control us unless we trust Him or else His Lordship would not be based on love. Christ would be forcing His control on us. This is not the way of Christ. God is love. We must first trust Him which means we willingly submit to His power. We must have faith or else Jesus Christ cannot be Lord. At the same time, to say we have faith and then to go around acting like we don’t is also a lie. Our faith should be confessed in our actions. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” (James 2:14-18)

The Bible has made it clear that our first act of faith is confession of Christ. We must confess that “Jesus is Lord.” We proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord not only because we believe it, but because it is true. The Spirit of Christ has entered into our heart. God lives within us. In this way, Jesus Christ is truly Lord over us. When we claim publically, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” we are affirming what Christ has done. We confess it openly because we have confidence: ‘Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. He has saved me.’ Then an only then can we be saved because then and only then have we reached out and accepted God’s gift. We have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior when we have called Him, trusted Him, and confessed Him. Christ becomes Lord when we have willfully denied ourselves and have committed our lives to following Him because we believe that Christ is who He says He is.

It is important to note that our confession may come in different ways. Our confession is this: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord.’ However, this confession may be said in different ways. My confession came by word of mouth. When asked if I had accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, I openly said “yes” in front of thirty believers. This, however, is not the most common confession. The most common way to confess Christ is through water baptism. In water baptism, we are visibly committing our lives to Christ showing to everyone that we have died to ourselves by falling back in the water and have receive new life by coming out of the water. As such, scripture says baptism is “not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” (1 Peter 3:21) We are saved because we have partaken of Christ’s death and resurrection. We have died with Christ on the cross to our sins and have been raised to new life by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a pledge of a good conscience to God meaning that we have been forgiven and seek to do His will. In other words, we have committed our lives to following Christ.

Once we have committed our lives to Christ, we live in faith of Him. We have failed God, but Christ has died for us. We live to please God and may stumble from time to time, but each time we fall, we get back up because we trust in Christ. We lean on Christ for understanding and guidance. We let His Spirit control us. We let His Word dictate our actions. We do this because we know God is good. He will lead us to do what is right. As the scripture says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:6)

This means seeking daily the rule and authority of Christ in our life. We do not seek to please ourselves, our own understanding, or our flesh. We seek to please God because we have felt the pleasure of God. When God is living in us and He is pleased, it is our greatest joy. Our heart feels a deep satisfaction that nothing else on earth can supply. It is the most wonderful of all feelings knowing that God is pleased with us. There is no other feeling to even describe it. It is simply a lasting contentment.

And so I encourage you to take the step of faith. Seek after Christ. Call upon Him for salvation that you may have your sins erased and enter a new life in agreement with God. Come! Join us in the Kingdom of God with Christ as King. “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Revelation 22:17)