The Word of Life
THAT, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have observed, and our hands have touched, concerning the Word of life.
2 And the life appeared, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and appeared to us;
3 That, which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things we write to you, that your joy may be made complete.
God is Light
5 ¶ This, then is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not act in accordance with the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 ¶ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Very important verses 5 to 10. Once saved always saved is easily undone by these verses. We must have faith in Yeshua as the Son of our Father and walk in obedience to Him everyday until death. If we have faith in Him it will not be by works but by His grace that we will live day by day. We are saved by grace and we live dependant on the unmerited merciful love of Yeshua our Messiah. Praise Our King of Kings!
Yes Leighton, obedience is the key and I think this is very clear from the Bible. But I think we have to be careful how we explain salvation by grace alone as many have twisted this to mean there are no consequences to disobeying God.
Yes we are saved by God’s grace, and no amount of mans own works can bring about our salvation. However if we do have faith in God then we need to do the works he has commanded of us, and in this way salvation is through faith first, but second to this and very important is by works given to us by God to do.
The life of Abraham is a very important example of this, as he is called the father of the faithful. Abraham trusted God even though he didn’t know where he was going when God took him into the promised land. Even then God didn’t give the land to Abraham but his decedents. If you follow the life of Abraham you can see that his faith was built up step by step through walking with God and by doing the works God had commanded of him.
So salvation is through faith first, and then by the works God commands of us. I think the letter from James is an important and very clear rebuttal to those who say salvation is through faith only.