Give God His Due

I am studying the book of James at the moment and the connection is made between faith and works.  We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and cannot be saved by working to obtain righteousness by the Law of Moses.  The reality is when people are born again and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within them, the lives of people will not be the same because God makes all things new:  a soul dead in sins has been raised to life and forgiven, the eyes of the blind have been opened, the lost has been found, a foreigner has been adopted as a son and made co-heir with Christ.

A point made by James is genuine faith will have supporting evidence of life.  A heartbeat in the womb of a mother is a sign a baby has been conceived and is developing.  There are many who make a profession of having faith without any evidence of a changed life even as there were people who pointed to their  good works as a means of obtaining favour with God.  A wondrous truth of the Gospel is it is all of grace:  it is not by works we have done but by God's mercy He has saved us.  Having been given eternal life, we are divinely enabled to repent of our sin, put off works of the flesh and produce the fruit of the Spirit.

One of the big talking points for believers is our personal responsibility in our own sanctification.  J. Vernon McGee wrote this in a commentary, “A minister once talked to a man who professed conversion, and he asked, “Have you united with the church?”  “No, I haven’t,” the man replied.  “The dying thief never united with the church, and he went to heaven.”  The minister asked, “Have you ever sat at the Lord’s table?”  “No, the dying thief never did, and he was accepted,” was the answer.  The minister asked, “Have you been baptised?”  “No, “he said, “the dying thief was never baptised, and he went to heaven.”  “Have you given to missions?”  “No, the dying thief did not give to missions, and he was not judged for it,” was the reply.  Then this disgusted minister said to the man, “Well, my friend, the difference between you two seems to be that he was a dying thief and you are a living thief.” (McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol. 5, pg. 651)

The point McGee made is a good one, how people can cherry-pick examples from the Bible to justify their own indolence and indifference which exposes their lack of love of God.  I remember talking to a man who declared he didn't need to go to church to go to heaven because his grandmother told him so as a child.  Using the thief on the cross or what grandma said should not discount the commands of our LORD Jesus and the responsibilities we have as believers, things like loving the LORD with all our hearts and loving one another as Jesus loves us.  As children of God He is faithful to guide and correct us, and He uses countless means to communicate His wisdom and truth even to faithless hearts like ours.

Solomon concluded his remarks in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 with this timeless truth:  "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. ¹⁴ For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil."  Even in our age of grace a man can rob God, and may we give Him the honour, praise, thanks and obedience He deserves as our loving Father, Saviour and Sovereign, our all in all.