This is a question
asked by the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Believers
(of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh) are encouraged to be Christlike.
To be Christlike is to be like the Lord Jesus Christ in thoughts, in
words and in deeds. This is a difficult thing to do, because human
as we are, we are subject to human frailties, likes and dislikes or
prejudices. Thus, our normal tendency is to love those who show us
love; we give to those who give to us; we are courteous to those
who are equally courteous. And the converse of all these is true to
us as well.
For
example, when Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross of calvary, what
did he pray to his Father for those who persecuted and hanged him?
He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are
doing” (Luke 23:34 NIV). Who is the human being who would pray in
that manner? No one. Impossible. It is written,
“There is no one
righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no not one
who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become
worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans
3:10-12 NIV).
If
this be the case, who then can be saved and who deserves to be in
heaven as promised by Jesus Christ when he said,
“1Do
not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.
2In
my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have
told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to
be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3 NIV)
Yes,
no one really deserves to enter heaven on his own effort or
“goodness”; it is only by the grace
of God. Thus, the Bible says,
“8For
it is by grace
you have been saved, through faith
– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9not
by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9 NIV)
What
is grace? The simplest definition understandable by everybody is:
grace means an “unmerited
favor”. Reducing this to its
lowest term, we do not really deserve it because we are sinners, but
because of the love of God, by his grace, through faith (because we
believe Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh) and the truth of his
promise, we will be allowed to enter heaven. In Tagalog, “hindi
sana maari (or puede) pero sigue na lang, pasok ka pagkat naniwala ka
na Diyos si Jesu Cristo).
So,
we are saved not because we are good or upright, but by the grace
of God because we have faith in
Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh. Thus, the Bible says, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God” (John 1:1 NIV).
But one who is saved is Christlike, so he is good and upright, and
will do “good works”. The Bible says, “For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10 NIV).
No comments:
Post a Comment