Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Responding to Grace, Not Earning It

Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

One of the things I worry about when I talk about putting faith into practice is that readers will think I'm proposing to earn God's grace. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I want to clearly state my view.

Paul says it best in the Ephesians passage above. Our salvation comes from faith in Jesus, not by our works. That was the problem with trying to follow the covenant of laws in the Old Testament; humans simply couldn't do it. The law taught us proper behavior, but it also revealed its insufficiency to save us.

That's why we need a Savior: Jesus. This concept is absolutely core to Christianity, whatever variant you practice. It is by grace that we are saved, through God providing the Lamb of God, and through our faith in that Lamb.

Yet after Paul states this, he pivots immediately to the topic of good works. But those works are not in the context of salvation but rather in the context of our response to grace and our fulfillment of our purpose as designed by God.

So, our practice of faith has a perspective. We don't pray because we're checking a box; we pray to connect to God, to understand what we should do in response to grace. We read scripture for the same reason, to learn how to place our lives into the context of God's kingdom.

When I discuss the practice of our faith, the purpose is to become God's handiwork 24/7, not just on Sundays, not just in pews or chairs or a building, but as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) interacting in the world.

OK, enough theology - my goal is to focus on faith practice, not arguing theology. Still, scripture is the foundation for this blog, and I wanted to clarify the connection.

I offer so many ways, both free and paid, to enhance your faith walk. The starting point for everything I do is CecilTaylorMinistries dot com. Please check it out to see my practical faith toolkit.