Show Me Your Faith

We tend to think of faith as something intangible, invisible, ethereal, like a foggy mist.  But God can see your faith.

So can you, if it’s real.  And so can others.

Faith is always on display… by our works… by what we do… by how we live.  It's visible.

“Show me your faith without works” James says, “and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).

Any faith that does not bear spiritual fruit and obvious good works is not the kind of faith you want to rely on.  It will not take you where you want to go in eternity.

“By their fruit, you shall know them” Jesus said, (Matthew 7:16).

And yet, all around us are people who insist they have faith in Jesus Christ but manifest no fruit of salvation.  People who have never confessed Him as Lord of their life, who have never identified themselves with a local body of believers, who never go out of their way to help a stranger in His Name, who boycott church, who never demonstrate authentic life-change, are said in their obituaries to have “gone to be with Jesus.” 

By what right, one wonders.

I’ve actually had people say to me, “I know Daddy went to heaven…. because he liked gospel music when it came on the radio.”

And by the way, that doesn’t make the deceased a Christian any more than purchasing a gym membership makes him/her an athlete!

GETTING RIGHT WITH GOD is the only thing that matters.  

This means repentance.  Confessing sin, asking for forgiveness.  It means having a change of mind, and a change of heart about how you are living your life.  It means turning your life over to the will to God.

This kind of faith eventually proves itself  as saving faith because it produces visible evidence, spiritual fruit, (for you and others to see) as you grow in maturity and sanctification.

Furthermore, this “authentication" or "verification" of your faith is also what gives you the assurance of salvation.  As the apostle Peter said…

“Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to CONFIRM your calling and election, for if you PRACTICE THESE QUALITIES you will never fall.  For IN THIS WAY there will be richly provided for you’re an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:10-11).

This is the kind of eternal security you can rely on.

Show me your faith.