| May 10
Blessings Through Faith
There is a simple blessing of faith; salvation.
Many people have attempted to change the message
of salvation into other things. Some have
justified themselves by believing that they are
a relatively good person and therefore should go
to heaven.
Other people have convinced themselves that
they've done enough good things or enacted
enough penance to balance out their sin.
Still other people refuse to believe in a God
who would punish sin at all, instead choosing to
ignore all of the warnings of punishment and
holding to the idea that a loving God would not
or could not send anyone to hell.
Mark 16:16 is simple and explicit as to what is
required for salvation. In the end it is
very little. We are called to have faith,
in other words believer as Mark puts it.
What do we believe? That Jesus died on the
cross for our sins and that He rose again and
that salvation is found only through Him.
Some people try to add baptism as a necessary
requirement for salvation but they miss the
point. If baptism were required, our
salvation would be based on works which is
exactly the opposite of faith. Baptism is
a proof of our faith not a saving act. Our
faith should show in all that we do but we are
not required to prove our faith in order to
actually be saved. |
