Author: Christian Channel

Daily Bible Study
Our faith is about relationship! Christianity is all about a true heart-felt relationship with God the Father and nothing more. And there's the problem, in order to have a relationship with God the Father, we would have to be sinless in the eyes of a holy God. We are sinners, we were at enmity with God, and our relationship with God the Father was broken by our sin. Jesus the very God of Heaven stepped out of eternity and took on humanity, to bridge the gap that was impossible for us to cross. Jesus lived a sinless life and died on the Cross of Calvary to pay for our sin. Through the shedding of His blood for the remission of our sins, Jesus bridged the gap, thereby allowing us to receive salvation by faith in God's grace. Jesus did so in order to restore our relationship with God the Father by our faith in Him. By accepting Him as our Lord and Savior through faith, we have a restored relationship with God. There was no other way for us to reconcile ourselves back to God. Every single sin no matter how small is rebellion against God and our guilt brings with it the penalty of eternal separation from God in Hell. And the message of this passage is that without a relationship with God through faith, we cannot bring any works before God that are not a product of our sin-nature.

Moreover, the Bible tells us that all of our good deeds, done by our own self-righteousness are nothing more than filthy rags before God. Thereby, making it even more evident, that sinful mankind in their fallen state cannot offer any kind of good works to God, which will undo or remove the penalty of Hell which we are already guilty of. It's that simple, the price had to be paid, and only Jesus had the ability to pay that price and restore our relationship by taking the punishment for our sin upon Himself at the Cross. Through our faith in Christ, God imputes or freely credits His righteousness to us. There are no works or religious activities on the face of this earth that can make us right before a holy God, only Jesus can do that! If every sin in thought and deed is punishable by death and eternal separation from God, how many times can a person die for their sins? Moreover, what we consider good deeds and self-sacrifice for others is God's standard for our normal behavior, therefore, good deeds do not count as extra credit toward salvation. In addition, there are no works or animal sacrifices that can substitute for mankind! Only someone who is sinless and shares in our humanity, can take our place. And that's why Jesus had to step out of eternity and take on humanity. He did so in order that He could stand in our place at the Cross of Calvary. Therefore, we are saved by grace and not by works otherwise we would all boast in our own salvation!