Catching Gold Coins in the Sewer

Being a Christian in the 21st Century calls for bravery. We live in an era of over-sexualised content, blatant disregard for the laws of God and anarchy. We exist in a time where it seems like everyone is bold about what they believe in except Christians. Let's face it. We are in need of divine grace from Christ Jesus.

I recently had an interesting conversation with my friends concerning faith and generally, our walk with Christ in this modern era amidst the white-hot trials and tribulations (and the boy issues in between!). It is so easy to lean back and say, "Hey, Christianity is hard and does not make sense, who needs it any way?"

Where I would like to get into for today, though, is how deceived we are that as a way of trying to get right with God, we can achieve much through works. We can "earn God's approval" through doing.

Righteousness through faith and not works is a principle that we ought to learn and relearn daily.

We are encouraged by Paul when he told the Galatians that "...a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." (Gal 2:16)

This basically means that we do not have to struggle as if we are alone in this battle of faith. We have a fool proof system of God, our loving father, Christ Jesus, His son, who died for us therefore purchasing us for eternal life and our advocate, The Holy Spirit who dwells inside of us, guiding us in all ways and showing us which way to go!

As we aim to keep the good faith, we may be deceived that good works will absolve us from falling and represent us before God. Not so. Your faithfulness to church every Sunday does not cut it. Your alms giving does not fit in . Not even your fasting makes sense apart from the acknowledgment that Jesus did the work for us and we need to fully immerse ourselves in Him for our very survival. He is the perfection of God's work. He has taken away the power of dead works. He empowers us to live holy lives!

Although this does not absolve us from going through tests of faith (John 15:20), we are encouraged that we can be kept from falling (Jude 1:24-25) and we can remain as the unblemished Bride of Christ until His coming.

Be of good cheer, although we have many tribulations, Christ already overcame the world! Keep fighting the good fight, friend!