Others may feel that faith is something to be lived out as a code of ethics, or a list of rules to be followed.
The Bible describes faith as placing our trust in a supreme God who will change the way in which we live our lives.
It is true that the Bible does contain rules of behaviour, or God’s expectations of how we should live.
It is also true that the Bible describes the meaning of life — from God’s point of view.
Neither accepting those statements as true, nor trying to keep all the rules we know about are ‘faith’.
They are merely acknowledging that we realise that something should be done about them.
God is very aware that we are unable to change our circumstances, or change ourselves to meet His standards.
We may be able to improve ourselves for a while, but always seem to fall back into our old ways and find the same things that trip us up.
God has a better (perfect) way of dealing with the things that we are unable to.
Because God’s Son, Jesus Christ lived the same life as us — but perfectly — He earned the right to offer us ‘new life’ through His death and resurrection, to those who place their faith (trust) in His ability.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life”. (John 3:16).
True faith in Jesus is giving up on what we can’t do ourselves, and trusting His ability to give us new life, for now and the future.
~ Contributed by Bruce Driver from the Uniting Church on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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