Day 11 – Faith is All That Works ~ Julie Earl

Galatians 2:15-19

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸ If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. ¹⁹ “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

Julie’s Nugget

Faith is all that works.

Good deeds won’t work; dressing and acting a certain way won’t work; and doing penance won’t work.

So if faith is the only thing that works – saves us from our sins, makes us righteous in God’s sight, and makes us God’s child – what is faith?

Faith is believing in Jesus – that He is who He said He is; that He has done what He said He’d do; and that He is worthy of all our trust as He leads and guides us.

I would encourage you to go to Biblegateway.com and put the word believe into the search. Believe is mentioned more than 250 times in the New Testament. The book of John alone has over 80 times where the word believe is used – and many of those were spoken by Jesus.

Once you pull up the verses in John, take time to read through them and hear Jesus’ thoughts and John’s thoughts on the simplicity and beauty of salvation. Jesus asks us to only believe, and once we believe, His Spirit is able to forgive our sins and live inside us, radically changing us by His presence and love. Here are a few verses to get you started. Enjoy!

“He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.” – John 1:7

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” – John 1:12

“What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” – John 2:11

“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.” – John 2:22

“that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” – John 3:15

“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

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” – John 3:18

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” – John 3:36

“And because of his words many more became believers.” – John 4:41

“They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” – John 4:42

Woohoo! Jesus really is the Savior of the world! Good deeds and certain behaviors can never earn what Jesus gave us. Faith is all that works!

Many blessings as you enjoy the fruit of your faith in Jesus,

Julie Earl

[All scripture taken from the New International Version. Bold lettering mine.]