Clarifying one more time

Three evidences that Justification is by faith

1. Since the beginning, it has always been God who declares a person righteous and worthy of salvation (v1-8)
-sin is in our nature and we cannot do any rituals or actions to erase it.
-the only way for our records of sins to be removed is a declaration from God. Since sin is missing the mark of God's standard of righteousness, falling short of God's glory, thus we are unable to manifest God's righteousness

2. From the beginning, man has been trying through human effort to obtain righteousness, but no one has ever been declared righteous because of human intervention or action. Upto no, man is still in a bondage to sin. Today, people substitute this by good works, etc. but none of these are worthy of God's righteousness.

3. Since the brginnning, man has always been decllared righteous by receiving God's grace through faith.
-"Pistis" or faith is a conviction in the truthfulness and faithfulness of God

*based on Romans 4
by Rev. Dr. David Go

Seeing the Light at the end of the Tunnel

Jesus brought Peter, James and John with Him becasude they were the three who were:
-most ready to receive the truth
-acknowledged as leaders in the pack
They witnessed three life-changing events in this experience:

Transfiguration: "I (Jesus) am the Messiah!"
-All through His life, Jesus is the Messiah, only that the world does not know it yet
-Jesus presented Himself to them, declaring this as truth

Appearance of Moses and Elijah: "Jesus must fo through suffering and death to accomplish His mission."
-Luke 9 records them talking of Jesus' exodus--His journey to the cross and death
-Israel's great heroes were talking to Jesus--an act that must have convinced the disciples about Christ's accepted/claimed fate
-These characters were representatives of the Law and Prophets.
-Moses and Elijah spoke within earshot of the disciples, but in their fear, the latter did not listen to what was being discussed.

God speaks audibly: "This is My Son, whom I love, listen to Him!"
-The cloud symbolized God's presence
-Jesus, as an obedient Son, lived out John 14:31
-God's audible voice should've crushed any inkling of doubt from the disciples, leavin gthem to accept His word and live it out.

Jesus' ressurection marks the light at the end of the tunnel

*based on Mark 9:2-8
by Rev. Alex Uy

Open your eyes

To grow in the faith, you must:

1. pay close attention to God's Word (not to treat it mechanically)
- we do christian duties
sometimes like the pharisees, without understanding but only out of habit and practice
-OR-
sometimes like the disciples, who experience Jesus but do not understand clearly

2. open our heart to the Holy Spirit (not rely on ourselves for understanding and obedience)
-the Holy Spirit is there to show us where to go, but we
often, like the pharisees, follow custom or depend on intelligence
-OR-
often, like the disciples, trust in our association to Jesus

3. always check our spiritual health (and not assume that you are always well)
-we may seem okay outwardly, but
like the pharisees who are blind, we may have eyes but actually could not see
-OR-
like the disciples, we may have eyes that do not see clearly

4. remember what God has done for you (and not forget His love and grace)
-regarding strong and clear experiences with Jesus Christ, we may be
like the pharisees who have seen Jesus' earlier miracles but refused to recognize Jesus as the Messiah
-OR-
like the disciples who have been with Jesus through the miracles but forget them when it counts

*based on Mark 8:11-30
by Rev. Dr. David Go

To believe is to see

We are brought up with the philosophy "To see is to believe". on the issue of faith, who did better: the PHARISEES or the DISCIPLES?

The pharisees did not believe Jesus, but instead they attribute His miraculous acts to beelzebub, saying that Jesus is a false prophet.
-Deut.18:22 motivated the pharisees but Jesus refused to lay their accusations to rest because He wants people to ultimately believe in Him.
-We sometimes set out conditions on God, but He doesn't work under our timetable. He wants us FAITH FIRST, based on His character and His Word.

Jesus taught the disciples to not let the yeast of doubt, like Pharisees and Herod, to overpower who they were.
-Jesus got exasperated be the disciples who were dense and slow to learn.
-The disciples saw the miracles happen before them, participating even, yet they were unable to interpret the facts to say that Jesus can take care of them.
-We sometimes lack faith even if we have seen Him move in out lives.

Faith is an intelligent decision. God wants faith first, on Jesus, then things will follow.

*based on Mark 8:11-21
by Rev. Alex Uy

Red marks on the Report Card of Faith

The disciples failed in 3 tests:

1. Lack of compassion
- they were tired and were planning to rest, but the crowds pressed on them and gave them more work to do.
COMPASSION has no time schedule or price tag. It is done even when it is inconvenient or even if it brings hurt.

2. Lack of faith
-their focus was on the enormity of their problem and inability to solve it.
FAITH would've made them ask how Jesus intends to accomplish such feeding task as their first resort.

3. Lack of perception
-they were amazed in the water-walking because their hearts were hardened, not understanding the actual power behind the feeding of the multitude.
CLEAR PERCEPTION would reveal to them that Jesus had already accomplished harder miracles in the past.

*based on Mark 6:30-56
by Rev. Alex Uy