Today's Bible Thoughts

Current Song: "Alive In Christ" by Enfield

Today I read both my old and new testament daily readings. Here are the bible verses I read along with the notes of what I gleaned from these precious portions of scripture.

1 Samuel 3

Here in this chapter a few things stick out to me. One is the prevailing thought that God is punishing Eli for not disciplining his sons for their blasphemy of God. Eli's sin is passivity while his sons sin so blatantly against God. God in verse 14 says that Eli's house will not be atoned for through sacrifice or offering forever. What a huge statement that God makes.

The second thought that I see is that at this portion of scripture, Samuel is not saved yet. Verse 7 says that "Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." We see that in order to be saved God must reveal His word to us. In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul says that the word is the gospel of our salvation that points us to Jesus. So there is a certain "word" in which we must believe in in order to be saved. And that word needs to be revealed to us which can only be brought about by God.

James 2:14-26

Here in James we read what is the topic of many discussions when speaking to a works righteous cult like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses. James tells us that our faith without works are dead and to that I say amen. I think about this verse a lot when I think about my own personal struggles with sin. But what people fail to realize is that even though James says that we are justified by works, this justification is not the justification of being reconciled to God. It speaks about a confirmation of a faith that is already alive.

We must not confuse the way James uses the word justification here with the way Paul uses it in many of his letters. There is a context here that we must see. This justification is shown as a confirmation of something we already have, namely faith. The justification that Paul uses is the one of a legal term. God justifies or "declares" us righteous through Christ and we are now reconciled to God.

Conclusion

We can learn from these portions of old and new testament scriptures the following:

1. God is holy
2. God saves because of His own grace
3. Our faith is proven real through works yet we are declared saved by faith alone