Category Faith

What is “This” in Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 (AV) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:

8 (ignt) τη γαρ χαριτι εστε σεσωσμενοι δια της πιστεως και τουτο ουκ εξ υμων θεου το δωρον

9 (AV) Not of works, lest any man should boast.

9 (ignt) ουκ εξ εργων ινα μη τις καυχησηται

(for full parsing, please see the following link: https://scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/eph2.pdf)

To what does the word “this”, touto  in the Greek, refer in Ephesians 2:8-9? Every pronoun must refer to a noun used in the same context, usually prior to the use of the pronoun, though not universally so, or to a concept expressed in relationship to its use...

Read More

John 5:37-43” “I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, that one you will receive.”

John 5:37-43:

And the One sending Me, Father Himself, has witnessed concerning Me. Neither His voice (sound) have you ever heard nor (a) glimpse of Him have you seen. And His word you have not abiding in you, that Whom He commissioned, This (one) you believe not. You search the Scriptures, that you suppose in them to have eternal life, and those are the testifiers (testifying ones) concerning Me! And you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. Glory from people I receive not. However, I have known you, that you have not the love of God in yourselves. I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, that one you shall receive.”

“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me...

Read More

Mankind Created in the Image of God

God's purpose for mankind is to bear His image in His creation. Adam's sin tarnished that image, but through salvation and the Holy Spirit's work in the life of a Christian, God restores the image of Christ in us as we await the fulfilment of our eternal restoration.Read More

What is the Gospel?

or “What Must I Do To Be Saved?”

Nothing is of greater importance than to know the true God and to know what is required for us to be on good terms with the true God. The only way to know God and to know what God has said concerning our condition and relationship with God, is to study from the Bible what God has revealed concerning our sin and His salvation.

With every discussion of what we must believe, the answer to what constitutes the message of the gospel of salvation must begin with what the Bible says about The Gospel, so we will look first at those passages in which the Bible writers used the specific word “gospel”...

Read More

Choosing Jacob

God could have built one people from Isaac making of both sons one holy nation. But it was His purpose to make a distinction between the two men. Esau sold his birthright. Jacob sought a birthright he did not possess.

Why did God choose Jacob? The Bible does not say, it only states that He chose him to make a people of him. Jacob desired a blessing to which he was not naturally entitled. The Bible does not say that God placed that desire in Jacob’s heart, nor caused him to seek the face of God. In fact, Jacob’s desire was motivated by sin, and empowered by sin – deception and supplanting of the natural heir.

Esau, on the other hand, was unfaithful and ungrateful, despising his birthright for the immediate satisfaction of his natural desires...

Read More

A Short Gospel

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” Romans 3:22 

“the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 

“for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life….He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begottenSon of God.” John 3:16,18 

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” John 14:6 

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12 

“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heav...

Read More

The Cup Christ Drank

What was the cup which Christ came to drink?

Some say Christ’s cup was separation from God the Father, but Psalm 22 says the Father did not turn His face away from His Son on the cross, but withheld His hand until His afflicted Son spoke the word – “It is finished”.

Some say it was the cup of God’s wrath poured upon Christ for men’s sins, but when James and John asked to have the right and left-hand positions in Christ’s kingdom, answering that they were indeed prepared and able to drink of the same cup that Christ drank, Jesus affirmed that they would indeed drink of the cup that He drank. But no man bore the wrath of God for the sins of men other than Christ. No disciple bears God’s wrath for his own sin, much less for the sins of the world...

Read More

Jesus Opened Their Minds

Luke 24:36 – 48 (45)

“And as they spoke this, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.’

But being dismayed and becoming afraid, they supposed they were seeing a spirit.

And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled and why do thoughts come into your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that I am Myself. Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see I have.’

And saying this, He showed them His hands and His feet.

Because they still yet disbelieved for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, ‘Have you any food here?’

And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of honey from the comb, and taking it, He ate it in their sight.

And He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still together with ...

Read More

Faith to Save

Sometimes people have trouble understanding that we are justified before God by faith, and not by how good we are. Some people are offended at the thought that God would justify everyone only on the basis of faith, and not on the basis of an inventory of their good works; they feel that ‘good people’ should be acceptable to God, and He should open wide the doors to His presence to all those who are ‘good’. These latter often raise the argument of the injustice of ‘horrible people’ who will get into heaven because they have faith, and therefore God is ‘unfair’. Most of this misunderstanding is rooted in the failure to understand  the key words “faith” and “justice”. 

The word ‘justice’ refers to receiving what is deserved by our actions...

Read More

What Did Jesus Say About Salvation

John 3:3         Jesus … said unto [Nicodemus], “Truly, truly I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jn 3:16           For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Jn 3:18-21      “He that believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation: that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed...

Read More