Forty years after I first laid eyes on Michelangelo's Pietà, I stood before it again. The first time, it was accessible and I touched it with my hands. This time I viewed it through bullet-proof-glass. (You can see the reflection of the window behind me in the glare of the glass at the upper right-hand corner of my photograph.) Each time I felt my faith increasing. Both times I was overwhelmed with gratitude, and stunned by the terrible price Jesus paid for our salvation.
I remembered my salvation is by faith. I was reminded I'm saved from the guilt of sin and the power of it.
You may have neither the time, nor the inclination, to read John Wesley's entire sermon "Salvation by Faith," but it's helpful, so I'm giving you a few selected portions to consider.
Wesley's sermon included the following:
This is a present salvation — something attained here on earth — by those who are partakers of this faith. This is that great salvation foretold by the angel, before God brought His First-begotten into the world: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved both from the guilt of sin and from the power of it.
First, we are saved from the guilt of all past sin. Saved from guilt, we are also saved from fear — from fear of punishment, from fear of the wrath of God, whom we now no longer regard as a severe Master, but as an indulgent Father.
Secondly, through this faith we are saved from the power of sin. Those who by faith are born of God do not commit habitual sin (for this would mean that sin reigning and sin cannot reign in anyone who believes), nor do they commit willful sin (because those who abide in the faith abhor sin as deadly poison).
This, then, is the salvation that is through faith — even in this present world: A salvation from sin and the consequences of sin, by the atonement of Christ applied to those who believe on him, and a deliverance from the power of sin, through Christ formed in the heart.
Those who are thus saved by faith are indeed born again. They are born again of the Spirit unto a new life — a life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace you have been saved through faith...
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Posted by: Clif and Christie | February 23, 2011 at 03:59 PM