“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:3-7).

We started this series on Godliness last week. The opening passage assures us that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. God has made promises to us that we can escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires, so that we can participate in the divine nature. There is a truth in these words that is borne out by other Scriptures—God’s divine nature is incompatible with evil desires. Frankly, that scares me, because I confess that I have evil desires. You may not see me often acting on them, but they are there. I’m human.

But God has promised us an escape from these evil desires. Picture that language of escape—running for our very lives! We must realize the danger and flee!! It is said that if we do not sense the corruption of the world around us, we have already been swallowed up in it. Again, that is such a scary thought. I am thankful every day that God has rescued me through His mercy and by the grace of Jesus.

We will dive into this topic of godliness, beginning with the doctrine of faith. Faith is the foundation of our ongoing sanctification. Jesus Christ once and for all provided the atonement (payment) for all our sins. By believing in him, we receive this gift of salvation, and are immediately set right with God. From this point forward, we know our souls are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven for all eternity. We will never experience the second death. Can we just stop for a moment and shout praises of gratitude for our loving God!?! “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

We started this explanation of faith by talking about believing. Note that our salvation is predicated first on the work of Jesus on the cross, and secondly, on our belief that He did this for us. Jesus himself tells us through his word to his disciples: “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” (John 6:28-29).

Jesus himself proclaimed “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).

An English idiom states: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Cambridge Dictionary interprets the meaning of this idiom as “to advise someone not to refuse something good that is being offered.” That is wise advice. Jesus has offered himself as the Resurrection and the Life. When the jailer asked Paul and Silas, what must he do to be saved, “They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

Faith is simple, but it is not easy. In the letter to the Hebrews, faith is described as “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Believing is the first step to faith, to seeing. “Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). We have God’s Word, which contains many fulfillments of prophecies, which bear witness to the truth. Jesus himself says, “I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me” (John 8:18). We have the testimonies of the disciples, ordinary men who walked and talked with Jesus and saw him crucified, buried, resurrected, felt his wounds, and saw him ascend to heaven in the clouds. We have the testimonies of all the saints who have gone before us, many of whom died for their faith. They put their beliefs into action.

Faith takes belief to the next level. You can believe that your chair will hold you up. But until you sit down on it, you are not putting your belief into action; you are not demonstrating faith. Paul lists faithfulness as one of the fruits of the spirit. In his letter to the Romans, he writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). And he reiterates in his letter to the Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Faith is simple, but it is not easy. The father witnessed Jesus performing a miracle of exorcising an unclean spirit from his son, and still prayed “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). If you have doubts, pray to God. He will answer your prayers. And pray that He will guide you to put your beliefs into action according to His will.

“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16).

In Christ,

Judy