Living by Faith in His Finished Work

When someone asks about our hope, our answer begins with God, not with ourselves.

The Scriptures reveal that God chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love. According to the good pleasure of His will, He predestined them to be His children through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4–5).  Before we were formed in our mothers' wombs, God knew us (Jeremiah 1:5). He formed our inward parts (Psalm 139:13), and in His appointed time He called us through His grace to reveal His Son in us (Galatians 1:15–16).

Our hope is in Jesus Christ because the Father drew us to His Son. Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." (John 6:44). By God's grace we have been saved through faith. It is not our own work, but the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8–9). While we were dead in our sins, God made us alive together with Christ. When we believed in Him, He forgave our sins, accepted us in the Beloved, and sealed us with His Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13–14). Jesus also declared, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." (John 6:29).

Therefore, when someone asks why we believe in Jesus Christ, our answer is not about what we have accomplished. It is about what God has accomplished through His Son.

The same grace that saved us continues to sustain us every day. We are now new creations in Christ Jesus. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

God has given us His Holy Spirit, and by Him we know that we abide in Christ and He in us (1 John 4:13). Through the Holy Spirit, He renews our minds and transforms our lives.

When Christ was crucified, we were crucified with Him. When He rose from the dead, we were raised with Him. Today we are seated with Him in the heavenly places (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:5–6). Therefore, we no longer live for ourselves. Christ lives in us. The life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).

Because Jesus conquered sin and death, our hope is not limited to this present world. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God, and we now walk by faith in Him.

The Scriptures declare that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). His grace is sufficient for us, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Through His Holy Spirit, He is transforming us from glory to glory into the image of His Son (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The purpose of this transformation is not to earn God's acceptance, but to conform us to Christ. Day by day, He teaches us to think as Christ thinks, to love as Christ loves, and to walk as Christ walked. The work that God began in us, He will continue until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).