In order to win Christ we must keep faith and works in balance.

The Apostle Paul tells us we are saved by grace through faith. He also wrote toward the end of his life that he had suffered the loss of all things in order to win Christ. He was reaching toward the mark of perfection, of the resurrection from among the dead. He exhorted us to be of the same mind.

Obviously there is more to salvation than confessing with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead—unless we are referring to making this confession and belief the center of all we think, say, and do during each and every day.

Paul says we are justified (righteous in God's sight) by faith. James, writing by the same Holy Spirit, says we are justified by works. Does the Bible contradict itself? Did Jesus do it all or is there a required response on our part? Is there really an abstract faith that has a life of its own or is it true that faith lives only in works of righteousness? How do you feel about this?

Paul pointed out that Divine grace is an alternative to the Law of Moses. Paul also indicated that the grace of God received correctly brings forth a new righteous creation. If the Apostle Paul had presented Divine grace as an alternative to righteous behavior his writings would be inconsistent.

James says, "I will show you my faith by my works." Does faith bring us to the land of promise while we sit in Egypt or do we have to go through the wilderness of temptations and then follow the Lord in battle into our land of promise?

Can you imagine the Israelite sitting in Egypt, eating from the pot of fish and vegetables, and exclaiming that God was bringing him into the land of milk and honey?

The most marvelous goal has been set before us—that of being changed into the moral image (and finally bodily image) of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God would have us set this goal before us as a mark, as a treasure that is the objective of our quest. There are many adversaries as the experienced Christian understands very well. Yet if we press forward with joyful confidence in the Lord we can and we shall reach the finish line.

You may have been a Christian for many years and are tired and discouraged. It is time now to get up and fight the good fight of faith. The water of the Spirit is beginning to trickle out from under the threshold of the temple of God. On the horizon there is a cloud the size of a man's hand.

Fasten the robe of salvation about you and begin to run for a deluge is upon us.

The Kingdom of God, the doing of God's will in the earth, is at hand!