Faith and Obedience

Let no one be deceived. Even the things of heaven and the glory of the angels and the rulers, visible and invisible — if they do not believe in the blood of Christ, judgment waits for them too.

The one who can take this in, let him take it in. Let no one puff up on place. Faith and love are everything; nothing takes precedence over them. Notice those who hold heterodox views about the grace of Jesus Christ that came to us — how they oppose God’s purpose.

First of all, believe that God is one — who created and framed all things, who brought all things from non-being into being, who contains all things and alone is uncontained.

Trust him, then, and fear him; and having feared him, practice self-control. Keep these things, and you will throw all wickedness off yourself, put on every virtue of righteousness, and live to God — if you keep this commandment.

Christians are not distinguished from the rest of people by land, language, or customs. They live in Greek and barbarian cities as each one’s lot falls; they follow local customs in dress and food and the rest of life.

Yet they show a striking and admittedly paradoxical citizenship of their own. They live in their own countries — but as sojourners. They share all things as citizens, and endure all things as foreigners. Every foreign land is a homeland to them, and every homeland a foreign land.

If it were not in our power to do these things or not to do them, what point would there be in counsel from the apostle — and much more from the Lord himself — to do some things and abstain from others?

But because man has been of free decision from the beginning, and God — whose likeness he bears — is of free decision, counsel is always given him to hold to the good, which is completed in obedience to God. And not only in works but also in faith has the Lord preserved man’s free decision and his power under his own control, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you,” showing that a person’s faith is his own, because he has his own judgment.

Again: “All things are possible to the one who believes,” and, “Go; as you have believed, be it done to you.” All such things show that man is under his own power according to faith. On this account the one who believes has eternal life, and the one who does not believe the Son does not have eternal life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

On this reasoning, showing his own good and marking man as of his own decision and under his own power, the Lord said to Jerusalem: “How often I wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Therefore your house is left to you desolate.”

This also is defined in the church’s proclamation: that every rational soul is of free choice and will; and that it has a struggle against the devil and his angels and opposing powers — because they strive to weigh it down with sins, while we, if we live rightly and wisely, try to throw off that kind of burden.