Here are two very important questions:

–Am I right with God?
–Am I walking rightly with God?

Even if you use different wording, these are the kinds of questions that are most likely bouncing around in your head as you paddle down the river of life.

As you think about how you might answer them, consider this help from Paul in Ephesians 2:8-10: “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. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

What do we learn in these three jam-packed verses?

First, we are made right with God not through anything we have done, but through what Christ has done. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

When you trust in Christ and what he has done for you on the cross, he pays what you owe to God because of your sin. This is a free gift. All you have to do is accept it! This makes you right—i.e. forgiven and at peace—with God.

Second, we are walking rightly with God when we, as the children he created, “do good works.” This is humbly and lovingly being the hands and feet of Jesus on a daily basis.

–Am I right with God?
–Am I walking rightly with God?

In Christ, you are, and you can be.

In the words of Katherine Sonderegger, a professor at Virginia Theological Seminary: “Richer, fuller, more gracious, luminous, courageous, and joyful: this is the feast that is life in God.”*

By Matthew Ruttan 

–This past Sunday the church I pastor hosted it’s 1st ever Virtual Christmas Pageant (Dec. 13, 2020). If you want to watch it and be encouraged click here.

–*Katherine Sonderegger, Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God, Volume 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 457.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.