I may have a problem expressing myself correctly but I am not sure if you really looked and examined all those Scriptures I posted. If you did you would see the answer to your questions.

I will post this again in hope that it clears things up.

It all depends on Christ's faithfulness to you.

When I look at at my "Christian" experience, I see a whole lot of my wasted time, efforts and struggle to somehow try to work up faith or to make my self really believe.

I experienced failure after failure and defeat after defeat. All my efforts to repent, believe, surrender, trust, obey and really be in union with Christ only made maters WORSE.

Why did I fail? Did I REALLY mean and want to obey? YES!!!

This was NOT the problem. The bottom line was that I still was in unbelief. I knew If I could only truly believe the problem would be SOLVED.

So the question was how to get the required faith. I confess scriptures over and over thinking that this would bring me the faith I needed.

Nothing I DID worked! Why? because I was still attempting to get faith using my own efforts and human reasoning's. I was done - I quit all my efforts. I knew I was not accomplishing anything at all and the fact was I was only matters worse.

Now God had mercy on me and I started to see that “MY FAITH" was not even demanded or even required. I saw that the necessary faith was SUPPLIED to me by Christ's faithfulness to me. So I no longer had to somehow work up faith up or even try to believe because my UNION WITH CHRIST did and could not depend on ANY EFFORT I could ever make. It only depended on Christ's faithfulness to me!!

Look at what Hudson Taylor wrote to his sister when he had a similar experience.

"As gradually the light dawned on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite to laying hold of His fullness and making it my own. But I had not this faith . . . I strove for it, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior - my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith but it did not come. What was I to do?

When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never seen it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One."

As I read I saw it all! "If we believe not, He remains faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, "I will never leave you." "Ah, here is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?" And Dearie, He never will"

He saw the victory, the holiness, the power and all the fullness in Christ. He knew that the solution was in Christ so he kept on trying to somehow acquire it. He did everything he knew to make it his own but again he only found more failure and disappointment. He saw that it was his sin of unbelief that was the root cause of all his other sins. Then, he found out that he could not even believe. He tried and prayed to believe but no faith came. He was utterly, and completely hopeless.

When he saw Christ's Faithfulness, his eyes were opened to the truth that had already existed. "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. If we believe not, He remains faithful". This was the secret of what he saw that he had never realized before. He saw that God in Christ had already given him the faith and the belief that was required. God had placed Him in Christ and now he could just rest in God's faithfulness to keep him there.

So stop trying to work up faith or to make efforts to somehow believe.

All the Love, faith, obedience, trust, that you thought was required by YOU to somehow do, is freely supplied to you by what God in Christ has already accomplished for you and in you.

Can you justify yourself?
Can you make yourself Holy?
Can you crucify yourself?
Can you make your self one with God and Christ?
Can you ever generate the Love the law demands?
Can you ever generate any true faith?

You can not do any of these things in your own efforts, or abilities.

The truth is that God does NOT demand you to do any of these things.

God in Christ has Justified you, Made you holy, Made you righteous, and you are a new creation in Him.

What was your part in this? NONE!!!

God in Christ did what the law and you could have never done!

Under the old Covenant God DEMANDED man to be faithful – man failed.

Under the new Covenant, It no longer depends on our faithfulness to Him. but only on Christ‘s FAITHFULNESS TO US!

Do you see His faithfulness to you?

The gospel does not demand faith ... it supplies faith.
The gospel does not demand love ... it supplies love.
The gospel does not demand repentance ... it supplies repentance.
The gospel does not demand surrender ... it supplies surrender.
The gospel does not demand obedience ... it supplies obedience.

See His love and faithfulness to you it and embrace it.

No offense Tuc, but you are espousing gobbledygook.

_________________
Todd

Elibeth,

Why don't you send me a email? It is listed in my profile.

Dear Bro.,
May I please speak The Truth in much love ?

Tuc,..may I ?

Since Jesus Christ is the only source of true faith and the faith that is necessary is supplied in the Gospel, anyone can count on Him. This is NOT counting on any faith we try to have but on His faithfulness to us.

As I said before - Grace gives us the ability to respond but many frustrate this Gift of grace by their own self efforts and miss out on truly experiencing all what God has already accomplished for them and in them.

I am not sure if you answered my question.

In your view is this "grace" available to all people?

If so, how is it "accessed?"

Heb 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. This would seem to put the responsibility for faith on each person.

_________________
Todd

There is only ONE true foundation that we can trust in and relay fully on and that is what God in Christ has already accomplished for us and in us by Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Christ Himself is the only source of the repentance, love, faith, obedience, surrender, and justification. God was IN Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.

2 Cor 5:18-19 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Romans 5:8-10 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

2 Cor. 5:14-5 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Rom 5:1-2 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

2 Thessalonians 1:12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,

2 Tim 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

Titus 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Col. 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Grace gives us the ability to respond but many frustrate this Gift of grace by their own self efforts and miss out on truly experiencing all what God has already accomplished for them and in them

Tic-

In your view, on what basis does God "grant" this gift of repentance or faith? In other words, who gets it?

_________________
Todd

Yes God has given us everything that is necessary in Christ. His Grace gives us the ability to respond.

Peter 1:2-4, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Let us not forget the Christ died for us WHILE we were yet sinners and without any strength whatsoever. God's plan of salvation was to rescue mankind from sin and the consequences of the 1st Adam. God in Christ has now brought us in union with Him

What I am saying is that this favor and grace is a GIFT from God and was not a result of any works that anyone can do.
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This favor was given to me BECAUSE OF WHAT CHRIST HAD ACCOMPLISHED ON THE CROSS AND HIS RESURRECTION. This is the ONLY reason why God found favor with me. While I was in my sins, He had favor on me but not by anything I did but based solely on the work of Christ.

He gave me this favor and the very faith that was required so I responded.

TO GOD GOES ALL THE GLORY!!

The true Christian life is very active and SPONTANEOUS because it is Christ's Life within us.

The true gospel is centered on what Christ has given to us and not on what we can give to Him.

I am an active participant in what God has accomplished in Christ. We need to see HIM and even this can not be an act of self effort.

The following words are from Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Daily Readings (November 4). It clearly communicates what I now know to be true: "In Thy light shall we see light Psalm 36:9 No lips can tell the love of Christ to the heart till Jesus Himself shall speak within. Descriptions all fall flat and tame unless the Holy Ghost fills them with life and power; till our Immanuel reveals Himself within, the soul sees Him not. If you would see the Son, would you gather together the common means of illumination, and seek in that way to behold the orb of day? No, the wise man knoweth that sun must reveal itself, and only by its own blaze can that might lamp be seen. It is so with Christ. "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona," said He to Peter, "For flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee."

Purify flesh and blood by any educational process you may select, elevate mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual power, yet none of these can reveal Christ. The Spirit of God must come with power, and overshadow the man with His wings, and then in that mystic Holy of Holies the Lord Jesus must display Himself to the sanctified eye, as He does not to the purblind sons of men. Christ must be His own mirror. The great mass of this blear-eyed world can see nothing of the ineffable glories of Immanuel. He stands before them without form or comeliness, a root out of a dry ground, rejected by the vain and despised by the proud.

Only where the Spirit has touched the eye with the eye salve, quickened the heart with divine life, and educated the soul to a heavenly taste, only there is He understood. "To you that believe He is precious;" To you He is the Chief Cornerstone, the Rock of your salvation, your all and all; but to others He is "a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense." Happy are those to whom our Lord manifests Himself, for His promise to such is that He will make His abode with them. Oh Jesus, our Lord, our heart is open, come in, and go out no more forever. Show Thyself to us now! Favor us with a glimpse of Thine all-conquering charms.

Only partly true, but there is still man's responsibility. Though God provides everything, if I do not get hold of him who holds me, I will fail.

If God provides everything and absolutely nothing is expected of man, then half of the New Testament is superfluous.

James 4:7 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Luke 10:27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

Romans 1:5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,

God gives grace, man needs to obey what they believe.


Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,