Saved By Grace Through Faith (With or Without Feelings)

For a long time, I had tied my standing before God to how I felt.

I was so attached to my feelings.

Whether I like it or not, I had based my sense of peace and good standing before God based on what I was thinking or feeling.

Feelings are just a carnal aspect of our being.

Feelings come and go, and they do not last.

Yet God's Word abides forever.

Like many people, I wanted to be saved by faith and feelings.

AA induces this perversion into people's lives, especially Christians.

Yet throughout the Big Book, such an emphasis is placed not just on how a person feels, but how these feelings can block us from God.

Nothing, nothing at all can separate us from the love of God.

At all.

This revelation has instilled good news for me.

This good news has spilled over time for me.

For so long, people in my life were dedicated to trying to make me feel better.

As though feeling bad means that I am bad.

Not the case at all.

We are accepted before God the Father not because of how we feel, or what we do, but because of all that Jesus has done.

I used to believe that God would come or go depending on how I felt.

I had to make sure that my feelings were in line a certain way, or I would not be able to do anything.

What bondage, what frustration, what fruitless effort.

It took me a long time to learn about the flesh, and the spirit, and that in Christ my spirit is brought to life, and the inner man is renewed every day.

For a long time, I actually believed that how I felt determined whether God was with me, whether physically or morally.

This confusion brought me into great bondage.

Where did these errors come from? From Alcoholics Anonymous.

We are not based, nor is our standard before God based on us.

Our standing before God is based on Jesus:

"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)

In the second chapter, Paul writes about how we are saved:

"8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. " (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

We are saved by grace through faith, not by feelings.

We have been made a new creation, regardless of how we may feel. Thank God for the new life, the new birth, that in Christ we are made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17-21)

A few years ago, I had begun to claim my standing of righteousness in Christ, which we read in 2 Corinthians.

Unfortunately, no one had told me about the flesh, no one had told me that I am a new creation in my spirit, yet there is still the flesh, there is still the self-principle of Adam.

Yet Hallelujah for the grace and peace of Christ Jesus, today I understand that righteousness has nothing to do with how I feel or what I think. Furthermore, the Accuser of the Brethren is still out and about seeking to devour whomever he can induce into condemnation (1 Peter 5: 6-8).

Today, I understand that there is no condemnation in Christ, and that no matter what feelings may raise, I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.

However, if you are raised in a mixed system, where you believe that you are definitely going to heaven, but you are on your own on this earth, you will struggle and find yourself bringing forth the death and sin which God has delivered you from through His Son.

The law entered that sin may abound (Romans 5: 20), and so there is no way that we can come to God based on what we do.

To live under law is to fall from grace (Galatians 5: 4), and it is the grace of God which teaches us to say "No!" to sin and "Yes!" to godliness (Titus 2: 11-14)

We are saved by grace, and we live by grace, too (1 Corinthians 15: 10)