No other merit but His!

This evening I had an interesting event happen to me. For the longest time I have been holding onto the idea that there is something I have to contribute to Salvation. I guess in the end it comes down to what I have already learned and that is that the only thing that we as human beings contributed was the sin problem. Ours was a contribution of pain, and ever has been because that is all that sin has ever or will ever cause. In Heaven it caused loss, and heartache, and on earth it continues to do the same. The only way that we can truly experience true freedom from the things that we have done is by Christ. Our faithfulness is not meritorious. It is Christ's faithfulness that is meritorious. This leads to a very interesting phenomenon that happens in the Christian life. When we come to the Bible with the attitude that there is some merit in what we do, we will find ourselves befuddled and ruined. In every story in the Bible it is God's merit and not our own. If we are studying the problem and deciding what to do like those in Acts were. They were wondering what their work was and Peter told them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that they would be saved. We must have faith that His merits are transferred into our lives. It is not by our works that these merits are given to us. This is the belief of Catholicism. They believe that there is “merit” in our actions. It is very easy to get the picture skewed and miss the entire point of the Story of Abraham. Abraham's whole attitude when asked to sacrifice his son was that God would provide a lamb. And in the same way our attitude needs to be the same. It is God who provides. No matter what the situation is, it is Jesus Christ who is our provider. The Bible says that “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus” It is not we who supply our needs but God. We need to keep this in mind and trust Him to provide all of our needs :)