Scripture
But He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
~Luke 7:50, REB
Quote
Salvation is all by the grace of God: damnation is all by the will of man.
~Charles H. Spurgeon
Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee by the name of Simon who had recovered from leprosy. While Jesus was there for dinner a women with a reputation came in and made a big fuss over Jesus. The men reclined as their ate and this woman got over Jesus feet and wept. Her tears enable her to wash His feet and she used her hair as a towel, then she kissed his feet repeatedly and then put some very expensive perfume on them. Simon and the men were offended and could not understand why Jesus was not embarrassed. I would have been embarrassed and I am not easily embarrassed. Many years ago, a middle aged woman joined our church and right there in front of the entire congregation she planted a big juicy kiss right on my check. The woman was fairly attractive. We had the longest hand shaking line ever that day but it was mostly men. One of them said to me in jest, “she didn’t kiss me like she did you.” I’m not going to lie, that did get my goat but Jesus would have handled it differently because He is Jesus and He sees hearts. Jesus was not embarrassed that day because He is God. Seriously, do you actually think you can embarrass God? Her act was one of extravagant love and Jesus was not offended. I love the story and I could go on and on but the point I want to make centers around what Jesus said to her, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Technically, as Ryder says, it was not her faith that saved her or gave her peace: IT WAS JESUS. It was her faith that brought her to Jesus. So both Jesus and I are right but He is the savior, not faith. Faith is not an end to itself, it is simply a means to the end which of course is Jesus. Everyone has faith and no one has more faith than an atheist. We do not put faith in faith or faith in religion or morality. The only thing that saves is faith in JESUS. We get out on these two lane highways like 36, 67, and 251 where people fly. Some of them are doing 70 plus miles an hour and statistics say that four in ten are under the influence of some drug. It takes faith to get into that kind of traffic. June and I flew to Guatemala last month and we didn’t even know the pilot’s name. We are in a hollow metal tube laced with two wings and with a rocket on each wing and we are doing 550 MPH and we don’t know one thing about the man in the cockpit. For all we know, he smoked weed in lounge before we took off. Incredible faith but faith alone will not save us. Jesus is the only Savior.
I ran into one of my old Sunday morning McDonald’s friends at the nursing home on Wednesday. He said I don’t see you anymore and I told him I was boycotting McDonald’s. He said we stopped meeting there too because they no longer fly the American flag. I told him I didn’t know that and I was boycotting for their support of the gays. Sounds like McDonald’s has gone to the dogs. I also learned that the North Alabama McDonald’s are no longer owed by Rick Walters {Decatur man} but by corporate.