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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection viii
Saving Words ...
Wednesday, August 24, 2016. Sometimes a word can save! Be cautious! Attention! Stop! And you avoid a car running into you, or a dangerous corner, or eating something poisonous. Words are important - they are the key road to the human soul. Today we hear about saving words in Romans, this famous letter of the apostle Paul to the church in Rome.
Not ashamed …
Humans can destroy a lot with their words. Day by day we experience this, when we hear words which hurt us, words which lie, words which are not adequate to some situation. The role of words is more important than we usually think - in particular when we say: this is only some words. We are influenced by those who do not take their words serious, but try to cheat, try to use them to mislead others by their words.
But you cannot hide your character from your words. You cannot hide what is in you! When someone carefully examines your own words, he will soon become aware of your real intentions and your true thoughts. Words are linked to the human existence on a very deep level. So we will not be surprised that the gospel is of crucial importance, and that it is a message which saves. Let us listen to Paul's words:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,5 as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”6 (from Romans 1)
Faith and Trust …
Faith is trust in the word of someone else. Faith means to fully rely on him, on what is promised and said. It is trust in his personality, his character, his actions. Without faith, there is no love, no community, no life! So often we do not realize that we need faith to live, and that life is only possible with faith and in faith.
I often argue that Christian faith is just touching things which are strongly part of human existence. Of course, it is important what type of faith we have. Of course, our faith should be true in the sense that it should be linked to reality. There is the creator, eternal father, loving source of our whole existence. Faith should be linked to him - and he came to us in Christ Jesus.
In Jesus, we are saved. In him, God reconciles mankind with himself. In Christ we have a door back into life - a life which lives in community with the creator, with the father, with the holy spirit. In him, there is salvation - and it is brought to us through the spirit, through the word of God which became flesh in Christ Jesus, and through the Gospel, as formulated and spread by Paul and his fellow believers until today. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts