Simply put, the gospel of Jesus is the good news that a life of union with God is available to all, evil has been dealt a final blow, and a life of true worship is now offered. This life is a life of love, which is the nature of the Spirit of God. This life is salvation from a sinful selfish life and all its consequences. A saved life is available to all who see that living according to the natural sinful way is misery and death, but a life of love by the Spirit of God is true life. Jesus is this embodied love. Jesus lived this life and now offers us this life. He is the Word, the expression of God and the perfect example of who we are intended to be. Jesus’ love was true by his union with the Father through the Holy Spirit. His “eternal” kind of life is now offered to us. Life lived according to the Spirit of God, which is love, is now available. Because of Jesus we no longer have to live according to our natural sinful ways, we can live according to love, which is living by God’s Spirit.

What is Faith?
First we must see that living according to our human sinful nature is death, but that living according to love is life itself. This salvation is available to us, in fact it is available to the whole world; but it requires faith. So what is faith?

Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Hebrews 11:1

What good is it, my brothers; if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14-17

In other words faith is what ever we live our life by. It is the evidence of what we believe. It is often said that some people have no faith. But every one has faith. Everyone has something that they live according to. If I live according to Atheism then my faith is in the denial of the super natural. If I live according to baseball then my faith is in the love of the game. If I live according to my job then my faith is in my goal to be successful. Get the picture? Faith is the foundation of your life; it is the reasoning behind every action you do; from getting up in the morning to yelling at your spouse. All of life is led in faith, according to what you believe. Faith is action. Think about your day, what you thought, what you did, what you felt…. That is your faith!

So our salvation, or the eternal life which is offered to us in Jesus, is available through faith. Obviously we have to believe certain things about Jesus: things like the historical fact that he existed at all and that he knew what he was talking about. That he was truthful and did what he said. Ultimately we have to believe that Jesus is the Word or “expression” of God. But simply believing this is not faith! This is the first step but believing these things and not living by them is: # 1 pointless and #2 stupid. Remember Jesus’ purpose in life was to give us life (John 10:10). Not simply life after death, but what we are living right now! He came to give us his life and we live this life by our faith. So if faith is acting upon what I know to be true then it is the evidence of what I truly believe. So then it follows that to have faith in Jesus is to obey him, to follow him. It is to intentionally die to a life lived according to my sinful human nature and live according to the Spirit of God, which is love. Faith is how I live.

Salvation in the Now
So do I earn this Salvation (Eternal life)? Of course not, salvation is a gift to everyone in the world! But is the whole world saved? No! Only those who have faith are saved. Only those who follow Jesus and actually live a life of receiving his life according to the Spirit of God are saved. Salvation is not something that is way off in heaven waiting for you, it is available now–you live it. A lot of people don’t want to be saved. Many look at life lived according to the Spirit, according to love, and would much rather have life according to sin. But they are dieing and will die! That “life” is misery and death. But for those who realize that life lived according to the sinful human nature is misery, a better way is offered, the way of love, the way of Jesus. This life is available because of God’s grace and all he has done for us in Christ. This salvation cannot be earned but it must be lived! It is 100% Gods grace and 100% our effort. We have to live it. That’s what salvation is; a life lived according to God’s Spirit–the Spirit of love. And it is available to us now. We can say what ever we want about Jesus and God but if we do not receive this life and then live this life according to the Spirit of God we will die. It is a law of nature just like gravity–sin equals death, love equals life.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8

Life According to the Spirit
Unfortunately the good news of Jesus life come to us has at times become distorted and confused. Salvation has been limited to salvation from hell. Often times it has been seen as a “positional reality” in God’s eyes having little bearing on our real lives. This confusion is destructive because it fails to emphasis that salvation is all about life–both now and for eternity. Salvation is not so much something you possess, as it is something you live and experience! One only needs to pick up a Bible and read through the New Testament to see that salvation it is all about living! It’s all about living the eternal life from God. The purpose of almost every book in the New Testament is to exhort, command, instruct and warn people to live life according to the Spirit.

Do not live as your human (sinful) nature wants you to. For if you live according to your human (sinful) nature, you are going to die; but if according to Gods Spirit and put to death your sinful actions, you will live. For those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.
Rom. 8:12-13

So as we have seen salvation is a life we live. It is an active life of following Jesus, believing and obeying his commands. But as we see in Romans 8:12-13 we must not live according to our sinful nature. Why would we? The assumption of Christianity is that we see that God’s way is love and life, and sin is death. So if we live by the human nature we will die, but if we live by the Spirit of God we will truly live! There is no salvation if we continue to live according to our sinful nature.

“That is why you must kill everything in you that is earthly.” Colossians 3:5 (NLB)

So we know that we must put to death our sinful nature.But how do we do this? How do we live according to the Spirit of God? How do we live according to love and not according to sin? Let me ask it this way… The saved life is all about faith, right? And everyone has faith because it is the reasoning behind all you do, right? Well, if I live according to basketball what does my life look like? I eat, drink and sleep basketball. If I live according to my job I eat, drink and sleep work. And if I live according to my sinful human nature my life will be consumed with that nature and its desires. But if I live according to the Spirit of God, what does that look like?

Living by faith, according to the Spirit of God, is a life just like any other. It is a life that is intentionally lived in belief, purpose and action. Throughout history Christians have called the development of a life according to God’s Spirit a “rule of life”. It is painfully obvious that our lives are naturally lived according to our human nature, which is sin. This is the state of our fallen world. In fact in our natural selves there is no one who does good (Rom. 3:12). But Jesus and every New Testament writer command us to put to death our sinful selves and live according to the Spirit. Again this is not some mystical form of spiritual existence, this is done in real life.

Why Disciplines?
All of us have a “rule of life”, a way in which we live. Remember we live by our faith. Every person who has ever lived an eternal life has learned to intentionally live according to the Spirit. This “rule of life” is a life centered on faithful actions that put to death the human sinful nature and allow one to live by the Spirit. These faithful actions have been called “spiritual disciplines”. So, why do we use the word discipline? They are disciplines because they are opposed to our sinful nature. In fact they have the intention of killing the sinful nature and everything within us fights not to be killed.

From our natural perspective discipline is seen as hard work. Like any other discipline this life takes effort and work on our part. But they are not morbid actions of sorrow. In fact they are true joy and true pleasure because in them we learn to live according to love and in this love is the Spirit of God whom we were created for. We see these disciplines naturally lived out in the lives of Christians beginning with Jesus himself. Some of the Spiritual Disciplines are: Spiritual study, prayer, Bible meditation and memorization, solitude, fasting, celebration and worship. But these actions of faithfulness are endless and can be seen in many other areas of life. The purpose of all of this is to put to death the sinful nature and live naturally according to the Spirit. Remember, that is salvation!

It is easy to look at these things and say these are the things we intend to do, but it is another thing to actually begin to do these things. But as we do, we find that God’s grace and power there to be experienced in our effort. In fact, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” – 2 Pet. 1:3. This knowledge Peter speaks of is an experiential reality, not simply head knowledge. God is faithful and takes us right where we are. He patiently teaches us and works with us as we intentionally follow Jesus. Although my effort at first may not be much, I must give him all I have, everything I can. Even faith as small as a mustard seed can be great, but it must be applied with all of our effort. The goal is perfection in Jesus and rest assured God is faithful but I must be as well, or I will not be saved. Where I am unable to act, if I am faithful, he will give me the power to act. It is not about the quality of our effort compared to others or the amount of disciplines we practice compared to our neighbor, it is about faith that truly gives its all to God. Again it is 100% God’s grace and 100% our effort. God’s end is taken care of, now the ball is in our court. The good news is that the eternal life of God is available to us all but we have to run the race! The prize is well worth it. It is the prize of a life of satisfaction, love and eternal union with God.