Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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Free will complicates the work of redemption, but not in a way
God can't handle.
While God will not force anyone to do what He commands, God knows, with
certainty, those who are WILLING to work with Him and those who ARE NOT. He
also knows, with certainty, those who CHOOSE to actively OPPOSE Him.
This Perfect Knowledge makes the building up of God's rule
inevitable. It guarantees, given sufficient time, that good will
ultimately prevail over evil. The faithful receive power and grace
from God (today, through the Church: Mass, the Sacraments,
etc.) which enables and strengthens them. The wicked don't. It's
that simple!
Galatians 2:20 And I live, now not I: but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in
the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself
for me.
We can't begin to understand the mind of God, or fully appreciate the
intricate details of His plan, so we often misinterpret the reasons for
events in the world and allow ourselves to become needlessly
discouraged by life's problems (tribulation).
Romans 1:17 For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it
is written: The just man liveth by faith.
Romans 5:1 - 5 Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access through faith into
this grace wherein we stand: and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of
God. And not only so: but we glory also in tribulation, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience; And patience trial; and trial hope; And hope confoundeth not:
because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost who
is given to us.
That's why FAITH is so critically important. Faith fills the gap between what we
know and what we can't yet understand. In faith, we do what God expects of us.
Then, we trust in Him to bring about positive results. Through faith we can
accomplish the things of which our limited imagination could never even conceive.
Romans 10:17 Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ.
In the next (rather lengthy) passage, we learn that everyone lives
by faith. Every great person in the Bible was made so by God's
grace and faith.
There is no other way! Take some time to study
this magnificent litany of the Old Testament faithful.
There's a lot
to learn here:
Hebrews 11:1 - 38 Now, faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the
evidence of things that appear not. For by this the ancients obtained a testimony.
By faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of God: that from
invisible things visible things might be made.
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