Believing that God created all things out of nothing is a matter of faith. It is also fundamental to being a Christian. At the heart of every heresy and evil sin is a rebellion against God’s sovereignty that is demonstrated most fully through the creation.

 The early church developed what is known as the Apostles’ Creed. It remains today a fundamental statement of Christian orthodoxy. The first line of the creed reads: “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”

 In AD 325, the result of the Council of Nicaea produced the Nicene Creed. While the Apostles Creed predated it, this was the first creed to be officially recognized, and it provided theological clarity in opposition to the heresies of its day. It too began with an affirmation of God the creator: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” 

This fundamental truth that “God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible” forms how Christians understand God and His creation. God is the creator of all things. God is sovereign over all things. And it is good.

If you have been chosen, saved, and justified by God, you are and will be sanctified by God. If you are not being sanctified, then you have never been justified. Sanctification is indeed a good and helpful testimony to the genuineness of salvation. Its presence testifies to genuine salvation. Its absence testifies to the lack of salvation. Sanctification and growing in the likeness of Christ is a testimony to the power of God working in the life of those God has saved.

Is your life worthy of imitation? If new believers imitated your walk with God, would it be to their benefit? If fellow members of the church imitated your holiness, would they walk in righteousness? If the younger members imitated your worship attendance practices, would they be pleasing to God? The answer to these questions for Christians must be "Yes."

God’s purpose in using the frailty of flesh to contain the glory of the gospel is to testify to Himself, not to man. Jars of clay testify that salvation comes by the power of God, not the power of man, by the work of God, not the work of man, by the will of God, not the will of man, by the purpose of God not the purpose of man, for the glory of God not the glory of man, because of the truth of God not because of the intellect of man.

Salvation comes not through the work or might of men. Salvation comes through the power of God alone. I am just a jar of clay!

Before you can be obedient to the commands of Jesus, you must have faith that Jesus can accomplish His purpose and His will. When Christians have faith, they obey. Experiencing the power of God comes in the context of obeying God.