Introduction
Confers grace
Washes sins away
Puts to death sinful tendencies and temptations
It is God’s gift of love
Faith
As God’s gift and Inspires love
Facilitates worship and aids in resisting temptations
Necessary for the fulfillment of God’s promises
Believers are made righteous and justified
Enables believers to be saved, see and please God
Allow Christians to understand difficult mysteries beyond their power
Saint Bernard of the Claviaux wrote eighty-six sermons on the Song of Songs and On Loving God. In which baptism and faith create a path for Christians to be elevated to the knowledge of the truth and to full contemplation where they gain happiness. In his thirty-sixth sermon, Bernard talks of baptism conferring grace to men (Wright 1). Christians should remember that God grants us baptism as a gift of grace and not as a reward of merit. Baptism heals the original sin passed down from Adam. He believed in baptism, baptism serves to wash away all the sins of men and saves them. Loving God, which is the ultimate way of connecting with God requires one to be baptized so that sins can be forgiven. Baptism puts to death the flesh’s sinful tendencies. The grace conferred by baptism covers our shame and makes the love we offer God adequate as long as it is given wholeheartedly. It makes our gift of love perfect.
We learn that baptism is God’s gift of love to us, His human bride. Not only does He (heavenly bridegroom) promise us baptism as a gift but he also promises us more gifts (Wright 1). These gifts include mercy that sets Christians free, favors us with love, makes us pure and clean (baptism) and promises to adorn us with gems of the rarest quality. God loved us so much that He sent His only son to endure the flesh’s weakness, obedient to His parents, was also baptized and died on the cross. The fact that the Lord Himself was baptized by water and the Holy Spirit shows the importance of baptism. It prepares Christians to overcome the temptations and the traps that the devil lays on the path of Christians.
Faith is a rare and an amazing thing. Faith is God’s gift to believers and in turn faith inspires love. Faith comes from hearing and works through love (Wright 1). Faith devoid of love is dead. As Saint Bernard says, “The death of faith is the departure of love." When we have faith, we can overcome the world, its temptations, and sin. Christians should exercise unceasing faith for this is the only way they will see God (Bernard and Allen 29). God’s promises will surely come to fulfillment through faith. Christians should not waver in their faith; they should not yield to discouragement because those who stay strong get to reap the rewards of God’s promises. Being of little faith hinders you from offering praise and thanksgiving to God in all circumstances and reaching the fullness of contemplation.
Faith has to be found in every believer’s act of true worship (Bell 257). Complaining and murmuring hinders Christian’s from expressing their love to God and God communing with them. Faith enables believers to resist their feelings and their will thus follow God’s will. Faith extends to prayer and meditation that are crucial to the development of every Christian. Being faithful to meditation and prayer may serve to strengthen believers’ faith (Wright 1). God also strengthens our faith through the fulfillment of his promises to believers. The strengthening of Christians’ faith facilitates for them to express its influence. For true faith is expressed in works (actions) and conduct (Bernard and Allen 55).
It is by faith that believers are made righteous and justified. Believers are forgiven for their sins through faith, not because of good works they do. Being faithful with few responsibilities or things allows God to give us more. Faith enables Christians to understand those mysteries that are too difficult and beyond their powers (Bernard and Allen 16). It is through faith that we were able to hear and receive the Gospel of Christ. When believers confess their sins, through faith they are forgiven. The spirit of faith does not doubt the pardon we receive and Christ dwells in our heart through faith (Wright 1). Jesus adorns us with faith and understanding that makes us righteous and hence reconcile us to God. Without faith, believers cannot be saved and cannot see or please God. Therefore, as Christians, we must work to preserve the purity of our faith.
Works Cited
Bell, Theo. Luther's Reception of Bernard of Clairvaux. Concordia Theological Quarterly, CTQ. Volume 59: Number 4, October 1995. Web. 05 July 2015. <http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/bellluthersreception.pdf>
Bernard, , and Allen W. B. Van. On Loving God. Tenby, South Wales: Caldey Abbey, 1911. Print.
Wright, Darrell. Full text of "St Bernard's Commentary on the Song of Songs". archive.org, 2008. Web. <https://archive.org/stream/StBernardsCommentaryOnTheSongOfSongs/StBernardOnTheSongOfSongsall_djvu.txt>
