"And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness."
This is (undoubtedly) one of the most important verses in all the Bible. Faith is what *really* pleases God (see Heb. 11:6). True faith leads to warm and devoted love. Love, then, results in sanctified behavior. But it is faith which not only ushers us into God's merciful embraces, but also keeps us united to Christ.
The devil loves to get God's churchmen hung up on other things, like meticulously "perfect" living. All God requires is faith. The Lord would not pleased with us, even if we had a 99.9% perfection rating (which none of us have); but He *is* pleased with us if we believe Christ truly and sincerely, even at less than 1% of what we ought to.
[Puritan quote of the day: "A man may know that he is a son of God and a member of Christ." --Richard Sibbes, in "Glorious Freedom"]
