2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Lord keeps leading me to discuss more of what He reveals in the Scriptures about the nature of His will, teachings, and encouragement. His purpose for us is to provide effective motivation for us to see why we should hold up our end of the agreements of the Covenant of Grace into which He has entered with us. Behind that purpose for the whole world to see is God’s profound love for us and His wish that as many of us as possible should enjoy a life of eternal joy and fellowship with Him. Before that is possible, we must go through the process of sanctification, preparation for glorification and eternal life with God. It is that process of sanctification coupled with God’s will to get His own work done with our help that prompted Him to bring us into the Covenant of Grace in the first place.
Let’s take a look at the issue of judgment, and I don’t only mean judgment of the lost. Everyone will be brought before the Lord to be judged, even those of us who are faithful and righteous, which is why there are two types of judgment. The judgment of the damned (lost) is discussed in the Bible in many places, like RO 6: 23, MT 25: 32, and REV 19: 20-21 & 20: 10; and, one finds a discussion of the judgment of the righteous in places like 1 COR 3: 9-15, 9: 23-27, & 2 COR 5: 10. After reading these citations, it’s clear that the Lord deals differently with people who have repented, come to faith in Christ, and strived to live their lives “in Christ,” than He does with people who have made a lifestyle out of sin and rejected Christ. That is because our Lord is always just.
Now, we can focus our attention on the relationship that exists between grace, faith, and deeds. God has made it clear that our salvation comes from repentance and faith alone, not our deeds [RO 3: 24-25 and Les Feldick’s concise statement: FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION]. So, where do the deeds come in? They are a natural outgrowth of the righteousness that was imputed to our accounts when we were justified, when God deemed us acceptable as he did Abraham in GN 15: 6. It is logical that if one is living “in Christ,” he desires to do good deeds for that reason [review EPH 2: 8-10]. When we read through the Scriptures on the judgment of the righteous, we can see that one’s deeds will be a measure of how he is rewarded, not whether he is rewarded.
Paul gives us a lot of help in our attempts to understand the issue of faith. RO 1: 1-7, “From Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus set apart by God to preach the Gospel. The Good News was promised long ago by God through His prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures. It is about His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: as to His humanity, He was born a descendant of David; as to His divine holiness, He was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death. Through Him God gave me the privilege of being an apostle for the sake of Christ, in order to lead people of all nations to believe and obey. This also includes you who are in Rome, whom God has called to belong to Jesus Christ. And so I wrote to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be His own people: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.” When we examine these words, we can see the connection between God who is directing Paul and Paul himself. Because of that, we can take what Paul writes seriously and believe it in our effort to keep up our covenant agreements with God. Part of that connection is Jesus Christ, that same Son of God that Paul professes to serve. All that remains to make this God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Paul connection complete is us! We need to take God at His word, have faith, and know that Paul is delivering God’s message to us-called to do so by God and His Son.
How can we come to faith in what Paul teaches? We can look carefully at RO 1: 5 once again. “Through Him [Jesus Christ] God gave me the privilege of being an apostle for the sake of Christ, in order to lead people of all nations to believe an obey. Of course, this letter was written to the early church believers of Rome, but the use of the words “all nations” here is hugely revealing. The verses after that repeat a common message from God-His desire to love each and every one of us and to “claim ownership” of us. Reflect on the fact that this is the same message expressed in DT 6: 4-5, JER 31: 33, EZK 37: 23, and REV 21:3. God’s love is there for each and every one of us.
PRAYER: O Lord, because of our natural tendency to want to fall back on the demands of the flesh, You understand that we need a lot of encouragement and motivation to take the narrow, hard path that leads from a narrow gate-that path of obedient faithfulness in You. That is why You have given us citations in Your word that help us to understand our choices and the consequences that come from them. You have not only called us to faith, but You have been open with us about the two kinds of judgment that will happen on that momentous Day. You have not only shown us the way to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, but You have given us sufficient instruction that, if followed, will lead us to eternal life. Just as You wanted us justified, You also want us to be sanctified, perfected to readiness to be glorified. The deepest expressions of Your love for us are the sacrifice of Your Son on the cross and that great in-gathering of the faithful which will be the wedding feast of the Lamb. We have been invited and dedicate ourselves to preparing ourselves not to be caught unaware and unready. We acknowledge that living “in Christ” is the only way our preparation can be effective. Your profound love for us deserves nothing less that what we humbly offer You today: our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at more instruction that we are given in how to keep up our agreements in the Covenant of Grace. In the meanwhile, know that each of us is counted in on that love God has. Even the weakest, least attractive, least smart, most quiet, least confident of people are included. We are all God’s children, and His greatest desire if to claim us for His own for eternity. People only God recognizes as potential believers are also recipients too. Only those who consistently reject Him in favor of worldly evil exclude themselves from eternal bliss. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn