Reconciliation Is The Fruit of Grace

 

Of what value is a saint that has carnally ascended into a form of godliness that prevents them from presenting the 'good news' of grace to the lost world around them?

 

"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Romans 12:3)

Grace is received but once, and the Holy Spirit has sealed it within us. Its manifestation is seen in the form of faith, and both grace and faith are a gift from God. We could no more believe in Jesus than we could create ourselves. And grace is not found by asking for it, but by living in it, for He lives within us. It is indeed sought after, but only in the person and power of Jesus. We know this because He ascended from the grave and is now seated at the right hand of our Heavenly Father.

What Came First...?

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

...the parents or the children?

...the tree or the fruit?

What came first, the tempter or the tempted?

...the sinner or the sin?

...the cause or the effect?

Commanded Obedience

The voice of authority projects and protects its interests and responsibilities through commanded obedience. It establishes for itself followers of submission to help carry out their agenda. There will always be those who refuse to come under a particular authority. They will complain that such authority violates their personal freedom, and defiance is their immediate reaction towards it. Yet God knows the destruction of His creation within the mindset of outward rebellion. (Jude 1:10-11)

God's desire for His elect is to guide them towards a selfless life in Jesus by the life and power of the Holy Spirit. Those outside the church, however, can only perceive God as an oppressive authority who demands mindless submission from His followers.

Truly, there is no one even capable of submitting to God by their own will. Any relationship one might seek with God must find mutual ground between themselves and God. Yet a covenant with God is unattainable without a witness of His Spirit within, and that occupation is determined by what Jesus alone laid down His life for: the elect...His bride. By this, the family of God has ceased to relate with Him by mere commanded obedience. In God's new covenant, everything has become "yes! and amen!". Our submission is no longer controlled by fear (1 John 4:18), but is born again into a living intimate relationship of child and Father, bride and Bridegroom. Since we have become adopted children and are being made into the bride of Christ, we also receive His grace where condemnation was the just judgment, mercy where guilty was the just verdict, and eternal life where death was the just penalty.

Commanded obedience is the essence of any and all laws, but an authentic faith in Jesus has freed us from being ruled and judged by the old covenant law. (Acts 13:39) Yet paradoxically, through this God given faith, we are actually fulfilling that law (Romans 3:31), out of love for the one who first loved us.

　
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

"In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:3-14)

PJR

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)