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Monday, May 12,
2008
A Gift of Grace
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(KJV)
Romans 6:23
[But
the gift of God is eternal life] A man may MERIT hell, but he cannot MERIT
heaven. The apostle does not say that the wages of righteousness is eternal
life: no, but that this eternal life, even to the righteous, is to (grk
3588) charisma, the gracious gift of God. And even this gracious gift comes
through Jesus Christ our Lord. He alone has procured it; and it is given to
all those who find redemption in his blood. A sinner goes to hell because
he deserves it; a righteous man goes to heaven because Christ has died for
him, and communicated that grace by which his sin is pardoned and his soul
was made holy. The word opsoonia
(grk 3800), which we here render "wages", signified the
daily pay of a Roman soldier. So, every sinner has a daily pay, and this
pay is death; he has misery because he sins. Sin constitutes hell; the
sinner has a hell in his own bosom; all is confusion and disorder where God
does not reign: every indulgence of sinful passion increases the disorder,
and consequently the misery of a sinner. If people were as much in earnest
to get their souls saved as they are to prepare them for perdition, heaven
would be highly populated, and devils would be their own companions. (from
Adam Clarke Commentary)
Salvation is a gift, it is not something
one can earn, but rather something someone has already done on their behalf
and given them access to. God’s plan of salvation comes to us through His
Son Jesus Christ, that one mediator that was set up at the right hand of
the Father to give us our daily instructions on how to walk in this plan.
While many claim they are doing things for God, the reality is that only a
few actually allow God to work in and through them to do those things that
are pleasing in His sight.
Philippians 2:12-15 Wherefore, my
beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
(13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. (14) Do all things without murmurings and disputings: (15) That
ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the
midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in
the world; (KJV)
Strong’s definition for ‘work
out’:
2716
katergazomai (kat-er-gad'-zom-ahee); from 2596 and 2038; do work fully,
i.e. accomplish; by implication, to finish, fashion:
KJV-- cause, to (deed), perform, work
(out).
To work out your own salvation means that
you come to a working knowledge of God’s plan of salvation for you
personally, what He is asking of you as well as your place in the body of
Christ. You realize it is God that has begun a good work in you and desires
to continue this good work so that you can receive His reward of
inheritance. What I have seen with many Christians over the years is that
when they come to the Lord they think they have to discard their own
personality and unique characteristics that God gave them to present His
word to others. What I see is a lot of religious clones, robotic images of
what man wants them to be and not the unique individuals they are. So
rather than let God work with them and refine these Godly characteristics,
they become a cheap imitation of who they truly are in Christ; more like a
cookie cutter assembly line product rather than the one our Creator had
intended them to be. So don’t be taken in by a bunch of holier than thou
goodie two shoes who think they are impressing God with their works rather
than letting God work through them to deliver His message. We are the clay,
God being the potter, so enter into His rest, cease from your own works,
and let Him fashion and work with you the way He intended and not what
others think.
Philippians 2:16 Holding forth the word
of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in
vain, neither laboured in vain. (KJV)
While we have so many different religions
and doctrines of man that keep running in circles and in vain, which means
empty or useless, don’t be like the many who still think they are earning
their way to heaven based on their works. How would you like to run an
endurance race and suffer all the heartache and pain that goes with it only
to find out in the end you were disqualified for running the wrong course
or trying to take a short cut? That is exactly what is happening to many
that run in vain, who base their salvation on what others are doing and not
on a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. Salvation
is a gift, a gift of God which was given to mankind for their benefit; now
it is a matter of how many are willing to receive it and operate according
to His plan for their life, or walk a dead end path of destruction based on
their own desires and not His.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 We then, as workers
together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in
vain. (2) (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the
day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.) (KJV)
This is a joint venture, a joint
partnership with our Father, a gift given to us by the completed work of
His Son Jesus Christ. Right now, today, are you hearing the message of God
delivered by Christ so that you can walk the path of life He has
established for you before the foundation of the world, or have you decided
you know a better way? Basically that is what many are telling God, that
they know better than Him how His plan works. Did you come to the Lord in
the first place because you had your life so together and in control, or
was it because you were in a tailspin, spiraling downward and ready to
perish? If the latter of the two is the case, then at what point did you
decide to take over the plan of salvation God intended for you and
establish your own? This is exactly what happens when a gift based on grace
is discarded and replace by one of works, dead vain works that promise so
much and deliver nothing.
Colossians 1:29 Whereunto I also labour,
striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. (KJV)
Our work, our labor should be to cease from
our own thoughts and ideas and let someone who is mighty, work mightily in
us. God is a spirit and He is seeking those that are willing to worship Him
in Spirit and truth, those that trust more in the work He is doing within
them and not the works they are trying to do without Him. Your strength,
confidence, boldness, as well as assuredness comes from what you allow the
Lord to work in and through you by keeping your body in subjection to His
spirit and keeping your own thoughts and ideas buried, not what you think
you are doing for Him. After all, Jesus Christ is a tough act to follow, so
it’s not like you’re going to do anything that is going to impress God
being the fact that our Lord did everything needed to restore our
fellowship. Obedience is truly better than sacrifice because a perfect
sacrifice has already been presented and accepted by our Father; now He is
asking us to receive His plan of salvation being presented to us through
His Son.
Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace,
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (21) Make you perfect
in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well
pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen. (KJV)
Those that mature or are made perfect,
are those that are willing to yield to the will of God so that they can be
well pleasing in His sight despite anything or anyone that sees different.
If salvation is a gift, then it is not something that can be earned, but
rather appreciated for what has been given and what has been done on our
behalf, not on what we think we need to be doing on God’s behalf. It’s an
unmerited favor that is being delivered to us on a daily basis by our
hearing the message of Christ and following through to the end with what He
is asking so that we have not run nor labored in vain.
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