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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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