“In… Unto”

      Our memory verse this week speaks of believers being “created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” referencing the Divine order of godliness that must be kept even in heart and mind if we are to consistently trust and obey God.

     First “Christ Jesus.”  Then, “good works.”  Our Lord is ever and always the root; our doings are ever and always the fruit of His presence and working in our lives.

     “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

     We “work out” that which God “works in.”  When we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit inhabited our innermost being for the purpose of revealing in us the character, nature and way of the Savior.  This is the factof how closely united we are to our Lord (note  that it is a “living God” who binds Himself to us, that is, a God who actively lives and works in us).  “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (II Corinthians 6:16)  Our experience of such truth depends on continuing growth in the knowledge, remembrance, and application of this gift of the utmost grace.  Indeed, we cannot work out that of which we are unaware that God is working in.  “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16).

     Few themes more occupy my consideration of Biblical truth, and the attempt to personally experience and communicate to others.  Nevertheless, I find no Biblical truth more challenging to keep near in heart and mind. Thus, we must often encourage each other in the awareness of how near the Lord has drawn to us, and how actively engaged He is in enabling a life of faith and faithfulness.  Such remembrance will go far in our apprehension of God’s dynamic presence, along with the subsequent application to a life that begins and continues with His Life.  This moment provides opportunity for the affirmation of faith that the living God does not merely sit on a throne in our hearts.  He rather dynamically works in us and walks in us to empower the faith and obedience of “in Christ Jesus unto good works.”

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

(I John 4:9)