Thursday, January 3, 2019

“Being. Doing.”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…


"Being.  Doing."          

    

    God does good because He is good.  "Thou art good, and doest good" (Psalm 119:68).  Our Lord's being leads to His doings.  Character governs capability.  Few if any Biblical truths are more important in our doctrinal understanding, and in our knowledge of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness" (Psalm 11:7).

    Interestingly, the same true applies to born again believers.  Our being in Christ enables our doings through Him.  "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6).  Salvation in Christ births a "new man, created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).  As a free gift of grace, God changes who and what we most deeply are in the twinkling moment of our new birth.  "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).  The Holy Spirit takes residence within our innermost being, enlivening us by His presence and creating a Christ-inhabited and empowered temple of grace.  Whether we realize it or not, and whether we act like or not, who we were is not longer who we are.

   "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.  Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).
   "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Romans 7:4-6).

    To the degree we know, affirm, and act on the truth of our being in Christ will be the degree to which we live accordingly.  As with our Lord, being leads to doing.  Our actions are fruit, the fruit of who Christ is in us, and who we are in Him.  In such holy Light, every excuse for a nominal Christian life dissolves in the reality of a "new creature."  Enabling encouragement illuminates our temple with the promise of grace for every step of our journey in a fallen world.  Great challenge also confronts us, namely, the quest to believe Truth that often does not feel or appear to be true.  Indeed, our spiritual enemies cannot steal or even touch our being.  "Ye are hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).  Thus, they tempt us to disbelieve and disregard the gift we received in the new birth.  "He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (II Peter 1:9).

    Being.  Doing.  We must never reverse the order in God, or in ourselves.  Who He is leads to what He does.  Who we are in Him leads to what we do through Him.  This is Theology 101, and this is spiritual Anthropology 101.  May our Lord grant much grace to illuminate our appreciation of His Person and His subsequent practice.  May He also grant grace to illuminate our awareness of the Christ-inhabited and empowered temple of grace we became and forevermore are in our blessed Lord.  Thereby we will more faithfully walk in accordance with Whose we are, and who we are.

"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
(Romans 6:11)

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."
(Colossians 2:6-7).

Weekly Memory Verse
   I will extol Thee, o God, my King, and I will bless Thy name forever and ever.
(Psalm 145:1)



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