Orange Moon "Secure, Safe, Steadfast"

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

 

   "Secure, Safe, Steadfast"   

 

   The atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ was so satisfactory and complete in God's eyes that He will not place sin on the account of anyone who trusts the Savior.

 

   "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Romans 4:8).

 

     Our relationship with God through Christ rests upon the most secure foundation and within the safest haven of anything in our lives.  No sin we commit as believers jeopardizes our place in the family of God because Christ paid the full price for our eternal pardon.  Note the Apostle Paul's emphatic affirmation of grace and mercy regarding those in Christ: "the Lord will not impute sin."  We are justified to the degree that nothing we do or don't do can lead to the loss of our grace-obtained and grace-secured place in the family (read the account of the prodigal son with this in mind for a classic Biblical portrayal of such truth - Luke 15:11-24).

 

    Of course, we may incur the chastening and scourging of our Heavenly Father in times of waywardness.  Our Lord loves us enough to inflict necessary pain on us in order to save us from bringing shame to His name and harm to ourselves and others.  Indeed, it was regarding "His people" that Scripture warns, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30-31).  Moreover, Paul warns in his first epistle to the Corinthians that our Father's hands can be severe for the Christian who blithely takes advantage of grace (I Corinthians 11:27-32).  We therefore do not view our perfect security in Christ lightly, nor do we forget our Father's willingness to wield the rod of discipline if necessary.  "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6).

 

    We nevertheless affirm the eternally safe relationship with God made possible by our Savior's suffering, forsakenness, death, and resurrection.  "Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Only such security leads to a genuine response of loving faith and faithfulness.  We enter into the rest of realizing Christ's freely given righteousness, which alone results in "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ"  (Philippians 1:11).  Grace alone - received, realized, and accessed by faith - fosters a life that reveals the Savior who died for us now lives in us.  "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28).

 

    God "will not impute sin" to believers because He so completely imputed them to Christ on the cross of Calvary.  This is the Gospel of our justification, the same Gospel that promises power to live accordingly with grateful, trusting, and submitted hearts. Indeed, by resting in the freely given righteousness of Christ we find ourselves more consistently empowered to vibrantly walk in the enabling of grace whereby our security and safety in Christ leads to a corresponding steadfastness by Him.

 

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,  that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."

(Philippians 1:9-11)

 

Weekly Memory Verse 

     Keep thy heart with all diligence.  For out of it are the issues of life.

(Proverbs 4:23)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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