Orange Moon The Author and Finisher

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

 

"The Author and the Finisher"

 

     "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23).

 

      How do we "hold fast the profession of our faith?"  The Christ-centered answer of grace is that we set our gaze on the Savior who for us holds fast the possession of our faith.

 

    "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

 

    Our Lord's responsibility involved the securing of our redemption, and also involves the maintaining of it.  He finished the work of atonement for sin on the cross of Calvary.  He obtained eternal life for those who believe through His resurrection from the dead.   He forever maintains our acceptance and standing with God by His Heavenly intercession for us (Romans 5:9-11; Colossians 2:12; Hebrews 7:25).  These administrations of grace constitute our Savior's responsibility, which He fulfills perfectly.  Our responsibility involves growing understanding and affirmation of a salvation provided solely by grace, and received solely by faith.  Only thereby can our hearts be moved and motivated by the Holy Spirit to live in a manner worthy of our high calling in Christ.  "Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28).

 

   From the first  moment of our salvation, our spiritual enemies seek to distract us from the grace of the Author and Finisher.  They know better than we do that the living of the Christian life is no less a matter of God's working in us than the beginning of the Christian life was a matter of God's working for us.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).  Only grace leads us to "serve God acceptably" as focus on the Person and work of the Lord Jesus causes us to walk in the Light and Life of God.   Thus, Satan and his minions tempt us to a lesser view of walking with our Lord that inevitably results in failure and frustration.  We do well to be aware of how incessantly our enemies seek to distract us from our only hope for a life lived that confirms Christ's life received.  "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (II Corinthians 9:8).

 

    Because the works of the Christian life are fruits, we can always know that problems with our doings (or non-doings) always result from the root of failure to access the grace of the Lord Jesus.  Always.  Indeed, find a saint of God who has fallen along the path of righteousness, and whatever the particular stumblingstone of temptation may have involved, the crux of the matter will be found in failure to know the grace that would have maintained a walk of faith and faithfulness.  The Christ who holds the possession of our faith abides forevermore as our Savior and the Life of our lives.  May we abide and grow in the profession of our faith that increasingly finds us "looking unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher," and thus living accordingly.

 

"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." 

(I Corinthians 15:10)

 

"Weekly Memory Verse

      Sanctify them through Thy truth.  Thy word is truth."

(John 17:17)

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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