The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe… "Let Us Have Grace" Part 2 - Salvation and Service

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

"Let Us Have Grace"

Part 2 - Salvation and Service

     "Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28).

   What does it mean to "have grace" that enables born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to "serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear?"

     A lifetime is required to increasingly discover God's freely given favor - grace - that empowers our lives of trust, obedience, and devotion to God and others - serving Him acceptably.  Every born again believer has begun such a relationship with our Lord because the same means whereby we faithfully walk with Him served as the means of our new birth.  The Apostle Paul plainly stated the truth that salvation and service flow from the same holy fount known only in the Lord Jesus Christ:

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

    

   In the moment of our new birth, God revealed the Lord Jesus as our only hope for forgiveness, newness of life, and relationship with Him.  We acknowledged the truth about Him, and also about ourselves, namely, that we were sinners in abject need of a Savior.  In the moments that follow of our Christian life, the same principles of truth apply.  The Spirit of God and the Word of God bear witness to the Lord Jesus as our only hope for living a life of faith and faithfulness.  We acknowledge the truth about Him, and also about ourselves, namely, we are saints in abject need of a Lord who must serve as the very Life of our lives.  The holy soil in which we were rooted eternally abides as the good ground upon which we grow and bear fruit.

    "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.  For without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

    Whether physically, figuratively, or both, born again believers in the Lord Jesus do well to fall to our faces and knees every day to acknowledge how completely dependent we are on Him to think, speak, act, and relate in devotion to God and others.  Our Heavenly Father made us for this sublime purpose of living relationship with Himself, whereby "to live is Christ… we shall live through Him… we shall live with Him by the power of God… Christ is our life… Christ liveth in me… I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me… I will dwell in them and walk in them" (Philippians 1:21; I John 4:9; II Corinthians 13:4; Colossians 3:4; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 4:13; II Corinthians 6:16).  We play a vital role in the relationship, the role of trusting response to grace given.  Ever and always, however, we know that the smallest act of devoted obedience to God proceeds from the having of grace in Christ that leads to the living of a life pleasing and honoring to Him.

    Salvation by grace.  Service by grace.  Scripture proclaims both as our only hope for commencing in Christ, and continuing through Christ.  We "have grace" by acknowledging the blessed truth of freely given favor in our Savior, and His freely given working in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  Thereby, we "serve God acceptably"  in the "reverence and godly fear" that acknowledges the sacrifice made by the Lord Jesus to make such grace available to us.  Yes, a cross whereupon our Lord was "crucified through weakness" makes possible a life whereby "the power of His resurrection" teems within us to empower our living far beyond our human means (II Corinthians 13:4; Philippians 3:10).  Little wonder the Apostle Peter commanded, "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18).  And little wonder Paul began all his epistles with the salutation of grace to those who had already received such a freely given gift in salvation, but who also required it no less for service…

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."

(Romans 1:7) 

Memory Verse

     What hast thou that thou didst not receive?

(I Corinthians 4:7)

   

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