Orange Moon Wednesday, April 28, 2026 "The Freest Gift"

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

“The Freest Gift”     

     

     Three times in the fifth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul refers to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ as a “free gift.”

    “But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many…. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification… Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:15-16; 18).

     We might view such grace as  a free gift from the Father, the Son, and  the Holy Spirit as the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted.  “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,  but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:18-19).  Both in the receiving and maintaining of relationship with God through Christ, His freely given favor of grace eternally avails for all who believe the Gospel - “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

   Why a free gift?  The primary answer lies in God Himself - “His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30).  He can receive or accept nothing that does not accord with the pristine integrity of His character.  We would have to be perfect in our own hearts and hands from the moment of conception and forevermore if our acceptance with God were based on earning or meriting His favor.  This would require our independently achieving perfection by our own determinations and actions.  No fallen son or daughter of Adam has ever accomplished such perfection.  “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23).  Another way must therefore pave our path to God.  The Lord Jesus Christ is Himself this way of grace, whereby He so fulfilled God’s standard that His righteousness not only avails for Himself, but also imputes righteousness to all who receive Him as a free gift.  “I am the way” (John 14:6).

    “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:30-31).

   We either receive redemption and relationship with God as a free gift, or we remain enslaved by the pride of believing we can make or own way and fulfill our own destiny.  “Many wonderful works” boast the proud of their own doings to the One who responds, “I never knew you.  Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22).  If one day we  were weighed in the balances of acceptance with God by our own works, His scale of perfection would find the doings of even those who seem acceptable as mere dust, lighter than air.  “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God” (Psalm 10:4).

   Long ago, a deeply religious man rejoiced that he was not the spiritual and moral wreck of another man broken by the realization of his deeply realized sinfulness.  The Lord responded - “This man went down to his house justified rather than the other” (Luke 18:10-14).  Which man?  We know, of course.  The supposedly proud achiever went away, rejected by God.  The honest and aware sinner entered into relationship with God.  One saw righteousness as an earned achievement, the other as a free gift of mercy.  The truth of both men applies to every human being.  We either receive the freely given grace of the Lord Jesus in the new birth and its promise of eternally abiding relationship.  Or we seek acceptance by Him according to our own works, which His spiritual and moral standard can never accept.  A free gift - the freest gift - from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This is the Gospel, the blessed wonder of grace received by faith.  There is no other way, nor need we any other way...

“By grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

(Ephesians 2:8-9)

Weekly Memory Verse

    We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”

 (II Peter 1:19)

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Orange Moon Tuesday, April 28, 2026 “Wholly Holy” Part 2 - “His Way Is Perfect.

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

“Wholly Holy”     

Part 2 - “His Way Is Perfect”

     

     The Apostle Paul’s declaration that “God cannot lie” speaks to the broader issue that He cannot do anything that fails to align with His perfect character, nature, and way (Titus 1:2).

     “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (Psalm 145:17).

    Whatever we read in Scripture of God’s doings, and in all of His working in human history, every action has been pristinely pure and fulfilled His spiritual and moral standard.  He cannot do otherwise because He cannot be otherwise.  Our Lord is perfectly holy and thus perfectly sanctified to Himself and His heart and mind of perfection.  He is wholly holy from everlasting to everlasting, including this moment in which He acts in our lives in precise accordance with the glory of the Lord Jesus and our best interests.  “As for God, His way is perfect” (II Samuel 22:31).

    This does not mean we always understand or perceive His perfection.  Every believer in the Lord Jesus sometimes wonders at the administrations and allowances of God in our lives.  Why?  How?  When?   Our Heavenly Father does not always explain Himself.  Moreover, He must presently work in ways that cause discomfort, confusion, and even utter bewilderment.  No less than the Apostle Paul confessed to perplexity regarding the blessed, but challenging life to which God called him (II Corinthians 4:8).  Indeed, even the best and brightest finite beings will come to venues that do not appear to involve an infinite Lord working out His perfect purposes.  Little wonder, seeing that human hearts and minds have no frame of reference for perfection.  We often see it without perceiving God working all things together for our good, a blessing that requires Him to fulfill His perfect purposes amid our imperfections (Romans 8:28).

   If we have not done so, let us build an altar in our hearts and minds whereupon we sacrifice any notion that our Lord can do anything that fails to align with His perfect character.  He literally cannot do so, a blessed purity of heart and way in God that should thrill our own hearts and illuminate our own way.  Wholly holy.  He will not be otherwise because He cannot be otherwise.

Weekly Memory Verse

    We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”

 (II Peter 1:19)

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Orange Moon Monday, April 27, 2026 "Wholly Holy"

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

“Wholly Holy”          

   

     "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).      

    

     "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thessalonians 5:23).           

    Why does the Apostle Paul ask God to fully sanctify - “make holy" - those whom the writer of Hebrews declares to be sanctified "once for all?"    

    The answer involves one of the relational truths of belonging to God, as opposed to our practical response to the fact.  We first acknowledge and affirm our holiness to Him, based on the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus.  Believers belong to God in terms of truth and relationship, regardless of how we live.  “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus” declared Paul to the Corinthians he also indicted as “carnal” (I Corinthians 1:30; 3:3). In the sense of belonging, born again believers become as sanctified as we will ever be when we trust the Lord Jesus - “once for all.”   We are God’s "purchased possession,” no matter what.  Nothing changes this reality of relationship, and the more we discover the Biblical truth that we belong to Another, the more likely we are to think, speak, act, and relate accordingly.  "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).   

     Conversely, the experience and outworking of holiness requires a lifetime of growth in the grace and knowledge of our Savior.  Our sanctified being may or may not result in sanctified behavior.  We can - and do - sometimes think, speak, act, and relate as if we belong to ourselves (I John 1:8).  Our marvelous freedom in Christ makes real love for God possible.  However, it also makes possible our not loving Him in this less than perfect present existence.  Nothing changes the fact that we belong to God -"sanctified once for all."  Behaving accordingly, however, requires God's working in us to “sanctify you wholly.”  Grace gave to us the blessed gift of belonging to our rightful Owner and Master.  Growth in grace gives to us the blessing of a life that practically reflects such truth.  We thus do well to echo Paul's prayer for each other concerning a whole sanctification, even as we also thank God for the truth of a "once for all" sanctification.  Our Heavenly Father ever works to align our being and behavior for the glory of the Lord Jesus and the peace of being wholly holy unto Him.

"Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light.”                                                                                             (Ephesians 5:8)

Weekly Memory Verse

          And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 (I Thessalonians 5:23). 

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