Orange Moon Saturday, February 21, 2026 “The Lens of Christ” Part 2 - Free and Effectual

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Lens of Christ"   

Part 2 - Free and Effectual

   

    God's view of believers through the lens of Christ means that He not only freely and forever accepts us as His sons and daughters.  He also sees us in relationship to the Lord Jesus in terms of  how we live.

    "Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).

    The God who "looketh on the heart" sees the Spirit of Christ in us as the Life of our lives (I Samuel 16:7).  He expects and commands much of us because of the "abundant life" - Christ's own life - He imparted to us when we believed (John 10:10).   The indwelling Holy Spirit works in us to bring forth the Lord Jesus in our thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds.  No gospel can be found in Scripture that merely serves to justify us and birth us spiritually.  God rather redeems us through Christ to conform us to our Lord's spiritual and moral image:

   "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren… We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (Romans 8:29; I John 3:2). 

    Consider the thief on the cross, who became a saint on the cross - and now in Heaven - before he died.  The Lord Jesus changed the man's heart, leading to a changed life in word and deed.  In great agony and pain, our brother lifted himself up on on the nails that impaled his feet to catch a breath and speak forth his confession of Christ.  In his final seconds of earthly life, he did something and said something through the power of God whereby what had happened in his heart came forth in open display.  For 2,000 years, the saint on the cross has borne witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus, the glory that freely changes spirits, and then moves mightily in souls and bodies.  

   "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).

     God will not jeopardize His integrity by offering a salvation that provides only relationship and righteous standing, wonderful as such a free gift is.  As the saying goes, "the salvation of the Lord Jesus is not merely fire insurance."  No, it is rather salvation assurance, a salvation that meets us where we are, but does not leave us as we are.  No gift of God's favor could be freer.  Nor could any gift be more effectual in changing the heart, and then progressively changing the entirety of our being.  The better we know and avail ourselves of such grace, the better we will know and respond to God's working, whereby we pay homage to the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted.  We seek to see through the lens of Christ, as our Father sees, and by which He works to keep His promise…

"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
(Philippians 1:6)

Weekly Memory Verse 

     Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!

(Psalm 31:19)

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Orange Moon Friday, February 20, 2026 "The Lens of Christ"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

"The Lens of Christ"   

   

    How adequate in the sight of God the Father is the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of those who believe?  This adequate…

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

    The death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus so avails for the redeemed that God will not place sin on our account in any manner that jeopardizes our relationship with Him.  Our Savior so fully "bore our sin" and was "made to be sin for us" on the cross that God would violate His standard of perfect righteousness  if He imputed our sins to us after having done so to Christ.  His justice will not allow for such an administration of a judgment already executed (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21),

    "But this man, after He had made one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God… there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:12; 26).

    The resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus also avails for our relationship and standing of being forever "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).

    "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24).

    Whatever may happen in our lives on earth, God first sees His Son in Heaven as our perfectly effectual Mediator.  The wounds of Calvary remain on our Lord's glorified body as the evidence of His "one sacrifice for sins forever," whereby "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).  God the Father sees believers through the lens of Christ, that is, who the Lord Jesus is to Him and to us, and what He has done for the Father and for us.  Our thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions may sometimes not attain to God's standards.  However, those of the Lord Jesus always do, and the Father forever bases and secures our relationship to Him through the perfect faithfulness of His Son.  "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us… righteousness" (I Corinthians 1:30).

    Realizing this breathtakingly wondrous basis of our relationship and standing with God goes far in establishing our capacity to journey upon the path of righteousness.  No believer will long walk faithfully with our Father if we fail to "look unto Jesus" as "the author and finisher of our faith."  The writer of Hebrews clearly identifies this Christ-focused gaze of the heart as the means whereby we avoid becoming "wearied and faint" (Hebrews 12:2-3).   Growing discovery of the Bible's declaration of who our Lord is for us and what He has done provides powerful motivation and enabling to not only rejoice in freely given righteousness of relationship and standing, but also to live our lives "being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:11).  Yes, we live for our crucified, risen, and ascended Savior by living from who He is, and what He has done for the Father and for us.  No other way exists whereby we "walk and please God" (I Thessalonians 4:1).  No other way is needed.

    Through the lens of Christ.  God's views His trusting sons and daughters in such grace and mercy.  We must join our Father in this blessed realization of His beloved Son and our glorious Savior's person and work as the abundant means of providing and securing our relationship, thereby empowering the life that should and must ensue.  Christ only.  Christ always.  Christ forever.  The light eternally shines in our Father's eyes.  May we see, and may its reflection more and more shine in ours.

"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

(Matthew 3:17)

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

(Romans 5:1)

Weekly Memory Verse 

     Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!

(Psalm 31:19)

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