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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