Thursday, September 14, 2017

Becoming Oaks of Righteousness – Part 2


Continuing Michael’s Message: The fourth category is those of us who know that we have received salvation. We who have been "born again of the spirit of life in Christ", repented - having done a "180 degree turn" and have changed Lordships. We are no longer our own lord. Salvation is not "who we are" but rather, "whose we are." As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day (of judgment.)” For those of us who are in this category "the spirit (of God) bears witness with our spirit (of Christ in us) that we are sons of God." Those who have been saved by grace, have accepted the free gift of salvation according to Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.  Not of works lest any man should boast."

Jesus said, "whosoever will may come." He woos everyone, but not all accept His offer to receive God's gift of salvation. Today is "the acceptable year of the Lord." Hebrews 3 says, don't harden your hearts like Israel did when they were led out of bondage in Egypt:  "harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation, as in the day of  temptation in the wilderness." All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However, we who have accepted his gift of salvation have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. God sealed us by entrusting His Holy Spirit within us when we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. This is similar to our marriage covenant with our spouses. When we take our marriage vows, one of the "covenants and conditions" is that "we'll be under constant surveillance of our spouses."  When we love our spouses, we don't want to do anything to disappoint them ... we don't want to break our fellowship with them by violating our sacred covenant of trust. Similarly when we were saved, God called us to be "holy."  Sanctification or holiness means to be "set apart for the purpose for which he designed us." 

This is not a burden. We gladly submit because we love Him. When we're walking in fellowship with our Lord, when we've lovingly surrendered our hearts to Him, doing His holy will is the joy and rejoicing of our heart. However, our Heavenly Father knows that because we're still human and carry the fallen sin nature of the flesh, we will sometimes stray from the "straight and narrow way."  Even though we're still saved, we break fellowship with our Lord by trusting our own way instead of His way. When we stray, He still loves us and gives us a way to return our hearts back to him: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9).

The job of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into the "all truth"; for Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. The Holy Spirit will "check us and convict our conscience" so that we can "confess our sins" and maintain our fellowship with Him.  Our prayer is for the Lord to "blot out our transgressions." We're guilty as charged when we stray. However, our Lord doesn't beat us up when we sin. Jesus Christ didn't come to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. Today is the "acceptable year of the Lord."  He didn't come to "kick us when we're down." He loves us much more that we could ever love ourselves. Even though, every time we sin and repent of it, we nail Christ to the Cross again to pay for them, He came to set us free from the bondage of resentment and bitterness, to heal our broken heart and to open our blinded eyes. This is the freedom that we have in Christ: He set us captives free when we confess that we're broken by our own sins. Jesus Christ shed His innocent blood to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The purpose of the cross is that we may be made the righteousness of God “in Him”; not in us.  When we understand and accept His grace and forgiveness, then we can give the bondage of our sin away: "I forgave and set the prisoner free, only to find that the prisoner was me."

What's the difference between an oak and a seedling?  An oak has stood the test of time. It has persevered through the ages ... through good times and bad. When we turned to Jesus Christ for salvation, He planted us as a seedling in the holy ground of His Holy Word. When we faithfully return to the Lord for fellowship, like the oak tree that has endured over many seasons of life, He will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of Joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that we may be called "oaks of righteousness" to the glory of our Lord.
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May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ, Michael

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