Continuing in the Word
- Richard
- Nov, 27, 2016
- Today's Musings
- No Comments
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance…receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.(Acts 20:32 and James 1:21)
Paul’s exhortation to followers of Jesus Christ was to “continue in the faith“ (Acts 14:22). “The faith” (in which we are to continue) is the word of God. Paul later called it “the word of His grace.” Since God’s word is permeated with His grace, it is able to do glorious things in our lives.
James wrote of “the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”God wants to plant His word into human hearts that the word might bear fruit therein. This is how the Lord began His work in us: “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23). By communicating His word to us (through preaching, teaching, witness, or evangelism), God sowed the incorruptible, eternal seed of “the word of His grace“ in our lives. As we believed on Him, the seed of the word germinated in our hearts unto everlasting life. Now, the Lord wants to continue sowing His life-giving seed into our lives that we might grow, mature, and abound in Him.
Our role involves a humble receptivity of His word. “Receive with meekness the implanted word.” We are to continually take in the Scriptures with a sense of urgent, personal need. Such an attitude would indicate agreement with the words of Jesus. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God“ (Matthew 4:4). We cannot truly continue in grace without regularly partaking of “the word of His grace.” If we humbly and consistently take in God’s word, the grace of God at work through the word will demonstrate the transforming power of the Scriptures: “which is able to save your souls.” This delivering work of God’s word is not limited to justification (that is, saving us from the guilt and condemnation of sin). It also includes sanctification (that is, saving us from the tempting and controlling influence of sin in daily living). Jesus prayed for His followers concerning this sanctifying work of the word of God. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). God’s word is able to make our lives all that He wants them to be: “the word of His grace, which is able.”
Blue Letter Bible
Just as the lost don't understand the Gospel, the saved rarely understand grace.
There are few activities more exhausting and less rewarding than Christians attempting to please the people around them by maintaining impossible legalistic demands. What a tragic trap, and thousands are caught in it. When will we ever learn?
Grace has set us free!
That message streamed often through the sermons and personal testimonies of the apostle Paul.
The lost need to hear how they can go from the island of debris, filled with misery and guilt, to the land of peace and forgiveness, flowing with mercy and grace. Those bridges are built when we lovingly and patiently communicate the Gospel. You don't have to have a seminary degree. You don't have to know a lot of the religious vocabulary. In your own authentic, honest, and unguarded manner, share with people what Christ has done for you. Who knows? It may not be long before you will know the joy of leading a lost sinner from the darkness of death's dungeon across the bridge to the liberating hope of new life in Christ. Once they've arrived, release them. Release them into the magnificent freedom that grace provides. Don't smother them with a bunch of rules and regulations that put them on probation and keep them in that holding tank until they "get their lives straightened out."; Making us holy is the Spirit's work. Be faithful to dispense the Gospel to the lost and Grace to the saved. Then leave the results in the Lord's hands.