May we all eagerly wait for the judgment of Christ, who will appear for our salvation on that day. With Paul (1 Corinthians 16:22 NKJV), may we gladly say, “O Lord, come!” And with Peter (2 Peter 3:12), may we “hasten” the coming of the day of God!
The rock on which the church rests is the rock-solid truth about Christ. This truth was what Christ revealed to the apostles, individuals designated by Christ to serve as His authoritative spokesmen and representatives. Their teaching is normative.
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
Because Christ shed His blood for us, we need not fear the wrath of God’s justice; we may rest in the confidence of His mercy. By the blood of Christ, we come into God’s presence and expect to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The Son of God took upon Himself mortal flesh and blood that “through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14,15).
In dying for our sins, Jesus showed what true obedience to the Father is about. If we only obey God when it’s easy, we’re living far below the level of obedience that Jesus demonstrated — and in these days of ease, we need Jesus’ example.
The person who actually trusts God will do things differently than the person who doesn’t. Faith will make a difference in our obedience to God. And if our faith doesn’t show up in action, then we really don’t have the thing the Bible calls “faith.”
Let’s identify some things in the Lord’s work that we can’t do as well as we’d like. And then let’s plan our preparation, so we can be vessels “for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
Most people have definite ideas about what they “want” the truth to be. But wherever God is concerned, we need to be careful. What matters most is not what we want to hear, but what is, in fact, the truth. It is the truth that will makes us free.
We should be thankful for what we can know about our God and Father. Through Christ, we can know Him and live in fellowship with Him, living in the light of the truth about our Creator and ourselves. And based on this truth, we can have eternal life.
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