"Who We Are Instead" pt.5
Called to be Saints
The Christian life isn't just about "fire insurance", or doing the "bare minimum" to make God happy so He doesn't send us to Hell. God has brought us into His family, made us sharers in His divine nature. He has made us New Creatures--and those New Creatures ultimately will look like Christ. God wants us to be like Him! Our Christian faith, then, is the process by which He makes us more and more perfect in Him--so that, when all is said and done, when we arrive before His throne, we will be saints!
God doesn't want any less than that from His Children. He tells us in 1 Peter 1:13-16, that we must, "therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance, but, as He who has called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, 'Be holy because I am holy.'"
In the above passages (Romans and 1 Peter) we are encouraged to live our lives as a sacrifice. It is no longer our own, but belongs to God, because He bought us with a price: His blood shed on the cross! In repayment for His sacrifice for us, we need to offer our lives to Him, to live completely sold-out to Him! We owe Him nothing less! Both St. Peter and St. Paul say that we must not conform ourselves to the ways of the world. We have to live a cut above! How do we accomplish that?
"Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed Himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among saints, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Ephesians 5:1-5).
This is a daunting word! This is a hard instruction! Who can accomplish such a thing, and live such a life?! How can God expect this from us? This is how! He asks us first to yield to Him, and then He Himself makes us able to live the life! St. Paul writes, "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). God starts the work in us, and works in us to complete it. But we have an obligation. We have to work at this new life, to attain salvation. St. Paul says later on in Philippians, "So then, my brethren, obedient as you have always been...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (2:12). But this work is only a result of God's grace in us, and is only done through Him, as the very next verse says: "For God is the one who, for His good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work" (v.13).
God calls us to live holy lives, worthy of the name Saints, and then He Himself causes us to be able to live that life! He, in us, makes us holy as we cooperate with the graces that He gives us. This is what St. Augustine meant when he wrote, "What merit, then, does a man have before grace, by which he might receive grace, when our every good merit is produced in us only by grace and when God, crowning our merits, crowns nothing else but his own gifts to us?" (Letters, 194:5:19).
So then, let us take up the call, and live the life of obedience to and imitation of God! Let us fulfil our destiny of sainthood, as we yield to God's work of Holiness in our lives!
This concludes our series, "Who We Are Instead." I pray the truths here will help you to live the abundant life that Jesus has for all of us, so that we may one day stand in His presence as saints! Amen.
I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.
-Romans 12:1-2
The Christian life isn't just about "fire insurance", or doing the "bare minimum" to make God happy so He doesn't send us to Hell. God has brought us into His family, made us sharers in His divine nature. He has made us New Creatures--and those New Creatures ultimately will look like Christ. God wants us to be like Him! Our Christian faith, then, is the process by which He makes us more and more perfect in Him--so that, when all is said and done, when we arrive before His throne, we will be saints!
God doesn't want any less than that from His Children. He tells us in 1 Peter 1:13-16, that we must, "therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance, but, as He who has called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, 'Be holy because I am holy.'"
In the above passages (Romans and 1 Peter) we are encouraged to live our lives as a sacrifice. It is no longer our own, but belongs to God, because He bought us with a price: His blood shed on the cross! In repayment for His sacrifice for us, we need to offer our lives to Him, to live completely sold-out to Him! We owe Him nothing less! Both St. Peter and St. Paul say that we must not conform ourselves to the ways of the world. We have to live a cut above! How do we accomplish that?
"Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed Himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among saints, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Ephesians 5:1-5).
This is a daunting word! This is a hard instruction! Who can accomplish such a thing, and live such a life?! How can God expect this from us? This is how! He asks us first to yield to Him, and then He Himself makes us able to live the life! St. Paul writes, "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). God starts the work in us, and works in us to complete it. But we have an obligation. We have to work at this new life, to attain salvation. St. Paul says later on in Philippians, "So then, my brethren, obedient as you have always been...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (2:12). But this work is only a result of God's grace in us, and is only done through Him, as the very next verse says: "For God is the one who, for His good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work" (v.13).
God calls us to live holy lives, worthy of the name Saints, and then He Himself causes us to be able to live that life! He, in us, makes us holy as we cooperate with the graces that He gives us. This is what St. Augustine meant when he wrote, "What merit, then, does a man have before grace, by which he might receive grace, when our every good merit is produced in us only by grace and when God, crowning our merits, crowns nothing else but his own gifts to us?" (Letters, 194:5:19).
So then, let us take up the call, and live the life of obedience to and imitation of God! Let us fulfil our destiny of sainthood, as we yield to God's work of Holiness in our lives!
And now, to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you unblemished and exultant,
In the presence of His glory,
To the Only God, our Saviour,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
Be glory and majesty,
Power and authority
From ages past, now, and for ages to come.
Amen. -Jude 24,25
This concludes our series, "Who We Are Instead." I pray the truths here will help you to live the abundant life that Jesus has for all of us, so that we may one day stand in His presence as saints! Amen.
Labels: St. Andrew's, Who We Are Instead
posted by Gregory at 3:43 p.m.
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