Evidence of righteous work...
Can
you look back at your life and see tremendous differences from the time before
you knew the Lord Jesus till today?
We
should be able to see a difference. We should be thinking some different. We
should be speaking some different. Different aims and goals ought to be ours. We
should be doing different things.
And,
don't get caught only thinking of bad habits changed; think of Gospel habits
begun.
Are
you a witness for the Lord Jesus? Are you discovering and growing and
exercising your giftings within the Body of Christ? Are your finances yielded
toward Kingdom ends? On and on and on...
The
Apostle wrote the the church in Ephesus, and the Church, saying,
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called
'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the
flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
(Ephesians 2:11-13 ESV)
"Remember..."
<--- that is a powerful word.
Here,
Paul speaks on position. There was a time when a believers position found them
out of fellowship with God. Paul says, "Remember that time."
But,
because of Jesus, that position changed: "But now in Christ Jesus you who
once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself
is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the
dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in
ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so
making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were
far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access
in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of
God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:13-22 ESV)
Now,
because we are "in Christ Jesus" and are NOT "far off", but
have been "brought near," God is in the business of working to make
us a "dwelling place" for Himself. That means we should be changing.
We should be growing.
Is
there evidence of the lovely lordship of Christ bringing change to your life?
Have you attempted to add Jesus to your life or has He given you His own life?
Any persons brought into the "household of God" are positionally
children of God and being shaped / conformed into the image of God's Son. If
your testimony is that your position has changed but your life has not, you are
either hindered in your growth or mistaken in your testimony.
"Jesus
answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I
said to you, "You must be born again."'" (John 3:6-8 ESV)
"But
to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13 ESV)
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