Christ’s coming to take us home will complete our salvation. On that day, all of creation will know those who are IN CHRIST are sons and daughters of the Most High, new creatures adopted into the family of God. We will be fully molded into his image, no longer possessing the difficulties and imperfections of the flesh. Jesus divulges God’s marvelous plan of salvation when talking to the Pharisee Nicodemus: Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” (John 3:5-7) Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand that the miraculous works he observed Jesus doing revealed the kingdom of God coming down to Earth to all people. Jesus wanted him to know that no one can enter into God’s eternal kingdom without faith in Jesus Christ and his supernatural works. He alone is the gate to God’s dominion, his provision for eternal life. John 3:16-17, clarifies that faith in Jesus and his works leads to eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Through faith in Jesus, we become new creatures, totally fit for the household of God. But we see Peter saying that we must be holy. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” What does this holiness refer to? What are the acts of holiness? Are we new creatures, born by the Spirit in God’s image or are we still people of the flesh who must display acts of holiness to enter into the kingdom of God? Peter goes on to tell us that as foreigners in an alien land of the flesh, we should live our lives in reverent fear. Is this fear of losing our salvation, or is this fear an awareness that we should respect our Father, the eternal God? We must live upright lives, for we are children of a righteous God. Peter warns us to display God’s nature in our lives, the Holy Spirit’s attributes: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) However, the real question is, are we holy or not? Is it true that we are born again, viable spiritual beings, capable to live in God’s kingdom or are we spiritual premies, living in the hospital ward of the flesh, waiting for the full development of our spiritual beings with some trepidation that we might not make it out of the premie center and into God’s kingdom? Are we free now as a complete work IN CHRIST, fully developed with all of our hands, feet, organs or are we partially birthed, reflecting part new creature, part old creature? The Bible is true when it says, And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11-12 KJV) We are not half-slave and half-free. Jesus completed the work when He said it was finished at the cross.
Often when we Christians consider our walk with Christ and the holiness we should display at all times, we tend to think of our lives as if we were on an eternal balance beam. In gymnastics, one of the routines demanded of gymnasts is to perform on the balance beam, an apparatus consisting of a four inch wide board, four feet off the floor, sixteen feet long. To perform well on this board, demands much balance, physical dexterity, and strength. Most of us would fall off immediately, even while not attempting any movement such as walking. To stay on top of this four inch wide beam for any length of time is an impossibility, even for the most seasoned gymnast. Sooner or later everyone falls. For the Olympic performer, maybe a day or two, but all will eventually land on the floor. In the spiritual sense, when we attempt to live holy lives, lives completely pleasing to God at all times, we fall off the beam. Of course, we know God does not tolerate even the shadow of sin; He is exact, perfect in everything He is and does. We are not! We wobble, we fall. Consequently, which one of us is exact, perfect? Only Jesus, He fulfills God’s demands of exactness, perfection. We who have placed our trust in Jesus rest in that fact. Christ is perfect, not us. We are free from the consequences of eternal damnation because Christ has paved the way for our everlasting life with God. He has gone before us, through death and the resurrection. We vicariously died with him, and we are raised with him to eternal life. He went to the Father, we too will follow him to the Father. We all say with our brother, Paul, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) So, breakfast friends, rejoice in the provisions of the new life, one of which is holiness, that God has given freely to you. You are not beggars, mendicants, hoping to make it to heaven, if only you are good enough, living an acceptable life of holiness. Cults and other false religions believe that striving is the primary way of making it to the next life. No, you have a life in you that is the life of Christ. You have eternal life existing in you because the Holy Spirit’s power exists in you. You have Jesus holding your hand as God held his hand in this life. Breakfast companions, on this journey, you are children of God, walking with Jesus, holding his hand. Often, you look up at his face, asking, “Where are we going?” “We are going to the Promised Land! We will meet the Father there.”
Dear friends around this table, do not define your lives by your weaknesses. You are not your failures; the times you disappointed yourself, the times you knew that you had sinned too willfully, too readily, and too completely. Don’t look at those times as if you have fallen off the balance beam without hope for a future. God has placed your spiritual lives in his hands. You are not redeemed by your works, but his works. If you could have performed well on the balance beam of life at all times, you would not need a Savior. The works of Christ would have been superfluous, unnecessary. The law and the talent of obedience would have been enough to stay on that balance beam of righteousness, perfection. Intentionality, dedication, discipline, hard work, fortitude would keep you right with God. Christ would not be needed. And if you happened to fall off for some reason under the governance of the law, you could restore yourself on the beam of rightness by the talents of obedience and self-will. But this is not the answer for flesh, for the flesh is always wayward, self-oriented, giving no total obedience to anyone, especially to law. The flesh is under the gravity pull of sin, pulling us off the narrow way of rightness with God. But God had a plan of redemption for the wayward, the unredeemable, the unholy. Christ suffered, was humiliated, and persecuted. He died because we could not find perfection through our own efforts. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18) Christ alone was the answer, for we could not be sons and daughters of the Most High by our own dedication, discipline. As Paul wrote, we could not save ourselves, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. (Titus 3:5) No, we needed a savior, we needed someone who could walk that beam perfectly, forever. Of course, that is the Perfect One, the Exact One, Jesus Christ. He paid the price for our failures, our wobbliness. We are presently in his arms, walking the beam of rightness before the Father. Yes, be holy, for God is holy. We should represent God in the best way we can, in and out of season, every day, everywhere. Putting off the rags of this world, the thinking of this world, we do work to show ourselves as obedient servants of the Most High. But perfection, righteousness, holiness without a shadow of a flaw in us, rest only in Jesus Christ and his works for us. Be free dear friends in the Lord. If you are truly free, resting in his holiness, you will be as joyful as a calf set free from a restrictive pen. This joyfulness is the beginning of all revivals, for people cannot resist those who have been set free from the bondage of right and wrong, of condemnation, of striving. As the Bible says, those who have been set free are free indeed. Love, Dad and Mom
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