Living the Gospel We Believe
Examine your conduct, your daily walk, and your relationships, and be honest about any inconsistencies with the gospel. Live honestly, true to who you now are in Christ. In other words, don’t be a hypocrite!
Knowing and believing that we are fully accepted in Christ, who died for our sins and justified us, levels the playing field. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. All groups of people need the same Saviour and receive justification on the same basis: faith in Jesus Christ. We all begin at the same starting line.
No human effort or merit can be added to faith as a basis for justification. Christ is sufficient. Nothing needs to be added. Not then, not now, and not for all eternity!
This also means God's kingdom has no second-class citizens. Prejudice, discrimination, and preferential treatment based on wealth, social standing, education, or perceived importance are incompatible with faith in Jesus Christ. Believers possess equality in Him, and our relationships should reflect that.
Freedom from the law as a means of justification, however, is not freedom to sin. We have stopped trying to earn God’s acceptance through our own efforts, and we now have an amazing freedom to live a life devoted to Him.
Our former way of life has come to a decisive end. Our personal interests and goals no longer direct our lives. Rather, Jesus Christ, Who lives in us, now directs and empowers us.
Paul expresses this in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Jesus loves me. Jesus gave Himself for me. The cross was a personal expression of His love. He for me. As we trust Him moment by moment, He works in and through us.
The church is therefore the present foretaste of God’s coming new creation. God is not running an experiment to determine whether redemption can work. Christianity is not God’s proof of concept! The decisive work has already been accomplished through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
We already possess the Holy Spirit and experience His transforming work, even as we await the fullness of redemption. Through His people, God is bringing the realities of His coming new creation into the present. The already and the not yet.
You are part of that redeemed humanity. Your life now demonstrates what God’s grace accomplishes. Let that grace show in your integrity, your relationships, and your generosity toward those in need. Through your life, Ambassador, the world should plainly see what God’s Kingdom is all about.
Let your light shine, so that others may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
