There was one reason why Jesus began His mission. This daily devotional looks at how the gospel is all about reconciling us to God through Christ.
Nuggets
- Christ’s mission was to reconcile us to the Father to restore our relationships with Him.
- Restoring our relationships to God mean more than conversion – sanctification.
Devotions in the Joy in the Gospel series
The gospel is the story about Who Jesus is and why He came to earth. His purpose was to reconcile us to God. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Being Reconciled through Christ
“Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him” (Col. 1: 21-22 CSB)
Christ’s mission was to reconcile us to the Father to restore our relationships with Him.
God’s #1 priority is our spiritual condition. Yes, He accepts us as we are — but He doesn’t let us stay that way.
Our alienated and hostile thoughts and evil actions must be changed. To be as God is, we must become holy, faultless, and blameless.
That is three ways of saying we must be sinless. Maclaren interpreted it this way. He wrote, “In the light of that revealing day His purpose is that we shall stand ‘holy,’ i.e., devoted to God, and therefore pure, ‘without blemish,’ as the offerings had to be, and ‘unreproveable,’ against whom no charge can be brought. They must be spotless indeed who are ‘without fault before the throne.’”
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The first duty on our job description is that we have to be a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice is the embodiment of becoming sanctified and giving everything to God after being forgiven of our sins.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #1
Be a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12: 1-2)
We may look at that, look at us, and say, “Never going to happen.”
But look at how Maclaren defined holy. He says that means devoted to God.
We have defined holy as to be set apart, perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
We are set apart because of our devotion to God. We can’t be perfect and pure without being devoted to God.
So, it is more like holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
We have to chase a rabbit a second. How does that affect holiness?
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Perfection means we have become holy, sanctified, and righteous.
In a way, I think the devoted to God has to be in that, too. I guess I am waffling about whether we are talking about how we get there or what is that for which we are reaching.
No, wait. I think what I have here is more of the definition of God’s holiness. In fact, it is the definition we used when we were looking at His attributes.
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So, what do we use for us?
Well, we said in How Do We Overcome the Original Corruption of Bad Thoughts? that holiness is obedience to the truth.
That is kind of a shorthand to how Spurgeon defined it. He wrote, “Holiness is the entirety of our manhood fully consecrated to the Lord and moulded to His will.”
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
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Spurgeon latched on to the devoted to God, too.
How about this? Holiness is obedience to the truth because of our devotion to God. God’s holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Perfection means we have become holy, sanctified, and righteous because we have fulfilled the law through Jesus.
I keep saying these devotions talk to me first. Thank you for letting me process that.
But isn’t this what Paul was leading up to in the previous verses. If we are going to follow the Christ of the gospel, we have to be holy and pure as He is.
We have to make the change by navigating the Sanctification Road.
- Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Rooted and Grounded in Christ
“if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it” (Col. 1: 23 CSB)
Restoring our relationships to God mean more than conversion – sanctification.
Maclaren reminded us that there is a big if in these verses. If we don’t ABCD, the then won’t happen.
Yes, it is conditional on us submitting to God. Maclaren wrote, “However great the powers of Christ, and deep the desire, and fixed the purpose of God, no fulfilment (sic) of these is possible except on the condition of our habitual exercise of faith. The gospel does not act on men by magic.”
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Submitting to God means we are looking outside of ourselves. We are looking to Him to sustain us in the rough patches.
But it is more than that? We have to continue in faith. Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Barlow said that we have to continue to believe God’s doctrines by professing then and practicing them. We say that means taking them from the head level to the heart level.
Why is it so important to get it to the heart level? It shows we really believe then. Barlow wrote, “Unbelief lures the soul from its confidence, sets it adrift amidst the cross currents of doubt, and exposes it to moral shipwreck. The soul’s safety is ensured not by an [infatuated] devotion to mere opinions, but by an intelligent and constant faith in Divine verities.”
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Don’t get me wrong. We have to start our faith in the head level.
Where is our faith? We’ve described it before as beliefs, a.k.a., the assent of the mind. It has to start in our minds because it has to be a conscious decision.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
I want to say that making the decision gets it to the heart level. But I don’t think that is entirely correct.
Maybe conversion does. But we just have a rudimentary belief.
I think that it truly becomes heart level as we grow by navigating the Sanctification Road.
If we get God’s doctrines down to the heart level, that helps us stave off unbelief. Instead, it makes us witnesses to God’s truth because we are rooted and grounded. Rooted and grounded means our faith has a foundation built on the gospel of Christ.
What flitted through my mind was a tight grip. A tree’s roots have to have a tight grip in the soil, or the tree goes splat in a high wind.
Yes, we have to intellectually understand what those doctrines are. We won’t understand everything, but we have to embrace them anyway. That means courageously living them daily.
We can’t think that faith is a one-time decision for God. It is a decision we must make every day of our lives. Black asked, “Is it the faith that continues and overcomes the world?”
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When we do live them out, we have hope. Hope is the expectation, also called a living hope, based on the confidence that, because of our relationship with God, our names will be found in the book of life.
Spurgeon gave us a list of that for which we are hoping.
- Perfected salvation
- Endurance to the end
- Resurrection
- Admittance into the presence of God
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That is another thing that has to be continual. Black said it was tied with with Him and like Him. Elsewhere, Paul always calls it in Him.
Glossary
To me, it shows how easy it is to backslide. Backsliding is when those who have made a profession of faith return to their sinful lives.
We have to counteract this with diligently navigating the Sanctification Road. Our seeking God gives us the foundation and the growth needed to keep our eyes on Him.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Paul was adamant that the gospel was for all people. Age, race, gender, socioeconomic situation — any discriminator — did not apply. All could have the hope of a bright future.
But Barlow gave a real big caution. We don’t want “the multiplicity and fulness (sic) of our blessings …” to trip us up. We don’t want them to make us become complacent.
Also, Paul was humbled by the fact that God called him to be a minister for Him.
Black had an interesting observation. He connected this ministry for God with working out our salvation (Phil. 2: 12). He called us “… fellow-workers with God …”
That works. We learn by doing. We do by preaching and making disciples — also in our job description.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
I liked Black’s description of this. He wrote, “Like an artist student copying the work of a great master under his superintendence, we must ‘work out’ the beauty of Christ in our lives, though the great Master Himself must give the finishing touch and make it perfect.”
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It require a response from us. We have to make a decision to follow God. If we don’t, we’ve made the decision not to follow Him.
Making the Connections
We’ve gotten this far and haven’t discussed what the gospel really is. Black gave us a good explanation.
- The story of Who Jesus is — our Savior and Lord
- The explanation of His blood being needed to be the penalty for our sins
- The confirmation that Jesus lives within us after conversion
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How Do We Apply This?
- Live a life of faith that is rooted and grounded on the gospel of Christ.
- Strengthen that faith daily, not just rely on a past experience.
- Hear the gospel.
- Pray, pray, and pray some more.
- Be conversant in God’s promises by burying ourselves in His Word
- Expect His blessings
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Father God. You designed the Plan of Salvation for us. You sent Your Son to reconcile us to You. Thank You for loving us so much. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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