Disciples are to be unified under Christ. This daily devotional looks at how God unifies believers while Satan attempts to sow chaos.
Nuggets
- Baptism unifies all believers to Christ.
- God promotes unity while Satan sows dissension.
Devotions in the Never Alone: The Holy Spirit in Our Lives series
God isn’t calling disciples to be divided. He wants us to be unified.
But it is more than just agreement on worldview issues. God wants us to be unified in Jesus.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Spiritual gifts are skills and abilities given to us by God through the Holy Spirit so that we can serve Him.
There are several lists identifying spiritual gifts. They are found in Romans 12: 6-8, 1 Corinthians 12: 8-10 and 28-30, Ephesians 4: 11, and 1 Peter 4: 11.
Of course, they are not all the same. Here is a compilation of the lists.
- Faith
- Apostle
- Prophecy
- Pastor/preaching/speaker
- Evangelist
- Teaching
- Miracles
- Healer
- Tongues and interpretation of tongues
- Serving
- Encouragement
- Giving
- Leadership/administration
- Mercy
- Word of wisdom
- Word of knowledge
- Distinguishing between spirits
Baptized into Unity
“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (I Cor. 12: 13 ESV)
Baptism unifies all believers to Christ.
Let’s start at the last half of the verse. Only by growing to have God’s character is have we “… made to drink of one Spirit” (I Cor. 12: 13 ESV).
Salvation and baptism must start us on the Sanctification Road. If we don’t unite with Christ and show how His redemption has really completed our repentance, we don’t show evidence of our salvation.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- 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.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual 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.
Baptism is the symbol of our conversion experience, providing the physical evidence that we have died and been buried to sin and have risen in a new spiritual life with Jesus.
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 new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
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
Salvation draws us into unity with Christ. We are told that He dwells within us and that we are in Him.
- “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1: 27 ESV).
- “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (I Cor. 1: 30 ESV).
That encompasses two different aspects. It means that – even though Jesus is a Spirit – He will provide for us. Our part is to have faith in Him.
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.
Glossary
We need to seek this oneness with Christ. That is how we navigate the Sanctification Road. That is how we validate our salvation.
For me, one of the key concepts in the verse is “… into one body …” (I Cor. 12: 13 ESV). We can’t think that this just means everyone in the church should get along.
What it tells me is that this follows the two greatest commandments. We are to put God first and mankind second.
Glossary
Fenner read this to mean that we are to have a common life with other disciples. We can read this in a couple of ways.
Resource
We have a common life because all disciples are to embody God’s character. Non-believers are to know we are disciples because we have a character different than theirs.
All are to follow the same laws and commandments. We can’t compromise with the worldview to make ourselves appear more like them.
Why does the Spirit tie all of us together? Only disciples have access to God. Non-believers only gain access to Him when they profess their faith in Jesus Christ.
We are tied together because of the same Spirit is in all disciples. That makes us of one heart.
Unity under God or Dissension under Satan
“For the body does not consist of one member but of many” (I Cor. 12: 14 ESV)
God promotes unity while Satan sows dissension.
Diversity among members is a favorite subject of Paul’s.
- “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function” (Rom. 12: 4 ESV).
- “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4: 15-16 ESV).
Murray argued that it is just the way God takes us through the stages of development. He makes a good point that we each have different wants.
I also read that to mean we have are looking to a relationship for different reasons. Some see salvation as an opportunity to worship the One true God. Others see it as fire insurance or a way to get the good blessings out of Him. I am sure there are a slew of reasons in between those two.
Murray made an interesting statement. He wrote, “There is no other way by which society can be held together save by the principle of mutual benevolence, ministering to mutual dependence. The strong must bear the infirmities of the weak, or the universal order of creation would become chaotic and destructive. For the universe is peopled with weakness.”
Resource
Satan wants to delude us into thinking that belief in God tears us apart. It doesn’t.
Satan tears society apart. He thrives in chaos. He sows dissension.
God wants unity.
Making the Connections
Stennett discussed some issues that we raised in the last devotion. He reminded us that mankind is given different intellectual capacities and natural tempers. He wrote, “There are, in the language of Scripture, babes, young men, and fathers in Christ; some weak, and others strong in faith.”
Resource
What Stennett stressed was that these are not ways that God tests us. Instead, he argues that we may be given different dispensations, forms, and means of religion.
But we can’t read into that the idea that religion itself is diverse. Over and over again Paul tells us that “there is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4: 4-6 ESV).
We have to let God work in someone else’s life the way He chooses to work. We may all get to the same end of the Sanctification Road – we just go on different narrow paths to get there.
How Do We Apply This?
- Seek God, especially by reading and hearing His Word.
- Grow in faith of Christ.
- Humble ourselves before God.
- Faithfully navigate the Sanctification Road.
- Allow others to navigate their Sanctification Road in the way in which God calls them.
- Embrace our calling to be a holy priesthood.
- Be different than the world – don’t compromise with the worldview.
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).
Resource
Father God. We long for unity with You and other disciples. We don’t want to fall into Satan’s chaos. Help us to navigate the Sanctification Road as we should and allow others to navigate theirs. Amen.
What do you think?
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