It is about Remaining in Christ. Anchored. Not moved. Heb. 6:19 says this hope we have in Christ is an anchor for our soul. Then comes in Colossians 1:23 a great conditional clause…"If indeed you continue (stay on, persevere) in the faith, firmly established (foundation, grounded), steadfast (a seat, sitting, firm)." Points to abiding in Christ. Col. 2:6-7 says just as we have received Christ, so we are to walk (live our lives) in Him, rooted (to take hold), built up (build on foundation), established (make secure, strong). Our tendency is to become complacent. C.J. Mahaney said “Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel. The gospel is life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than a diamond. Its depths man will never exhaust.”
Jesus is all-sufficient. It bears repeating often. We’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The only begotten Son of God, the eternal Word made flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; perfect in nature, teaching, obedience; fully God, fully man. Was always with God. Is God. Through Him all things came into being and were created. He was before all things. In Him all things hold together by the word of His power. He is the only Savior, who shed His blood and died in our place on Calvary’s cross. He revealed God’s love & upheld God’s justice, removed our guilt & reconciled us to God. He redeemed us from sin, rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death & all powers of darkness. He ascended into heaven where, at God’s right hand, He intercedes for his people and rules as Lord over all. He is the Head of the Church, should be adored, loved, served, obeyed by all as the all-sufficient One. Salvation is the free gift of God, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for God’s glory alone. If anyone turns from sin in repentance and faith to Jesus and His substitutionary death they receive eternal life; declared righteous by God; fully accepted by Him through faith in what Jesus did. Forgiven the debt of sin; freed from the law of sin and death. His child forever.
The Holy Spirit works in believers, producing evidence in their lives. He renews our minds so we want to please God & grow in our knowledge of God. We get to know God’s Word, pray, worship, confess our sins to God, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers us to serve God, build up believers and reach the lost. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. John 15:5; with Him, all things. Phil. 4:13. We are dependent on Him for everything. To be IN CHRIST is to know Him as our total sufficiency 2 Cor. 12:9, your adequacy 2 Cor. 3:5, your life. Col. 3:4. Jesus is totally sufficient.
I often think and say that it is a blessing that sanctification is progressive. If it were instant I might think somehow I earned or deserved it. God continually allows us to get glimpses of how much we need Him. God has been teaching me many things about the depths of my sinfulness and the magnitude of His goodness and grace. How His grace abounds to overcome my competitiveness and my tendency to overreact; how to handle being misjudged and misunderstood; and being gracious when I am the receiver & humbly repentant when I am the perpetrator.
What is the number one struggle or temptation you face as you seek to remain steadfast in Christ?
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