Devotional for September 2016

by John Carpenter | Sep 20, 2016 | Devotional

Col.2:6-7 descriptively declares: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord – so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith – as ye have been taught – abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

There is delivered here, for our understanding, a very basic and practical principle of God’s grace that becomes the very character of our walk through this world as a true child of God.

First of all, we can accurately and rightly conclude that our walk – our journey – through the wilderness of this fallen and cursed world is exactly in accordance to the same way in which we received the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives. 2Co.13:5 exhorts us in this manner: “Examine yourselves – whether ye be in the faith! Prove your own selves! Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates?” It is so important that our perspective opinion in this particular aspect that concerns the reality of our spiritual experience be purged from any and every iniquity or error. For a mistake on this vital point affects the entirety of our Christian life in and through this world. Our Lord, Himself, warns us against walking in a light that is actually darkness. He said, “If, therefore, the light that is in thee – be darkness – how great is that darkness!”[Mt.6:23] Therefore, how did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? We must not forget that the Word plainly tells us: “For by grace are ye saved – through faith – and that not of yourselves! It is the gift of God – not of works – lest any man should boast.”[Eph.2:8-9]

Secondly, the same wonderful grace that saved us and gifted us with the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, continues on by manifesting unto us that we, indeed, have been loved by God and chosen by God and placed by God “in Christ”. Hence, as we have received Christ by God’s grace, even so, by God’s grace, we also walk through this world of trial and trouble in Christ – Praise His Name! Gal.2:16 adamantly declares to us this all important truth: “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by – the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ – that we might be justified by – the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” So then, from this text we learn that we cannot genuinely have faith in Christ – unless it is by the gift of God – the grace – of the faith of Christ!

Finally, as we walk in our Lord, an amazing thing takes place. We are still in this fallen and cursed world that is literally fraught with toils and struggles of all sorts, and yet, in our walk in our Lord, we grow in grace and knowledge of Him as being our Savior. This is because God has – by His grace — rooted us in His Word (through which the Holy Spirit has caused us to receive Christ Jesus in the first place) and is also, as we walk through this world in Him, building us up in the same. Acts 20:32 reveals what Paul was inspired to tell the Ephesians when he was leaving them: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

This rooting and building us up in the Word of God’s grace is exactly what we need to establish us in the faith of Jesus Christ that saves us. And as we walk in our Lord through this world – we walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by the Holy Spirit who seals Jesus Christ to our hearts and our hearts to Jesus Christ as being our sovereign Savior Substitute; which He has been unto us, from eternity, in eternity and for eternity! Again, Praise His Name!

For Christ’s Glory Only!
-John Carpenter