My Daily Pause

Christ Taking Leave of the Apostles – ~1310 – Duccio (1260–1318)

Knowing God is eternal life. (John 17:3)

God made an offer of eternal life to all of us through his son. It is there for the taking!

The opening of the Lord’s prayer (John 17) must have really had an impact on John. He went on to write more for us on what it means to know God so that we can claim that gift.

1. 1 John 2:4 – We have to be obedient. To ignore his commandments at the same time as saying we know God makes us a liar.
2. 1 John 4:8 – We have to be a loving people. If God is love, how can we know him without developing love?
3. 1 John 5:11 – We have to be in Christ. That’s where the life is! Obeying the Gospel through baptism is the way we get into Christ.
4. 1 John 4:12-16 – We have to have his Spirit. (Also Romans 8:9) When we do, our lives bear the kind of fruit God expects to see from his children. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Jesus wanted nothing more than for everyone to understand why he was here and accept the gift of eternal life. (John 17:1-4)

Spend some considering where you stand in knowing God. Your life depends on it!

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… – Romans 3:23

That fragment of sentence gets a lot of play as a standalone statement – probably because it is given its own verse. It seems like the tendency is to chop up this section of scripture so that we get

…and we are justified by his grace … – Romans 3:24a

This is wrong and misuses the verses to support “faith only” doctrine.

When taken as a whole the phrase says something much different:

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. – Romans 3:22b-25

The key portion of Paul’s statement is about the redemption that is “in Christ.” Paul used the phrase “in Christ” at least 150 times in his letters and he meant a very specific situation by it. To be in Christ is to become a part of his body. The body is Christ’s church, and he is the head.

When Paul wrote these verses, he wanted us to know that no one person was better than another when it comes to our salvation. We all need to find our way into Christ and not expect to be able to earn salvation or expect it to just happen. It comes through obedience.

Daily Bible reading for October 8

Psalm 68
1 Kings 3
Ezekiel 29-30
Romans 3:9-20

Being In Christ is a Way of Life

Paul described often the condition of being “in Christ.” One who is in Christ is someone that has obeyed the Gospel and is faithful to God.

We know that Paul really liked to make lists when he wrote his letters, and he didn’t disappoint us in Galatians 5. One of the best loved passages in the New Testament is the “Fruit of the Spirit”. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Here is a glance at the qualities that make up the fruit of the Spirit with a link to previous articles about them.

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Longsuffering
5. Gentleness
6. Goodness
7. Faith
8. Meekness
9. Temperance

Bonus Scripture – Peter’s list of qualities that make us fruitful (2 Peter 1:3-11) These are known as the Christian graces.

In a previous post, the Christian’s claim to the covenant God made with Abraham was considered. Galatians 4 reveals more of the benefits of our inheritance.

A Christian is not an heir of Abraham, but an heir with him, by virtue of sonship and union with Christ. (Galatians 4:6) The reason Paul stressed God’s fathership of Christ in Galatians 4:4 was God must be the father of Christ, in order to be the God and father of his people whom he chose in Christ.

The Christian’s sonship to God is derived from his unity with Christ, identity with Christ, as being “in Christ,” and thus a part of that spiritual body which “is Christ,” who is truly and actually the sinless and perfect Son of God.