Day 4: Present
"For the grace
of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say
"No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…" Titus 2:11-12
God's grace instructs us how to live in this present age, the age of grace in between the two Advents of Christ.
Christ appeared in grace to save us and to teach us how to live a new life. In this present age we live for Christ. Can I just tell you this has been a theme that has continually been popping up in my studies for the past year. Let me just share a few verses that just KEEP. POPPING. UP.
"Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the
new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Romans 6:4
"For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.
· Christ's love for us, demonstrated by his sacrificial love in which he died to save us from sin, is to be the compelling, motivating factor for us to live our lives for Him, not for ourselves.
"I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20
· Our new life is empowered by the life of Christ in us, and enables us to live by faith and to die to the ways of the world - our former way of life. Paul says in Titus that we are able, by his grace, to learn how to say "No" to the ways of the world and "Yes" to the ways of Christ.
"For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living." Romans 14:7-9
"We always carry around in our body the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be
revealed in our mortal body." 2 Corinthians 4:10-11
·
We live the life of
Christ through the power of the Spirit and that new life in us reveals the life
of Christ through us!
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God." Romans 6:8-10
·
In our new life we
imitate Christ, who lived His life for God. His life was dedicated to God's way
of life, which we also are called to imitate:
"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesians 5:1-2
"Live in order to please God…" 1 Thessalonians 4:1
"So we make it our goal to please Him…" 2 Corinthians 5:9
Paul's letters are full of what it looks like to live for
Christ, to live in step with the Holy Spirit, bearing His fruit, empowered by
the life of Christ in us, revealing Christ's life in our attitudes and actions
to the world around us.
This is how we are called to live in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope of Christ's return in glory - His Second Advent.
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