Our salvation is a three-fold process. We are justified (our eternal life is secured) by God’s saving grace through Jesus’ death on the cross in our faith in His resurrection. This begins the second phase in which we are being perfected into the very image of our Savior Jesus through God’s sanctifying grace.
sustaining grace, God will always provide for our needs and give us the strength we need to sustain us through times of hardship. Jesus Himself confirmed this truth in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-34). Yet we must be careful to note that God never promised that we would not encounter troubles in this life, but that by His infinite grace He will always sustain us through them.
This passage concludes the so-called “Olivet Discourse” in which Jesus answered His disciples questions about the end of days. At the end of this discourse, Jesus promised to return at that time to rule and reign. But Jesus was careful to point out that no one knows exactly when He will return, so we must be continually ready for His return which we await eagerly.
By the time we get to chapter 8 of Romans, we see that God has established a new purpose for those who choose to put their faith and trust in His Son as Savior and Lord.
A committed servant of Jesus must be available, humble, obedient, faithful, and enduring. The truth is, no matter our capacity, or our talents, or our giftedness, when it comes to the service opportunities appointed to us through Jesus, complete faithfulness is required.
God’s Word tells us that peacemakers are blessed. He also promises that He will give His peace that surpasses human understanding to those who live our lives for Christ. But we must always remember that His peace, and our abilities and opportunities to share that peace are gifts from God – not anything we should take our own pride in. Instead, we should rejoice that He has called us, and that He has rescued us out of death to write our names in His book of life.
The full context of Philippians 4 tells us that Christ strengthens us not to accomplish our own goals, but to live out our Christian calling with joy even in the midst of difficult challenges. This is extremely important because the unsaved people in the world will observe how professed Christ followers deal with adversity to discern whether we truly can “do all things through Christ.”
By His sacrifice of His own life on the cross in our place, Jesus has redeemed us out of slavery to sin and the curse of death that sin brings with it. But our justification by the shed blood of Jesus is just the beginning of the process of sanctification through which God is perfecting us into the image of Jesus to make us ready for the culmination of His redemption of us unto eternal life. As we pass through His sanctification we will experience times of great triumph, but we will also go through periods of spiritual drought and outright rebellion against God – possibly even falling back into those same sins out of which Jesus first rescued us. In such times, our great enemy will attack us with lies – even causing us to question our salvation in Christ. But Jesus our Redeemer also stands ready in such times to be our great Restorer – bringing us back into fellowship and continuing His process of sanctification within our hearts by the power of His indwelling Spirit striving against the weaknesses of our fleshly selves.
Biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual maturity is quickly becoming an alarming trend across Christian churches. God – since the moment He granted Adam dominion over the earth has always encouraged His children to pursue knowledge, understanding and wisdom. He did this because He knew how desperately we would need His laws and His structure as we daily face the trials and tribulations our current culture is forcing onto the believer. We must develop a personal plan of discipleship, we must teach the next generation about God, Jesus, Salvation, and the Holy Spirit. No longer should it be acceptable to sit at home or in the pew with the attitude of, “the church doesn’t need me anymore. They have plenty of others to do that.” God expects every believer to study and then teach someone else all that God has taught them.
All human life has intrinsic value from the moment of conception through all eternity. Our value comes not from society nor form our own sense of self-worth, but from our creator, to whom we belong.
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2025
Mt. Freedom Baptist Church
