The Word Of His Grace

March 10, 2018

Devotions:

      “And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” ‭‭Acts‬ ‭20:32‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” ‭‭John‬ ‭8:31-36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

      Salvation consist of not just being born again and going to heaven but of being set free from sin and being totally conformed to the image of Jesus. This will not be completed until Jesus returns and we receive a resurrection body like unto His. Until then we have an unregenerate body to deal with and the vestiges of sin. But we have been given authority over both of these by Jesus' sacrifice.

      Our victory is then by faith in what He has done to, for us and will do through us. Faith is a function of the word, so we must be a people of the word of God, not to go to heaven but but that we can bring heaven to earth in our sphere. It is when we believe God's word, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, and act on the word that God will fulfill His word to us, in us and through us. In the Old Testament, God told Joshua to meditate on the Law, speak the Law and do the Law and He would have success. In the book of Acts Paul committed the Ephesian saints to the word of God's grace.