Most of us are familiar with Ephesians 2:8-10. This is the passage quoted most often to affirm that salvation is a free gift, not something that can be earned through human effort. Here is the passage:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Most of us stop with verse 9. When we do, we miss the full impact of God’s purpose in saving us by grace. According to verse 10, this gospel message extends well beyond that moment when we cross over from death to life. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection ushers us into a new way of life altogether, one characterized by good works.
These good works have been prepared for us beforehand by God. And as a new creature in Christ, we are to walk in them. But how do we know what they are?
In one of their many conversations with the Lord, the disciples asked Jesus this: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28)
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).
Paul echoes this truth in Colossians 2:6: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” This new life that we have been raised to live is a life of faith. But this still begs the question concerning good works. Isn’t there something that God wants us to do other than merely trust Him?
In a word, no. We are His workmanship. What counts as far as God is concerned is faith in Jesus. As we trust Him and our hearts respond to the leading of His Spirit in us, we will see the good works He has prepared for us begin to flow through us. And they will be recognizable.
Here is how. First, God gives us new desires. Paul calls them the desires of the Spirit. According to the terms of the New Covenant, these desires equate to the laws God puts into our minds and writes on our hearts. They flow from God’s love and are different, night and day, from the desires of the flesh.
Forgiveness is one of those desires God’s Spirit works in us. It is not normal, humanly speaking, to want to forgive someone who has hurt us deeply. But as children of God, forgiveness of others is a work God has prepared for us to walk in. We know it because God places that desire to forgive in us.
Next, the results of walking in those desires, living them out, can be attributed only to God. We can never be sure how someone will respond. Our imaginations are quick to jump to the negative possibilities, but God always has a better outcome in mind.
Calling up all the courage that we can, we step out in faith and extend forgiveness. What we first experience happens inside. Extending forgiveness calms the soul, brings peace to the heart and turns an anxious moment into one that surpasses understanding.
And then we see God’s work within the relationship. Maybe not instantly, but over time, it becomes clearer to us just how He is working what was a painful situation together for good. Couples on the verge of divorce have testified to the power of forgiveness in restoring their marriage. Assemblies of believers that were divided have come back together as they have walked in the forgiveness of God.
What happens both within and without is far too extraordinary to attribute to human effort. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Let’s walk in them.
Month: June 2014
How to Walk in the Spirit
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). To live in the Spirit is to be controlled by the love of God. This new life we have been raised to walk in is faith in Jesus Christ expressed in love to others.
Through His Spirit, God has poured His love into our hearts and has given us the desire to walk by faith in Jesus. As we do, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Learning to say “no” is the by-product of saying “yes” to the Spirit.
It is important to understand this distinction. So many well-intentioned believers spend a life time trying to overcome sin in their lives. They wake up each morning with this prayer on their lips: “Lord, please help me to not sin today.” At the end of the day, all they have is another unanswered prayer.
A better prayer is this: “Lord, teach me to abide in you and to follow the leading of God’s Spirit in my life.” God’s Spirit is never going to lead you into sin. He leads you to trust in the Lord, to live righteous and upright lives. He leads you to love and serve others. If living out the Spirit’s work in your life, you will automatically be saying “no” to sin. Peter put it this way:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Walking in the Spirit is trusting God to complete the work He began in you. You can count on Him to complete this task, even when you do not fully cooperate. This is His promise: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…”
When we do get off course, and we will, the Holy Spirit merely recalculates our journey and continues His work in conforming us to the image of His Son. He does so without condemnation. Nor does He manipulate us with fear and guilt to get us back on track. He uses our mistakes, reminding us of the forgiveness we have in Christ, and works them together for our good. He comforts our hearts with this amazing promise: “that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
You are not alone on your journey. Jesus is there with you every step of the way. Trust Him, rely upon Him, and live out what He is working in your life. When you do you will be saying “no” to sin and “yes’ to the will of God.
The center of God’s will, that’s the place where believers are to live their lives. Temptation may look exciting; the world makes sure of that. But it has nothing on its menu that can satisfy the soul and bring contentment to the heart.
The world promises happiness, but delivers pain, sorrow and misery. There is only one person who does deliver on his promises, Jesus. And He gives so much more than mere happiness. Peace, contentment, a life of godliness and love: these are His gifts of grace to us.
And there is nothing more rewarding than experiencing Jesus living His life through you.
It is time for us abandon ourselves to Jesus, to put all that we are in His hands. It is time for us to live out Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Let’s walk by the Spirit and discover that His will is good, pleasing and perfect for us.
The Practical Work of the Holy Spirit
Apart from God’s Spirit, we do not have the power to live the Christian life. But with Him in our lives, we can experience Christ’s life in abundance. Here are six key ways that He makes this a reality for you.
- God’s Spirit makes you alive in Christ.
Titus 3:4-5 (NIV)
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- He assures you that you are a child of God.
Romans 8:16 (NIV)
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
- He, as your comforter and counselor, guides you into all truth by taking the things of Jesus and making them known to you.
John 16:13-14 (NIV)
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
- He gives us the power to understand and experience the love of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
- He works in you to will and to do of God’s good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13 (NIV)
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
- He expresses the fruit of His life through you.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The disciples recognized that what happened to them at Pentecost was, as JB Phillips wrote: “…quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them.” You have received the same gift. God’s Spirit is alive in you, and manifesting the life of Christ through you.
The Temple That God Built and the Purpose of Pentecost
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples they would “be baptized by the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4, 5). Jesus described it this way: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” What it all meant, they were not sure, but it had to do with the Holy Spirit and power.
On the morning of the day of Pentecost, their wait was punctuated by the sound of rushing wind, and tongues of fire. These men, the disciples, were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke languages unknown to them.
The sound brought Jerusalem to life. Activity in the city began to move at a rapid pace as the people hurried to the place where the disciples had gathered. They were curious. What is this strange thing that is happening?
Peter stood and offered the words of the prophet Joel as the explanation–the long awaited gift of God’s Spirit had come. God had a new dwelling place on earth–the hearts of men.
His dwelling place was once in the tabernacle that Moses built. This tabernacle traveled with the people of Israel through the wilderness. Within the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, which was considered to be God’s earthly dwelling place. Exodus 40:34 says the “glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” God’s presence was seen as a cloud on the tabernacle by day and a fire by night.
David envisioned a more permanent dwelling place for God, a temple built according to the pattern given to Moses. But God prohibited David from building it. That assignment fell to Solomon, his son. When the construction was complete, Solomon dedicated the temple.
2 Chronicles 7 records the scene: “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.'”
Solomon’s temple was destroyed. A new one was built years later and was refurbished by Herod, but God’s glory never filled this new one. God had something else in mind, a temple not built by human hands.
On the day of Pentecost a new temple was dedicated, and God’s glory filled it by the giving of the Holy Spirit. The tongues of fire and the sound of rushing wind indicated His presence. Believers in Christ had now become the dwelling place of God.
Jesus’ death on the cross made this reality possible. He cleansed us once and for all so that He could take up residence in our hearts. Paul described it as Christ living in us, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). This event happens afresh every time a heart responds in faith to the message of Christ, and the fire of God comes to live inside.
Where does God live today? In the hearts of his people. We are the temple of God. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).