SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/20/2018
9:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Salvation is Into Life”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
2:5
Message of the
verses: “even when we were dead in our
transgressions, [God] made
us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (2:5).”
We have talked about the fact that sin is passed on
through the male seed, and therefore all who are born are born dead
spiritually. So above all else, a
spiritually dead person needs to be made alive.
As I mentioned in an earlier SD about my friend who kept telling me that
he was born wrong, even though he was not saying this in a spiritual realm, he
was correct as we are all born wrong, for we are all born as sinners. The purpose of virgin birth was to assure
that the Messiah did not have a human father but came from the “seed of woman,”
which is seen in Genesis 3:15, and this is the only time that is used in the
Word of God. So salvation brings new
life to those who accept what Christ did for them on the cross, confesses their
sin and accepts the new life which Christ provides for as the verse tells “God
made us alive together with Christ.”
John MacArthur writes “To encourage believers who doubt the
power of Christ in their lives, Pau reminds them that if God was powerful and
loving enough to give them spiritual life ‘together with Christ,’ He is
certainly able to sustain that life. The
power that raised us out of sin and death and ‘made us alive’ (aorist tense)
together ‘with Christ’ (cf. Rom. 6:1-7) is the same power that continues to
energize every part of our Christian living (Rom. 6:11-13). The ‘we’ may emphasize the linking of the Jew
with the Gentile ‘you’ in verse 1. Both
are in sin and may receive mercy to be made alive in Christ.”
When we were born we were alienated from God, but all
believers are no longer alienated from the life of God. It was through our union with Jesus Christ
that we became spiritually alive. Just
as Jesus Christ arose from the dead, and since we are “in Christ,” we too arose
from the spiritual dead person we were born and thus made alive in Christ. Romans 6:4 “Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” After this new birth believers are able to
understand spiritual truth and also desire spiritual things. It is because we now have God’s nature that
we can “seek those things above.” Therefore if you
have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at
the right hand of God (Col. 3:1).”
Colossians 3:2 “Set
your mind on the things above,
not on the things that are
on earth.” “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
(Rom. 6:8).” One more verse, Gal. 2:20 “"I
have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” MacArthur adds “In Christ we cannot help but
be pleasing to God.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: It is good
to realize that I am in Christ and that I am no longer spiritually dead, but
alive in Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Remember
these wonderful truths so that I can serve the Lord today.
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “Five” (Luke
19:18).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘"Lord, if it
is You, command me to come to You on the water."
Answer in our
next SD.
12/20/2018
10:25 AM
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