Sit, Walk and Stand Based on Grace and His Finished Work (6)

After Paul tells us to walk in love which I have shared in my previous post, he exhorts us to walk as children of Light.

c) Walk as children of Light
"For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light].” Ephesians 5:8 (Amplified Bible) This brings to mind another verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:5 “For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we do not belong either to the night or to darkness.” (Amplified Bible) These two verses say that we are children and sons of Light. This means that Light is a person! So who is Light? John 8:12 declares “Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the Light which is Life.” (Amplified Bible) When Paul tells us to walk as children and sons of Light, he is reminding us that we are children of God!

This is consistent with Paul’s earlier exhortation for us to be rooted in the knowledge that God has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6 NKJ) In this verse, Paul reveals our life in Christ to be one of union with Him in the highest heavens. In Ephesians 5, when Paul tells us to walk as children of Light, he is reminding us that we are light in the Lord (Jesus, who is Light of the world).

1 Thessalonians 5:5 says that when we are sons of Light, “we do not belong either to the night or to darkness.” The reason is given in 1 John 1:5 “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (NKJ) When we are children of Light, we do not belong to darkness anymore because God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all!

How do we live as children of Light? John 15:4 gives us the key “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (NKJ) What does it mean to abide in Him? John 6:56 tells us :" He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him." (NKJ) Jesus is telling us in this verse to focus on His finished work on the cross! This brings us back to the importance of “sitting” well which I talked about in my first post on this topic. When we are seated and rooted in His finished work and the knowledge of who we are in Him through His death on the cross, we are abiding in Him. When we abide in Christ, we will automatically shine with His light. We cannot shine unless we are plugged into the power source, just like a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it abides in the vine. When we abide in Him, we will effortlessly bear fruit which is what Ephesians 5:9 talks about “For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or ^[a]the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.” (Amplified Bible)

----------------to be continued--------------------

Sit, Walk and Stand Based on Grace and His Finished Work (5)

Ephesians 5 begins with Paul encouraging us to walk in love :”Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (v1,2 NKJ) In this post, I shall be sharing on :

b) Walk in Love
Paul says we are to walk in love “as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us…” In another words, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us. Why is is so important to love one another? In Romans 13:8,9, Paul gives us the reason : “ Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (NKJ)

He who loves has fulfilled the law! “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14 NKJ) Under the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments stipulated that “You shall not, you shall not” but under the New Covenant of grace, when we love one another, we do not want to do those things that the Law commanded us not to. Under the Law, we should not but under grace, we do not want to! When we walk in love, the requirements of the law have been fulfilled without us even attempting to fulfill them. Therefore when we love, we will not want to bring harm to others. This is the reason why Ephesians 5:1,2 which tell us to walk in love immediately follow with “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” (v3,4 NKJ)

Under the New Covenant of grace, we love BECAUSE He first loved us : “ We love each other^[a] because he loved us first.” (1 John4:19 NLT) When we know how much God loves us, we will love others out of that overflow. This brings us back to the importance of sitting well which we talked about in my earlier posts. When we are securely seated and rooted in Christ’s love for us, we cannot help but love one another. It is not out of self effort or an artificial manufacturing of something that is not there in the first place, but we love from the position of having received much love from Love Himself for the Bible says God is love. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NKJ)

Romans 8:35 tells us that nothing shall separate us from His love : ”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (NKJ) When we know with all certainty of Christ’s love for us, love will be a fruit in our lives. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” (Galatians 5:22 NKJ) 1 Corinthians 13:13 says “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (NKJ)

What is love then? 1 Corinthians 13 says : “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (v4-7 NKJ)

Therefore, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” ( 1 John 4:7 NKJ)

-------------to be continued----------------

Sit, Walk and Stand Based on Grace and His Finished Work (4)

When Paul exhorts us to walk worthy of our calling as sons of Abba, in the same passage, he also tells us to walk in unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-3). I have shared this in detail in my previous post. I have categorized the rest of the verses in Ephesians on the Christian walk as follows :
a)Renew Your Mind and Put on the New Man
(Ephesians 4 :17-32)
b) Walk in Love (Ephesians 5:1,2)
c) Walk as children of Light (Ephesians 5:8)
d) Walk in Wisdom (Ephesians 5:15)

a) Renew Your Mind and Put on the New Man
Ephesians 4:17-32 talks about the need for our minds to be renewed and to put on the new man so that we can put off the conduct of the old man. Paul sounds a tad abstract here with his references to renewal of the mind and putting on the new man. What exactly is he talking about? In Romans 12:2, Paul talks about the renewal of our minds like this : “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (NKJ) So the benefits of having our minds renewed are that we will be TRANSFORMED and NOT BE CONFORMED to this world. In Philippians 4:8, Paul says : “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (NIV) I can only think of one Person who fits these qualities perfectly, His name is Jesus!

When we focus on the person of Jesus, His grace and His finished work, we are renewing our minds! 2 Corinthians 3:18 sums it up beautifully : “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (NKJ) When we listen to anointed preaching or read materials on the grace of our Lord and His finished work, we are renewing our minds and in the process, we are being transformed to be more and more like Him! Praise the Lord! It is so easy, no hard labour on our part, we just need to focus on Christ’s beauty and what His finished work has done for us.

Paul tells us in 4:24 that we are to “put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” (NKJ) What is this new man? 2 Corinthians 5:17 has the answer : “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” (Amplified Bible) This is great news! When we are in Christ, our old man has passed away and we are new creatures altogether, we are in the world but no longer of the world! Colossians 3:10 puts it so aptly : “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” (NLT) When we behold Christ, our minds are renewed and we are transformed from glory to glory. Similarly, when we put off our old nature (take our eyes off our old self) but put on (focus our eyes on our new nature in Christ which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness), we will not walk in the ways of the world but we will walk in the Spirit. “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16 NKJ)

-----------------------to be continued------------------------------

Sit, Walk and Stand Based On Grace and His Finished Work (3)

Ephesians 4 opens with Paul beseeching us to walk worthy of our calling : “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4 :1-3 NKJ)

We have already established in my previous posts that in order for our Christian walk to be stable and good, we have to first learn to “sit’ well and that the Christian life begins from this position of rest. From this premise, Paul moves on to talk about “walking”. It is not in the literal sense here but rather it is a figurative way of talking about how we live our lives as Christians. Paul says we are to walk worthy of the calling. What is this calling? If we refer to the first chapter of Ephesians, I believe that Paul is talking about our calling into sonship. “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6 NKJ)

This flows with what Paul is talking about with reference to “sit”, that God has“…raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6) In ! Corinthians 1:9, Paul also says that “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (NKJ)

Therefore when Paul says that we are “to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” , I believe he is asking us, New Covenant believers, to enter into fellowship with God as sons, not merely as saved sinners but as SONS. To walk worthy of this calling into sonship is to live as sons of our Abba, constantly knowing that we are now seated in heavenly places with Christ. When we are rooted in the knowledge of who we are in Christ and we manifest it in our lives, we are therefore walking worthy of this calling.

The second part of Ephesians 4:1 says “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” The qualities mentioned here remind me of 1 Corinthians 13 which is an often quoted passage on what the Bible defines love to be. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13 :4-7 NKJ) So it appears that Paul is imploring us to love one another and to keep the unity of the Spirit.

This echoes the words of Jesus in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (NKJ) How do we love one another? As Christ has loved us. We can only love others if we know how much we are loved by God. When we love others from the overflow of being so loved by our Abba, we are manifesting the fruit of walking in the Spirit which is “…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” (Galatians 5:22 NKJ)

When we love, we are “keeping the unity of the Spirit”. Whether we are Jews, Gentiles (as in the case of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians), or in our context, believers of different denominations in the Body of Christ, we love one another and are united in peace by our calling as sons of God, a calling and identity which we must consciously walk in.

------------------to be continued---------------

Sit, Walk and Stand Based On Grace and His Finished Work (2)

In my previous post, I shared on the importance of “sitting” well before we have a stable and good walk in our Christian life. The importance of being rooted and grounded in the knowledge of who we are in Christ and resting on His finished work and grace cannot be emphasized enough. As believers living under grace, our Christian life should begin from this position of rest. From “sitting” we progress to “walking”, which is what today’s post is about.

As I researched on the word “walk” in the Bible, I realized that the only time man literally walked with God was in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve knew God’s voice and they walked with Him and communed with Him but the moment they partook of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, this changed. Genesis 3:8 says :”And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (NKJ). It is interesting to note that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which typifies The Law actually causes those who are under it to be fearful of God. This is because man knows that he can never match up to God’s impossibly high standards and requirements with his own effort and good works.

After The Ten Commandments were given, the word “walk” was mostly used with regard to walking in God’s statutes and if man walked according to them, he would be blessed. If he did not, he would be cursed. It was a "do good get good, do bad get beat" system as seen in these verses, which are only a few of the examples: Leviticus 26:3,4 "If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.", Leviticus 26:21 "Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.", Deuteronomy 5:33, Deuteronomy 30:16.

As New Covenant believers who are not under law but under grace, the word “walk” is a picture of us “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”. Romans 8:3,4 say it like this :”For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (NKJ) Other verses that remind us of walking in the Spirit are Romans 8 :1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”, Galatians 5:16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”, Galatians 5:24,25 “ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

With this as the basis, I will share on the verses in Ephesians which contain the word “walk” in the next post.

----------------to be continued------------------