The Christian life begins with faith in Christ, continues by faith in Christ, and grows only as faith keeps looking to Christ.
We do not come to Jesus by grace and then continue by self confidence. We do not enter through His finished work and then mature by trusting our own strength, discipline, emotion, wisdom, or religious effort. The same Saviour who justifies the sinner also sustains the saint.
“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6).
Faith is not only the door into the Christian life. Faith is the daily posture of the Christian life. We live by trusting His righteousness, depending on His grace, clinging to His promises, resting in His intercession, and drawing strength from His life within us.
“The righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).
This does not make obedience unnecessary. It makes obedience possible. True faith never leaves a man passive in sin, but neither does it make him proud in his works. Faith looks to Christ, and from that union with Christ comes repentance, holiness, endurance, love, and fruit.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
So we must never move beyond Christ as though He were only the beginning. He is the root, the life, the strength, the righteousness, the Shepherd, the Advocate, and the finish of our salvation. The believer does not graduate from dependence on Jesus.
We are saved by faith in Christ, kept by the power of Christ, and conformed to the image of Christ until the day we see Him in glory.
If we refuse to discipline ourselves before the Lord, the Lord will lovingly discipline us Himself. One way or another, the children of God will be trained.
Grace does not leave us careless, lazy, undisciplined, and comfortable in sin. The Father loves His children too much to let them drift without correction. He will teach us through His Word, convict us by His Spirit, humble us through providence, and if needed, chasten us for our good.
“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6).
This is not cruelty. It is fatherly mercy. God’s discipline is not meant to destroy His people, but to make them share in His holiness. “He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).
So let us not treat spiritual discipline lightly. Let us pray, confess sin, study the Word, guard our hearts, resist temptation, and walk soberly before God. If we will not bring ourselves under the Word, the Lord knows how to bring us under His hand.
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).
The wise child listens early.
The stubborn child learns painfully.
But the faithful Father will not leave His children untrained.
@Chrisde26115450@iamrjknight "Slavery is the institution or practice of holding people as chattel involuntarily and under the threat of violence." Sounds to me that that goes against "Love thy neighbour as yourself" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
The Craziest Thing In The World Is That We Could End Poverty, But We Don’t
Every species eventually hits an adapt-or-die juncture in its existence. This is ours. We must become a compassionate animal, or we will go the way of the dinosaur.
Reading by Tim Foley.