Secured and kept by grace

 

When a person is drafted or enlisted into the army, at that moment he (or she) is a soldier. Then comes boot camp and many other experiences that teach that person how to be what they already are, living and acting as a soldier should act.

In Scripture, the gospel includes a similar idea. When Jesus took me into His forever family, I became a Christian, but I certainly didn’t know how to act like one apart from His enlightenment and training that came with this new identity. It is described here:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11–14)

The Bible calls this sanctification or consecration. When Christ saved me, I was set apart by Him and for Him, a new creation but one that had a lot of learning to do so I would live like that new person should live. Every Christian knows the fight to keep that old nature from ruining our efforts.

Today’s reading says this truth: “The thought of God in the deliverance of Israel was not that they should wander in the wilderness but that they should be brought into the Promised Land, which typifies the life of full consecration.”

However their refusal to enter, and their excuses about the giants in the land, and all their mistakes and disobedience did not mean these people were not His. They had a lot to learn after resisting His leading and teaching and they often went AWOL from bootcamp to do their own thing, but He eventually took them to the place He promised.

At the end of the reading, the writer of the devotion makes a statement that is not biblical: “Entire consecration, therefore, is binding on every Christian, and sooner or later each one must come to know it, for there is no entering heaven without it.”

This statement may be intended to provoke persistence in learning, but it fails to show that consecration is both a reality and a process. If misunderstood, it flies in the face of salvation by grace. The OT saints were not entirely set apart in their behavior even after getting in the promised land. The thief on the cross was told he would be in paradise with Jesus and he missed bootcamp entirely! When Jesus says, “You are mine,” then we move into training to act like it, and our lives change. Some change at different rates, or in varying ways, but Jesus saves — our efforts to behave come from the Holy Spirit who is with us and in us. We are not saved by faith and then kept saved by works as this writer seems to suggest.

The Galatian church had a problem with trying to perfect their Christian lives after they were saved, not realizing that this perfection is in Christ, not our fleshy efforts. Paul wrote this:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:20–21)

Then he added a question that applies to this idea of being perfected before we can get into heaven. Instead, he affirms that growing in grace is part of our new life, not done in self-effort nor  does God turn away believers who fall short of full consecration.

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:2–6)

John agrees: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3) 

PRAY: Jesus, consecration happens because You saved me and set me apart. Faith in You is my entrance to heaven, not how pure I am before You will let me in. In You, I am no longer condemned. Romans 8:1. While some may be better soldiers in this life and others not so good at it, You will never kick anyone out of Your army for a lack in their level of commitment for it is grace that got us into this amazing relationship with You in the first place, and grace that keeps us here If my commitment could do it, I would not need You.