Yesterday we saw that salvation is in Christ and not merely through Christ. Someone asked a theologian when he was saved, and he replied: “At Calvary.” This is a half-truth. Potentially he was saved at Calvary; actually he was saved if and when he surrendered to Jesus and by faith accepted that redemption which was purchased for him at Calvary, and thus became in Christ. If he stopped this side of being in Christ, he stopped this side of salvation.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit was theirs potentially, but actually the Holy Spirit was not theirs until by surrender and faith they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (see Acts 2). Potentiality had become possession. Without that possession, they would have lived on a promise, and it is possible to have a promise in your hand and be empty. “The house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions” (Obad. 1:17). It is possible to have possessions as a possibility, but the possessions are only possessions when you possess them.
The lepers who at the word of Jesus were told to go show themselves to the priest to get a certificate of health started with health as a potentiality. “And as they went they were cleansed” (Luke 17:14). On the way, the potentiality became possession. They were in health only when they were healed.
The dimness, the faintness, the dullness, the uncertainty of modern churchmen comes from believing in a salvation that is through Christ and not in Christ. They are living on the menu instead of the meat.
THE PRAYER
O Jesus, Thou art my home. I cannot live on the promise of a home—I must live in a home. I cannot live on a heaven hereafter, I must live in heaven now. I must have heaven as a state, if I’m to have heaven as a place. I have Thee—my heaven. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
The menu is what I read, the meat is what I receive. I’m on the receiving end.
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Confused about last week’s entry? Read this article clarifying the matter of the destiny of the unevangelized.
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One Response
As Christ-followers we need more than “the dimness, the faintness, the dullness, the uncertainty of modern churchmen.” We need more than promises, potential, and possibilities presented as a Sunday morning menu — an “order of service” for us to be religiously walked and sung through. We need to dine together on the living Bread of Life — to taste and see that the Lord is good — to actively interact heart-to-heart with each other and with the risen Jesus Christ.
Ancient Greek cities had a town hall meeting called “the ekklesia” where anybody present could speak. Jesus said, “I will build My ekklesia.” (Matthew 16.) Jesus also said that His meat “is to do the will of the Father.” Let’s personally partake of God’s meat by meeting together to let the Spirit prompt each of us and show us what He wants us each to say and do while we are gathered. Then we can begin to experience His reality in and through each other as we live out 1 Corinthians 14:26.