The Daily Word of Righteousness

How Christ's Word Abides in Us, continued

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21)

Wake up! Shake yourself while there still is time! Come to Jesus. He has the power! The power! He will kill that snake coiled up in your heart. He will put eternal life in you and you will walk forth free from the snares of Hell. This is how grace operates. The gift of Divine grace is infinitely more than forgiveness. It is the power of God in Christ to set you totally free from the person and works of Satan.

Satan is after you, make no mistake. He hates to lose a servant. He is wise, cunning, crafty, skillful at deceiving the believers.

Come to Jesus. He has greater wisdom, greater cunning, greater craftiness, greater skill. He will release you from the chains. This is the new covenant. This is salvation. This is eternal life. This is the operation of Divine grace. This is the Kingdom of God.

You can see that the Divine salvation is not pointed toward Heaven or toward any other place. Salvation is pointed toward fellowship with God and toward participation in the many roles and tasks assigned to the royal priesthood. Apart from your change from Adam to Christ participation in the Kingdom is impossible. Adamic flesh and blood life cannot possibly enter the Kingdom of God, only the new creation which is born of Christ and formed from the Life of Christ can enter the Kingdom.

Let me give you an illustration of the true nature of the Christian salvation.

Let's say that there was a wealthy Englishman who decided to help a boy.

He went to the East End of London and chose a young man. He brought the boy to his mansion and gave him a fine room.

The philanthropist said, "Welcome to your new home." Then he charged the boy strictly: "I am going to raise you as a son. You do not know very much about our manners and ways of doing things. You are used to living in dirt, speaking cockney, stealing, fighting, lying. We don't do that around here.

We are all your friends. We want you to have a nice home and to grow up as a valued member of our household. When you are older we will help you get the education you would like to have."

This is a pretty good picture of grace. God comes to a Gentile and invites him into the royal family to stand in the palace among the princes of Judah. There is nothing the Gentile has done to earn this—he is a boy off the street so to speak. He is ignorant of the splendor of the palace to which he has been invited freely. He has lived in Gentile corruption all his life. His ancestors were hardly out of the caves when the elders of Israel were eating and drinking in the Presence of God Almighty.

This is the gift of God's grace we cannot possibly earn.

To be continued.