Rev. Don Campbell

Colossians 2:11-12, Romans 5:1-2, 1 Corinthians 1:18

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 4, 2019

“POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION”

Authors and speakers in the Bible often used parables, metaphors, and other figures of speech to clarify truths. In this metaphor, faith is the cord by which sinners access the grace of the cross, which is the power of God unto salvation.

In our zeal for the holiness of God, we sometimes misinterpret the Bible. We accept that we were saved from sin by God’s grace and our faith: “When you came to Christ, you were ‘circumcised’ but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead” (Colossians 2:11-12, NLT). Some assume that we fall from grace each time we sin. Or, to put it another way, we unplug from the power source.

Not so: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2). We stand in grace not because we do not sin, but because of saving faith—the same faith we had when we believed and were baptized.

“But,” one might ask, “doesn’t Paul say in Galatians 5:4 that some had fallen from grace?” Indeed, but look closely at what he said: “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” It is not by sinning that we unplug from grace, but by unplugging from the cross and plugging into works, which is a dead battery.

Speaking of events leading up to the cross, Paul said, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:19-21). Paul immediately added: “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2, NLT).

Jude warned: “Some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4, NLT).

We unplug from grace when we turn to works for justification. God unplugs us from grace when we deliberately persist in sin: “Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us” (Hebrews 10:26-29, NLT)

Stay Plugged into the Power