Devotion - Wednesday, February 24

In our bible study last night, I struggled to say the word "libertine".  In Paul's letter to the church in Phillippi, he warns against ignoring the body and what we do with it; of thinking it is our spirit which unites us with God so it doesn't matter in the least what we do with our bodies.  

While the faith of a Christian rests on Jesus' righteousness, there is a righteousness that is to invade and infect our lives as a result of our relationship to Jesus.

This matter came back to me this morning, as I was reading from I Corinthians 5.  (It is also likely to come up in this evening's devotion at our Wednesday Night Gathering.)

I will never lessen my insistence that salvation is not a result of our own works, but comes by way of Jesus.   We are justified by grace through faith.  Not our moral code or moral conduct.

But - very significant but - there is no way one can be caught up in that grace and not be a deeply moral individual.  

My envy of other Christian communities includes an envy of the courage to say, "You can live that way and call yourself a Christian."  I am envious of the honesty with which such communities point out behaviors or actions or words which tear down the world God is building through us.  I am envious, but I won't go there, out of a fear that once again we will replace justification by grace through faith with even a hint of works.

So I do lay before you this simple truth:  It is impossible to be overcome with the grace of God and not, as a result, live a life which is pure and honorable and helpful and caring. Impossible.