So, how do you take your coffee? I had my morning coffee with lots of Jesus and I asked Him if I could skip over this second statement from Scott’s sermon, or if perhaps I could switch the order around a little or change his wording. You see I’m a little nervous about this next statement because it is often the one strong theological difference that divides most evangelical Christians. Many of my closest friends would disagree with this next statement. My prayer this morning is that we find where we agree on this point, rather than argue over where we disagree.
Yesterday we reviewed the first point of Scott’s sermon on Colossians chapter one – There is no faith without fruit. Today we move on to the more controversial statement yet in many ways a repetition of the first statement:
2. There is no INHERITANCE without HOLINESS
Let’s look at the same Scripture from Colossians but read on a little farther:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (1:9-14).
I am so thankful that God did not save me and then leave me in the state that I was in. I remember when I went from being a little girl who loved Jesus enough to ask Him into her heart to a teenager who fully surrendered her heart to the Lordship of the Savior. I was so sick of myself by then – of my selfish tendencies, of my inconsistencies, and of my prideful strategies. I was ready to give up control and let God change me into the person He created me to be. His grace did not love me and then leave me the way He found me. God had a plan for my life and I have been a work in progress since that day.
I have to be careful here though. I cannot earn my way into Heaven, nor can I demand that God owes me Heaven regardless of how I live out my faith. It is the Father alone who “qualifies” or enables me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. But the next statement gives me great hope – He has rescued me from the darkness in which He found me and His plan is not to leave me there. His plan is for me to truly experience redemption in which the forgiveness of my sins changes my life, taking me out of the darkness and bringing me into the light. He then begins a work in my life, filling me with wisdom and understanding. I begin to grow in my knowledge of Him being strengthened by HIS power and HIS might. I go from a sinner to a child of God in whom He has developed great endurance and patience, a life that goes beyond a faith that only believes to a faith that bears fruit.
For the last two months I have been enjoying my morning coffee with James so I went back to hear what he would have to say on this subject. The book of James is a call to holy living. I am going to close with a few of his words:
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him – 1:12.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says – 1:22.
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? …In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead … You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone – 2:14, 17, 24.
Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness – 3:18.
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins – 5:20.
Dear Jesus, thank you for the hope we find in your Word. You have saved us so that we may serve you and so today we surrender Lordship to you. Jesus, today I allow you to be King – you are in charge. Please make me into the child of God you want me to be. Amen.