Mark Vestal Proud of nothing of myself. Freed by Christ who did it all!

We have been offered the free gift of salvation by God's grace to be delivered of this present evil world through faith alone in Jesus Christ and his finished cross-work performed on our behalf (Gal 1:4).

God forgave the world of their sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. He was perfect for us, did all the work for us, took the punishment on the cross that we deserve, was buried but rose from the grave the 3rd day for our justification. Our belief in this, the gospel of God's grace, makes us the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are sealed with the holy Spirit until the day of redemption at the moment of belief (Eph 4:30).

1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"

December 25 2022 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Justin Hale

GOD Himself defines the word 'good' for us using two major illustrations. Scripture tells us that Moses was a 'good' servant, proving himself trustworthy WITHIN the divine household, and that Jesus was a 'good' Son, proving Himself trustworthy OVER the divine household, (Hebrews 3:1-6). 

We each have a series of choices to make in life, whether we are in a position of authority speaking from our own power, (like Jesus), or one of the people following orders and speaking on behalf of an authority, (like Moses). In either case, there aren't nearly as many of these decisions as we might think, especially from GOD's perspective. To be declared 'good,' we must choose GOD's path over evil by making the same decisions GOD would make in those same situations. GOD always chooses to be 'trustworthy.' 

This means that we can always rely upon His word and that He will never fail us, betray us, or abandon us. Moses was like this because scripture tells us that he was 'a humble man, more humble than any man on the face of the earth.' (Numbers 12:3).

Jesus was the consummation of this same humility and the direct expression of GOD's humble nature:

"Doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others... 

“Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:3-8). 

Have you ever wondered why GOD would require constant praise and reminders of His own 'good' nature? When people demand constant praise, we tend to despise them or call them things like 'narcissistic.' That is because most people do not do this out of humility. However, a truly humble person also needs to be reminded often that they are 'good' and that they have many wonderful attributes. 

Imagine for a moment that you are the only person in existence and there is no basis for comparison, yet. However, you are 'humble' by nature. How would you communicate exactly what this means to others once they arrive and begin to seek to understand you?

That is the situation that GOD faced when creating us. 'Humble' isn't actually a term of comparison. It is an essential part of the nature of GOD Himself. It is also an essential part of the nature of what a 'human' truly is, because we are made in GOD's direct personal likeness.

So 'being like GOD' makes us 'good.' What makes GOD 'good?'

Being 'humble' makes GOD good. He ALWAYS chooses this path over the alternative during each and every decision He makes. GOD makes WAY more decisions than we do. Each time, the only other alternative is 'evil.' Evil can be recognized by its arrogance. However, like genuine humility, we can often confuse the two by projecting our own definitions for things upon others.

That is why scripture tells us that evil, 'masquerades as a messenger of light.' (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).

Evil can even appear to be 'humble' and goodness can appear to be 'arrogant' when we have already decided to see things in an arrogant way ourselves. We like to be 'right.' We enjoy being praised by other people. That doesn't happen nearly as often when we choose 'good' over 'evil.' Often, only GOD praises this action. We feel alone and need a reminder that we are doing something courageous, excellent and praiseworthy.

Scripture tells us that learning to differentiate between good and evil actually takes 'practice' (Biblical Greek: 'hexis,' Hebrews 5:14), and that we 'mature' as we make better decisions and become more like GOD. In other words, we become more 'humble' ourselves until we are also fully 'trustworthy.'

January 03 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report