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The e-Devotional helping to keep you on-track
Published through www.godtracker.co.uk
27 January 2017
Dear God-tracker
GOD-TRACKING IS NOT OF YOUR OWN DOING; IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD’S GRACE
2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
“I’ve been watching these YouTube videos about righteousness, and we’ve got it all wrong,” said Jess to me after church one morning. “They were saying that unless a person is completely sinless after giving his life to Jesus that he isn’t really saved.” Jess went on to say how the video explained that we are indeed, saved by grace through faith but unless there is an instant cessation of all sinful or inappropriate behaviour in the person being saved, he or she is not truly born again. The theology the YouTube video was propagating implies that grace can only be fully appropriated by good works following confession of sin. However, this concept completely undermines grace. After all, grace is God’s doing. Therefore, if I supplement my salvation by good works does that not undermine God’s work in my life? Good works and sinless living are a consequence of God seeking, or as I call it, God-tracking. Sanctification is the process of becoming more righteous on a daily basis, from the moment we confess Christ as Lord.
Jesus Christ was the only completely righteous person who has ever lived, yet God placed on him the sins of us all when he died, for the wages of sin is death. But Jesus did not remain dead, he rose again! Jesus Christ bore the curse of sin, once and for all, at Calvary and rose from the dead breaking its hold over those who confess him as Lord. Scripture tells us that he who is sinless became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (notice, it’s not my righteousness but God’s righteousness in me). For those who are in Christ are no longer confined to the old nature of sin but become new creations before God. Though I long to be free from this mortal body of sin and be with my Lord in paradise, the Lord God has given me his Holy Spirit to dwell in my mortal body, here on earth. So, for as long as I am in this body of sin, I walk by faith and not by sight; I walk in fellowship with his Holy Spirit in me. I track God’s purposes daily by faith in the confidence that his grace has freed me from slavery to sin. Grace is God’s doing, not my doing!
However, because I am now freed from sin by God’s grace, this does not give me free-reign to sin! For as much as my inner spirit man is renewed and filled with the God’s righteousness by his grace and the fellowship of his Spirit, so my outer bodily man must deal with temptations and repent of committed sin. Repentance is not a one-off confession. Repentance is a daily turning away from sin and a striving to never commit the act again. And if I do sin, God has made a way for my cleansing: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I tried to explain this to Jess but to no avail. She’d made up her mind to follow the YouTube teaching. Sadly, Jess left our church and has walked away from the grace of God. She is attempting to earn God’s favour through good works and not by grace.
God-tracking is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God’s grace
Keep your eyes on Jesus
Dudley
READ ALL ABOUT IT
2 Corinthians 5
Romans 6
1 John 1:9
Ephesians 2:8-10
Don’t Give Up, Look Up!
Help me now to present every day to you as a new and living sacrifice of praise
Pray
“Father God, I am sorry for trying to earn my salvation or even trying to prove my salvation through good works. Only by your grace can I ever do any good at all. Your grace is you working in and through me. I admit to and confess any sin to you in Jesus’ name; I am sorry for sin and repent wholeheartedly. Help me now to live by faith and not by sight. Help me now to present every day to you as a new and living sacrifice of praise. You are my Lord. Amen.”
If you want prayer, please email me at dudley@godtracker.co.uk
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What is GodTracker?
GodTracker is a weekly e-mail devotional based on the premise that God has a plan for our lives. His word calls us to seek his will by acknowledging him in all our ways and tracking this plans in faith.
GodTracker owes its origins to an international Christian radio programme produced by Dudley Anderson called, On Track. Although On Track went off-air in 2005, GodTracker has continued to help people to track God's plans and purposes for their lives since July 2003.
Listen to the 60 second GodTracker radio spots at…
http://www.godtracker.co.uk/index.html#Listen
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