Friday, June 9, 2006
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE LORD AND GIVER OF LIFE
In the history of the world the most important and difficult changes are not technological, medical, or political. For it is the human heart that is in the most desperate need of change. But here precisely where we sinners are powerless. Here we need God's power applied.
But by nature, divine help is the last sort of help we humans are inclined to seek -- for by nature the human heart is at war with God and a source of great evil. Here darkness dwells, as Jesus pointed out: ". . . those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:18-19).
In the face of this our great need God came to our rescue. The Father sent His Son. And when Jesus had completed His redeeming work, they sent the Spirit. It is the Spirit who works through the Gospel message, bringing guilty sinners to repentance and faith, giving needy sinners the forgiveness purchased with Christ's own blood, placing people everywhere under new management. As it is written: ". . . you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Romans 8).
Here is power! The spirit uses the message of Jesus' life and death in our place to give us Light for darkness. Life for death. The Spirit makes God's enemies His friends, even His co-workers.
Through the Gospel the Spirit makes the self-centered Christ-centered. He gives us strength for weakness, the strength to turn from sin with heart-felt sorrow, the strength to hold fast to Christ and His promises, the strength to forgive as we have been forgiven, the strength to return good for evil, the strength to share Christ with others.
For the Spirit's power we pray this day -- the power of the Gospel of Christ alive in our hearts.
