August 1, 2020 COUNTED WORTHY
1 Thessalonians 1:5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify your entirely; and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 1:11 “To this end we also pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The word ‘legalism’ refers to one doing his or her best to keep the commandments of God in order to be accepted and approved by God. The idea of earning God’s acceptance and approval is certainly contrary to the gospel that plainly teaches that it is through the grace and mercy of God that we are accepted by Him. (The Old Testament is a picture of man not be able to keep the commands of God.) As a young believer, I was surrounded by many that were ‘legalistic’ in their belief and they had a mental list of do’s and don’ts and if you did something that was on their ‘do not do’ list, you were displeasing God and was sinning against God. This legalistic view, this misrepresentation of the gospel message, had a negative impact on many and gave the world ‘reason’ to reject what they perceived the message of the church to be. So, it was and is a good thing to reject legalism. However, in rejecting legalism, one can go to the extreme and get into error on the side of grace, believing that it does not really matter what we do, because we are ‘under the grace of God.’ Both legalism and a misunderstanding of grace will lead to living and walking in ways contrary to the gospel and thus missing the life that God has made available to all believers. We must be alert to the danger of rejecting a core teaching of the scriptures when we reject legalism. For some, to reject legalism is to cast off all restraint and discipline in spiritual matters. It is abundantly clear from the scriptures that we will be held responsible for the life we live and the choices we make; our choices have huge implications and ramifications. The critical thing for us to know in our spirit is that because God is righteous and because He has joined us to Himself and has made us righteous in Him, we are to be about righteous deeds-not to earn His acceptance and approval, but because that is who we are! It is a matter of knowing our true identity as sons and daughters of God who have been made new. Our main priority and our main desire in life should be to do the things that are pleasing to Him and to be who He has made us to be. As we are about doing the things that please our Father, we will discover that doing so is life to the fullest-that is our new nature at work.
Ephesians 5:8-10 “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light consist in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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