God lays an AX to the root of our lives
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
We continued today to deal with yet another subject that we as individual Christians need to pay attention to. It is the concept of salvation by proxy; which means that we feel that just because we are a part of a physical of believers then we will automatically be included because we are a part of a church or a denomination of people.
The Jewish nation felt very much that their relationship to Abraham gave them a special individual right to claim God. What was missing from the Jewish nation was the definition of what made them to be known as God's chosen people. God had chosen the seed of Abraham to produce the Messiah and yet the Jewish nation had no concept of what God's definition of Messiah or Savior really meant. I don't really even think that the disciples of Jesus had a clue about what Jesus as the Messiah was all about even after his death, burial, and resurrection. I don't believe that it was until the power of the Holy Spirit had come unto them all that they began to receive insight about the eternal consequences of what being saved meant.
In the book of Luke 3: 7-9 we read some of what was said by John the Baptist to the Jews even before the baptism of Jesus to prepare him for ministry. John the Baptist said "to the multitudes that came forth to be baptized of him, old generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father; for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise children of Abraham. And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore which brings not for us good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." It is this concept that I want to focus on in this blog. For many of us the thought of good works is the same as bearing fruit of the spirit, and yet that does not seem to be the same attitude that God has about bearing fruit.
Like the Jews we to tend to hold on to a tradition or a doctrine of faith to carry us through so that we don't have to do any real work on our own to develop spiritually. Jesus also said many times in support of what John the Baptist just said; that if we do not bear fruit we will indeed be cut off from the vine. God continues to prune us by cutting us away from certain things in this world, and by cutting off certain things that we have been attached to in this world that would keep us from developing spiritual fruit. We have been speaking over the last several blogs now about the concept of our individual responsibility in developing a relationship with God. We find that bearing spiritual fruit is really nothing more than a by product of our relationship in Christ Jesus. We find that we of ourselves have very little to do with that fruit bearing process under then continuing to give ourselves every day over to the concept of being living sacrifices for the cause of Christ in our lives. In many ways those people who were called by Christ's name and who obey the laws and commands of the father are just as much chosen people of God as any of the Jews. You see the gospel was first preached to the Jews. They were commanded to repent and trust the Savior ACTS 2:38 and they were warned that if they didn't repent, they would perish Luke 13:3 and so John the Baptist preached fearful words to those who simply because they were Jews thought that they need not repent. We all need to realize the importance to God of our own personal repentance for sin, and then the need for a very personal and very close relationship with him. God will always continue to draws ever closer to him because of that love, and that jealousy of relationship that God has for us. I hope we can all see that relationship develop in our own lives in the time that we have left to do so, may you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We continued today to deal with yet another subject that we as individual Christians need to pay attention to. It is the concept of salvation by proxy; which means that we feel that just because we are a part of a physical of believers then we will automatically be included because we are a part of a church or a denomination of people.
The Jewish nation felt very much that their relationship to Abraham gave them a special individual right to claim God. What was missing from the Jewish nation was the definition of what made them to be known as God's chosen people. God had chosen the seed of Abraham to produce the Messiah and yet the Jewish nation had no concept of what God's definition of Messiah or Savior really meant. I don't really even think that the disciples of Jesus had a clue about what Jesus as the Messiah was all about even after his death, burial, and resurrection. I don't believe that it was until the power of the Holy Spirit had come unto them all that they began to receive insight about the eternal consequences of what being saved meant.
In the book of Luke 3: 7-9 we read some of what was said by John the Baptist to the Jews even before the baptism of Jesus to prepare him for ministry. John the Baptist said "to the multitudes that came forth to be baptized of him, old generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father; for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise children of Abraham. And now also the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore which brings not for us good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." It is this concept that I want to focus on in this blog. For many of us the thought of good works is the same as bearing fruit of the spirit, and yet that does not seem to be the same attitude that God has about bearing fruit.
Like the Jews we to tend to hold on to a tradition or a doctrine of faith to carry us through so that we don't have to do any real work on our own to develop spiritually. Jesus also said many times in support of what John the Baptist just said; that if we do not bear fruit we will indeed be cut off from the vine. God continues to prune us by cutting us away from certain things in this world, and by cutting off certain things that we have been attached to in this world that would keep us from developing spiritual fruit. We have been speaking over the last several blogs now about the concept of our individual responsibility in developing a relationship with God. We find that bearing spiritual fruit is really nothing more than a by product of our relationship in Christ Jesus. We find that we of ourselves have very little to do with that fruit bearing process under then continuing to give ourselves every day over to the concept of being living sacrifices for the cause of Christ in our lives. In many ways those people who were called by Christ's name and who obey the laws and commands of the father are just as much chosen people of God as any of the Jews. You see the gospel was first preached to the Jews. They were commanded to repent and trust the Savior ACTS 2:38 and they were warned that if they didn't repent, they would perish Luke 13:3 and so John the Baptist preached fearful words to those who simply because they were Jews thought that they need not repent. We all need to realize the importance to God of our own personal repentance for sin, and then the need for a very personal and very close relationship with him. God will always continue to draws ever closer to him because of that love, and that jealousy of relationship that God has for us. I hope we can all see that relationship develop in our own lives in the time that we have left to do so, may you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment