Passage of the Day: Romans 5: 1 – 2 … 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
My Journal for Today: What an incredible truth we find in today’s verse related to the assurance of our salvation. Christ dying on the cross and His resurrection ushered in the New Covenant and allowed any, who are willing to receive Him as Savior/Lord, to have direct access to God’s throne of grace. Now, on this Independence Day, should we celebrate the ultimate in Independence, especially since the Lord is fully willing to dole out that grace in abundance, the grace that frees the captives to anyone (see Luke 4: 18), … anyone who would, in faith and obedience, stand with Him as proclaimed in the text for today from the Apostle Paul.
I embolden the world STAND above from Rom. 5: 2 because John MacArthur in Strength for Today on this date called my [our] attention to the origin of this word to help us understand the freedom we have in our relationship with Christ. In the translation from the Greek, our translated English word “STAND” comes from the Greek word, “histemi,” which not only implies standing, but also means being in a stance of balance and certainty. And that is what faith, or obedient belief in Christ, provides for the true Christian … standing as a faithful disciple of Christ. Christ’s finished work gives us the grace to be able to stand strong and to be free in our relationship with our Lord. And nothing we can do can detract from our ability to stand, balanced on the ROCK which Christ has provided for us (see Romans 5: 10). And isn’t it the ultimate in spiritual irony that we must surrender out lives, as slaves to Christ’s lordship, to allow Him to set us free through His saving grace.
It is through God’s grace that I was saved; and it is in His grace, i.e., being able to “stand” on the Rock of His enabling grace, that sustains me and frees me. Christ was the preeminent freedom fighter as we celebrate our freedom on this July 4th. Again, in Luke 4: 18, we read of Christ proclaiming, from the prophesy of Isaiah [see Is. 61: 1 – 2], that His mission in life was to proclaim the freedom of the gospel and to set us free from our shackles of sin. Prayerfully, I will always be able to stand with my Lord in the freedom He won on the cross and as He was raised from the grave; and I must choose to stand with Him in the balance of all I think, say, and do until that day He sees fit to take me home to be with Him so that I will attain that ultimate freedom in glory. There is no greater assurance I can have than to know that my freedom is eternal and that it is totally free for me in Christ.
My Prayer Today: I stand with You, Lord … free! Amen
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