The believers’ response to the objective gospel.
Because of God’s mercies and the riches of his love toward us, we must be devoted to God and serve him in self-denial and a sense of responsibility. Paul urges the believers. “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1, NET. Because God has justified, sanctified, and seated us at his right side in Jesus Christ, we are obligated to make the result of his mercies subjective daily experience. Our daily response to the objective gospel, that is, what God has accomplished on our behalf, must be a willful and deliberate decision and choice. Such a response manifests itself in new attitudes and the way we think. “You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had.” Philippians 2:5, NET.
The yielded believers must live a life pleasing to God always. The aim of our daily response to the gospel should not be to obtain God’s mercies. It should rather be a response of gratitude because God has granted us his mercies in Jesus Christ. We could never, by self-sacrifice, obtain God’s mercies, no matter how good and sincere our sacrifice is. The redeemed sinners could offer pleasing self-sacrifice only when they accept God’s mercies granted in Jesus Christ. Such a sacrifice must spring from selfless love toward God and all people. The new birth and the renewal of one’s mind must always be visible.
God justified us and made us holy through his mercies in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are obligated to live a life guided by the Holy Spirit in conformity with our new standing before God in Jesus Christ. Yielded believers are always mindful that they sit at God’s right side in Jesus Christ. This is the place of highest honor. Accordingly, the only correct way to respond to God’s grace is to consider yourself dead always. Yielded believers should always say to themselves, I died with Christ, and I do not live but Christ lives in me. However, the life of self-denial is not free from sins against the law. However, the life of self-denial is not under the law’s dominion but under the dominion of the law of selfless love. Therefore, there is no condemnation because we are under Jesus Christ, our Grace. Everything associated with new life must also be new.
Christians and civil authority; read the next blog.
