Sign up to receive Grace Notes!
The Body of Christ is the unique group of believers who accept Jesus as both a person as well as the Son of God. This is what is biblically described as the “new covenant,” separated from Old Testament Jewish believers who understand God under the law of the Old Testament. These “born-again” believers, after the resurrection of Jesus, were originally seen as part of the Jewish faith but eventually were separated and became identified by people who believed in “the way.”
It has been over a year since we breached Jesus’ words in Mark 9:49. This mystery of Godliness reveals within us the continuing purging of our sinful clay bodies with God’s righteous decree that “everyone will be salted with fire.” This is our Lord’s way of taking us deeper and deeper into His grace and agape love! We are justified by faith and disciplined by His grace because, for one thing, we are being prepared for an eternal weight of glory!!!
It’s been 50 plus years since we had a US military “draft.” In those days a “boot camp” was more common to everyday language. It was the first 16 weeks of military duty where a young male learned to be a soldier within the compulsory two-year stint. We had to learn discipline, obedience, wearing a uniform and a backpack! Our identity as a soldier required a new kind of mom called a Sargent!
We just completed a discussion on Romans 8 where Paul discloses identity and the character of a person who is “Born-Again.” What does it mean to be Born-Again? Well, one of many meanings is receiving a spiritual “power of discernment.”
The agape love of Christ pervades the entire scripture both Old Testament and New. “The love of Christ” is indispensable not only to divine doctrine and our faith, not only to Romans 8, but to us personally. We are in Christ Jesus; He is our very essence; we are rooted in Jesus’ love. The grace of the Holy Spirit is even now equipping us in His agape love, so that, we may glorify the Father through His Son Jesus.
We gave limited context to “The Way” in our last GraceNotes referring to the group of Jesus believers who were originally worshiping inside the Jewish faith. These Jewish believers knew God’s Old Testament ways and expected Jesus to be the Messiah, the King of Israel. This was their Hope!