Friday, July 27, 2012

Grand Plan

GRAND PLAN
#3 of 7 in SUCCESS-SERVICE-REWARDS series

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”

Jesus, as God-man, had to grow up just like you and me. His breathtaking job eventually dawned on Him (Luke 2:52). Aren’t you grateful that He didn’t give up? Who could live perfectly sinless, rejected by the same people whom you were born to save? And yet Jesus still willingly sacrificed His life for us, dying a horrible death that bought redemption for our sins.

But we serve a triune God. The Father is administrator of the grand plan. Jesus put into action the Father’s grand plan, offering Himself as sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 7:27). What’s God’s grand plan? The Holy Spirit applies salvation to every believer in Christ. He’s the One who sanctifies (SANK-ti-fies), or grows people up into Christ-likeness. (See The Last Thing Satan Wants devotion).

“Why did Jesus come to earth?” Mr. Robbins asked his 5th-grade Sunday school class.

Phillip said, “Jesus came so that we could go to heaven instead of hell.”

“Right.” Mr. Robbins said. “But the Father’s main concern is to shape His kids into the image of His Son. That’s called sanctification. This continues throughout our lifetimes. I am not done yet, and neither is Pastor John.

“Let’s follow the thread of this discussion further. You all took the first step: believing in Jesus. Now, enter the Holy Spirit—living inside every Christian. His job is to set Christians apart from everyone in the world who does not accept Jesus.

“But as long as we’re on earth, we must deal with sin. The Holy Spirit enables us to say, ‘No’ to sin. And for those sins we commit, He urges us to confess and repent of them. We won’t sin in heaven.”  (1 John 2:16).

“Really? Cool!” Brad interjected.

“And yet” Mr. Robbins continued, “as close as the Holy Spirit gets to shaping us into Christ-likeness while we’re alive, there’s another step to complete.”

“But we’ll be dead, Mr. Robbins!” Melanie said, confused. “How can we finish the job?”

Mr. Robbins smiled and continued, “We don’t, Melanie. God finishes the job. He resurrects us, just as He resurrected Jesus! He’ll unite our souls with new bodies that will live forever. Then sanctification will be complete: spirit, soul, and body.”

All the kids sucked in breaths of wonder.

Take Home Nugget

This may sound too good to be true, but God is faithful, and He will do it.

Every person of the Triune God has a role in believer’s complete sanctification. Thank you, God!

J.D. Griffith


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