Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
This verse is wonderful because it tells us the truth about what the implications of the work on the cross means for our lives as followers of the way of Jesus. We can gain confidence in a way that we had no confidence before because of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection. There's an opportunity for new life, and we, who are in the wake of what He has done, will live differently because of the reality of the rescue that comes from Him.
Remembering What We've Been Rescued From
That's one of those phrases that, as followers of Jesus, we can easily throw out in and amongst our Christian community that we are saved by Jesus. I think sometimes we need to stop and consider what we've been rescued from so we can truly celebrate the rescuer. It's important for us to remember that we've come a mighty long way in order to be where we are now, in this new life in Christ.
If you look in the Scriptures right before our verse, you'll see a list of words that describe the person that lives apart from Jesus. I want to give you just a couple of these words. It says at one time you were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by passions and desires.
Changed From the Inside Out
I don't know about you, but I read that list and I think about who I was apart from Christ, and it just makes me feel emotional. I was a person who was given over to those ideas by default settings in my life. Now, I have a different way of describing myself, whereas before I would say that I was selfish, that I was self-seeking, that I was doing things according to my own desires, my own best thinking.
Now, because of Christ, I can live differently and know that my desires not only are represented in my actions in a way that they weren't before, but I actually desire different things because He changed me from the inside out. What that means is my new life is not contingent upon my performance or my ability to keep doing things on my own strength.
No. The reality of my new life comes from the connectedness to the Spirit of God who lives in me. In other words, I live differently because He is in me and gives me what I need to live differently.
True Confidence
This is where you can get to that word in the verse that we started out reading, that we have confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Confidence. This isn't a sheepish wondering of crossed fingers, hoping that maybe I'll do enough in my life in order to earn the right to be able to say that maybe I might be able to be considered for eternal life. No, no, no, because of Jesus, I have confidence that His finished work means that I will live in eternity with Him, not only later on after I die, but starting right here, right now on earth, in rhythm with Him.
