Devotions - Read Online
Tuesday | 25 September 2018
The first step in being delivered from living according to our own righteousness is to be born from above. This occurs when we receive our name from the Father as a seed. 1Pe 1:23. We are made a new creation who is able to love God, to love who He has made us to be, and to love others as ourselves. As the apostle John wrote, ‘Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God’. 1Jn 4:7. This happens by the Holy Spirit.
The parable of the sower and seed teaches us that, unless we are joined to a process through which the seed of our sonship is able to take root in our heart and bear fruit, we will return to living according to a righteousness of our own. Mat 13:19-22. We must be joined, through baptism and the communion, to the fellowship of Christ’s offering and sufferings.
In this fellowship, our identity continues to be regenerated, the other law is being removed from our heart, and we are living by the life of Jesus, which is in His blood. Lev 17:11. His life, which is love, becomes our life when it is sprinkled on our heart in the fellowship of His offering.
In the New Covenant, the righteousness of the law can only be fulfilled in us if we follow the leading and direction that the Holy Spirit gives. The Holy Spirit is the essential ‘ingredient’ of the New Covenant. He is the substance and expression of the righteousness which comes from God through faith.
We receive the promised Holy Spirit, and the capacity for righteousness that He brings, when we respond to the word of God that is proclaimed to us. In this regard, we remember that Paul said that we receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith. Gal 3:2. The grace of God comes with the word of God, giving to us the capacity to hear and believe what the Lord is saying to us, and to receive the Holy Spirit.
Further Study:
Jeremiah 31
Daily Proverb:
References:
1Pe 1:23
Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.
1Jn 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Mat 13:19-22
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
Lev 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Gal 3:2
This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?