The Pharisees…heard all these things…ridiculed Him…He said…You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts…it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
Luke 16:14-17
Jesus is ridiculed by the Pharisees who heard the parable of the dishonest manager. He turns the tables upon them by telling them they are the dishonest managers of God’s Word, loving to be justified by men instead of God. He knows the hearts of all people. In this life as a Christian, sanctification is our growth in holiness, which is perfected (completed), when we are in the presence of our Savior and Lord, Jesus. In sanctification, we learn how to become more pleasing to our Creator in how we think and live. The Christian life is a race according to Hebrews 12:1–2; a wrestling against enemy powers according to Ephesians 6:12; an existence dominated by grace according to Romans 6:14. Everything Holy Scripture says about serving Christ can be summed up in the Latin phrase, Coram Deo. To live Coram Deo means living our entire lives in the presence of God. Christians clothed in Christ’s righteousness, we live and stand holy and blameless in God’s presence. This should cause Christians to gratefully live in a manner which will be pleasing to Him, in faith and repentance, trusting Him in every moment, obedient. Of course, when we are converted, we do have a strong desire to follow our Savior and grow in our knowledge of His ways that we might please Him in all things but, we encounter obstacles that we cannot seem to get past, sins that we cannot seem to overcome. At such times, we often get discouraged and are tempted to give up. Before we give in to this temptation, however, we should consider today’s passage and Jesus’ enigmatic statement that, as the gospel of the kingdom is preached, people force their way into it. Jesus is not advocating violence as a way to enter His kingdom. Instead, He emphasizes our need to press on when the going gets tough, to have a single-minded determination to know Him and be motivated to do whatever it takes to overcome spiritual apathy and keep on growing in God’s Grace. We are in a war against evil. Though the war was won at Calvary, there remain skirmishes until our Lord returns in power and glory to judge and separate evil to its ultimate confinement, the fires of hell. Our Lord does not want His people to quit after their first skirmish. Instead, He is seeking soldiers who press on in the most difficult circumstances, spending their whole lives seeking to please Him. Such zeal and strength is not within ourselves. So, we must ask God to grant it to us, knowing that only those who persevere to the end are saved and that only those who are truly saved persevere to the end.
Source: S C Ball March 23, 2023
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