05 Aug Empowered by Grace
Last Sunday, Ryan Heard preached from Revelation 3:1-6 and exhorted us to heed Jesus’ call to the church at Sardis to wake up and follow Christ.
Read: Revelation 3:7-13
This Sunday Ryan Heard will continue with Jesus’ letter to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3:7-13 and encourage us to persevere with Christ’s power. As you prepare for our Sunday gathering, let this devotional from Paul Tripp encourage you with empowering gospel truth from Galatians 2:20.
Reflect: “Empowered by Grace”
Get up and face life with courage because, as God’s child, you have not been left to the limits of your own strength and wisdom.
Galatians 2:20 captures who you are as a child of God and what you have been given so well:
1. A statement of redemptive-historical fact.
“I have been crucified with Christ.” What Paul is saying here is hugely important. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus didn’t purchase general savability. He didn’t die to make salvation possible. No, Jesus took names to the cross. He specifically and effectively died for you and me. His death was just as effective for us as if we had died ourselves. Because he died as our representative, his death satisfied God’s anger against us, so that we face it no more.
2. A statement of present redemptive reality.
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” This is radical and hard to grasp, but important to consider. You and I died with Christ so that he could live within us now. Paul’s not talking about physical life here, but spiritual. The power that now animates, motivates, and propels your spiritual life is not you, but Christ! By grace, he makes you the place where he dwells. This means you are never in a situation, location, or relationship by yourself. He is always with you. And because he is always with you, you are never left to the limited resources of your own wisdom, strength, and righteousness (see Eph. 3:20–21).
3. The life-shaping result.
“The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” I place my faith in the fact of his death for me and his life within me, and I live on that basis. I live with peace, hope, and courage, but not because I understand all that is going on inside me or around me. It is because I have not only been forgiven, but I have been blessed with resources beyond my imagination because the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Creator-Savior, now lives inside me. I don’t understand much, but of this I am sure—he is with me, he is in me, and he is for me. I cannot allow myself to think that I am poor when his presence makes me rich. I cannot tell myself that I am unable when he empowers me by grace. Here’s the bottom line—I am comfortable with not knowing, because he knows and he is with me forever.
For further study and encouragement: Habakkuk 3:17–19.
March 27th Devotional in New Morning Mercies, by Paul David Tripp
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder,” Arr. Daniel Renstrom
2. “The Depths of Your Love,” by North Wake Music
3. “He Will Hold Me Fast,” by Keith & Kristyn Getty
4. “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death,” Arr. Shane & Shane