FAITH - A BENEFIT THAT ACCOMPANIES OUR RECONCILIATION WITH GOD (FOR BELIEVERS, EVERY DAY SHOULD BE CHRISTMAS)

There are various benefits that accompany the central purpose for which Jesus came into the world, which is to reconcile us with God – 2 Cor 5:19

While our reconciliation with God is itself a benefit, it is best described as the central benefit which is accompanied by many other functional components that ensure that God’s plan works out for our lives. It is therefore the beginning of God’s plan for lost mankind.

I said in the first write up that I will be sharing two of these functional components in this second write up. But I will share just one and leave the second for another write up. I discovered that this information is better taken piecemeal. It is worth spending time on, to receive and digest one bit at a time – Is 28:10

The knowledge and understanding of these benefits will no doubt inspire us to celebrate Jesus’ coming into the world every day.

The measure of faith 

In the process of our reconciliation with God, He gave us what Rom 12:3 refers to as the measure of Faith.

Rom 12:3 says:

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt (or given) to every man the measure of faith.

The faith referred to here is the ability to believe what God says and act on it, without recourse to (or dependence on) our natural senses or instincts. Simply put, the ability to know God, hear Him and obey Him.

This ability is not possessed by all men but only by those who have received Christ Jesus as Lord. It comes with having Jesus.

This faith is different from natural faith which is based on natural senses and instincts.

For the purpose of distinction, it is the God kind of faith by which we believe and do what God says, even when our senses or natural instincts do not corroborate it or oppose it.

When we received Christ Jesus as Lord, we did not do so because we saw Him with our physical eyes, neither did we believe on Him because we saw a vision of his death and resurrection.

Our believing on Jesus as Lord was not informed by our sensory perceptions or instincts. We believed on Him because we heard His Word preached to us.

Nobody does this naturally because nobody can! Man is not naturally wired to do it (another consequence of the fall). The natural man will always seek for proof (1 Cor 2:14)! It is just human nature, we call it common sense. It is the way we have learnt to live in the world from the cradle.

The preaching of The word of salvation to us was God drawing us to Christ – By it, God opened our understanding to that word of salvation. He enlightened our hearts (spirits) convicting us in our conscience of our sinful state and the need for salvation.

Our choice to receive that word which God opened our understanding to, was what made Jesus to come into our hearts with all the benefits of our reconciliation with God.

Not all who God draws to Christ (convicts by His Spirit through His word) make the choice to receive Christ. Some reject Him, deceiving themselves.

But for those who made the choice, something was given to us by which we received Christ, whom we did not see or perceive by our other natural senses or instinct: the measure of faith -the divine ability to believe and act on God’s word as true.

Speaking about this, Paul by the Holy Spirit wrote in Eph 2:8-9 that;

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast

And the gift being spoken about here is the faith through which we were saved – the measure of faith given to everyone who choose to receive Christ Jesus as Lord. 

This measure of faith we received is of great significance. It is of it that God spoke in Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11 & Heb 10:38 where He says the just shall live by faith.

The just, in these texts, refers to the person that has been declared righteous on the basis of believing on Jesus Christ as Lord (Ps 32:1-2, 1 Cor 6:11b). The one who has been reconciled with God.

Not only does the just receive salvation (Christ Jesus) through faith, we also live and please God through it. We do this as we feed/build up the measure we have received through revelation knowledge of God’s word and exercising ourselves in that knowledge.

Speaking about this, Rom 10:17 says:

So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

It is through revelation knowledge of God’s word on salvation which we heard that salvation came when we acted on it.

Similarly, it is through revelation knowledge of God’s word on every other benefit that accompany salvation (Heb 6:9) that these benefits will be ours in reality, when we act on them.

So, this measure of faith given us when we were  reconciled with God, if fed with more understanding and exercised, is what we live and please God by. It is by it we do all the will of God, and doing God’s will covers every area of our lives:

• living by God’s word/walking in the spirit

• walking in dominion over the flesh,

• walking in dominion over the world

• walking in dominion over the devil and evil spirits

In addition, it is by this faith that we also receive every thing that God has promised us in His word into our reality.

You see, this marvelous thing that God did for us in Christ is like giving us the very key to His Own Heart.

Notice that in Heb 11:6 God explains that without faith it is impossible to please Him. And since the way to God’s heart is pleasing (or obeying Him), God giving us the wherewithal to obey Him is like giving us the key to His heart!

When we focus on developing and exercising this measure of faith He has given us, there is no telling how far we will go in our walk with God. This is our predestination, it is our destiny as believers.

But how come God gave this wherewithal or capacity to us? Because Jesus was born, then He did and finished the work that reconciled us with God. He gave Himself a propitiation for our sins!

Now, how can we know and understand this, and not celebrate Jesus’ coming ecstatically every single day we live?! Our celebration of His birth should  not only be at Christmas, it should be everyday!

Watch out for the last benefit I'll be sharing in this series in the next write up.

Meditate on these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).

Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of House of Prayer Int'l (Church@Allen ), Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as they were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.

Photo Credit:  Our Daily Bread

FOR BELIEVERS, EVERY DAY SHOULD BE CHRISTMAS

Just a few days ago, the birth of Jesus The Christ was celebrated all over the world. This celebration is what Christmas is synonymous with to the believer.

While some argue that the date (Dec 25^th) is not the correct date of His birth, others argue in its favor. The truth is, everyone is entitled to what they choose to believe.

One thing we cannot argue about however, is the fact that He was born and His birth is worth celebrating because of the purpose of His coming into the world. His birth is extra special!

The word ‘celebrate’ comes from a root word that means to assemble to honor or to publish or to sing praises. So in celebrating Jesus’ birth, we honor Him, and sing His Praises. We publish the benefits that accrue to us as believers because of His coming.

I have learnt from the word of God and experience that the extent to which we celebrate Jesus’ birth depends on how much we have come to understand our benefits from the purpose He came to serve.

The more we understand these benefits and allow the understanding to rule our hearts and minds, the more we will realize that celebrating Jesus’ birth should not be limited to December 25^th, yearly. As believers, we should celebrate the birth of Jesus daily and as a habit.

I will be sharing with us three of the benefits that accrue to the believer because of Jesus’ birth. For some, it will be what you have known before, so I will simply be bringing them to your remembrance to stir you up (2 Pet 3:1).

For others, you may just be coming across these benefits in the way they will be presented for the first time and the knowledge gained will increase your understanding of how priceless Jesus’ coming into the world is to you. Either way, I hope to, by this short piece, challenge us to habituate the daily celebration of Jesus’ coming into the world.

The purpose of Jesus’ birth (His coming into the world)

The central purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world is to reconcile us to God.  2 Cor 5:19 informs us about this.

There are numerous other things the purpose of His coming (as found in the bible) achieves in us, but all these things are subsumed under this main purpose. I will discuss two of them in my next write up.

To reconcile means to restore friendly relations. It also means to cause to co-exist in harmony. From the meaning of the word, it is easy to deduce that for us to be eligible for reconciliation with God, we must have at one time had friendly relations with Him or been in harmony with Him.

Two parties that never had a cordial relationship cannot truly be reconciled. In such an instance, they will at best be freshly introduced to one another.

God’s choice of the word ‘reconcile’ in the text was therefore deliberately used. Every believer (those who have been reconciled to God through Christ) was at one time right with God.

Paul by The Holy Spirit wrote about this in Rom 7:9 that:

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Being alive to God refers to being spiritually alive to God and the death referred to in the verse is spiritual death, which means separation from God or enmity with Him.

Paul here explains the way of every man born of a woman, that there was a time we were alive to God, which was at the beginning of our lives. It was a time of innocence, when we did not know good and evil in our conscience, and thus were free of sin.

God will not input sin to a child that does not know their right from their left in their conscience. Of this, Rom 7:8b says without the law sin was dead, corroborating what is written in Rom 4:15b that for where no law is, [there is] no transgression.

Notice however that being alive to God at the beginning of our lives does not in anyway contradict Ps 51:5 which says:

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me

Yes, we were conceived by parents who are subject to sin and will eventually become like them. It is one of the consequences of the fall of Adam. But God will not consider sin for a child who has not come to the realization of what His law (right and wrong) is, in their conscience.

God will not hold a child responsible for the sin of Adam either, for the child does not yet know their right from their left. So we were all born alive to God, innocent as far as sin is concerned.

But then, when we reached that point of realizing the law of God through the conscience, sin revived – and we died (Rom 7:9)

How come sin revived and we died? Because in sin were we conceived! (Ps 51:5)

From that point on, God holds us responsible for our sins, not for the sin of Adam, but ours because we knew what was right in our conscience but chose to do the wrong. It is the way of every human being, except we don’t get to that age of accountability (so called) before we die.

This death unto God is what necessitated reconciliation for which Christ came into the world: to pay for the debt of sin that we owed and reconcile us to God. So, for everyone of us that have believed on and received Jesus as our Lord unto salvation, we have been reconciled to God. Not only are our past sins forgiven, but our hearts have been made right with God by the life of God that Christ gave us.

David spoke about this reconciliation in Ps 32:1-2 where he said:

Blessed [is he whose] transgression [is] forgiven, [whose] sin [is] covered. Blessed [is] the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit [there is] no guile.

The spirit of the believer being free from guile is as a result of God giving us a new spirit (heart) – Ez 36:26-27 which says;

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].

These two texts are messianic; They are prophecies foretelling the consequences of man receiving the messiah when He comes. But the Messiah has come and we have believed on Him, so these scriptures have been fulfilled in us.

David speaking about what the blessedness of the believers’ reconciliation to God inspires said in Ps 103:1-5 that:

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

This here, is a celebration of the Lord because of what He has provisioned for those who have received Him. A celebration that may not be, unless we understand that indeed Christ’s death & resurrection in which we have believed have reconciled us to God, and everything started with Jesus’ Birth!

As many of us that have received Christ Jesus as Lord should therefore know that we have been reconciled with God.

We have been restored to favor with Him.

We are now in His good books as far as salvation is concerned.

We now have right standing with Him.

We have been given the wherewithal to love Him and do His will to please Him.

Continuing in this understanding motivates us to properly celebrate Jesus’ coming daily as a lifestyle, not only at Christmas!

Are you convinced that the impact of Jesus’ coming into the world on your life is worth your celebrating His birth everyday? I bet your answer is yes! So make it part of your new year resolution to do so habitually as a lifestyle. 

The more we celebrate Jesus’ birth, honoring, thanking and praising Him for its benefits to us, the more we understand and walk in the reality of these benefits.

Watch out for the next write up where I will be discussing two more of these benefits we derive from the purpose of Christ's coming into the world. Merry Christmas and happy 2025!

Meditate on these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).

Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of House of Prayer Int'l (Church@Allen ), Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as they were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.

Photo Credit:  Our Daily Bread