According to His Own Purpose

[Christsfreeservant]

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:8-12 NASB1995)​

This was the apostle Paul writing to Timothy, a fellow worker with him in the teaching of the gospel of Christ Jesus. He was writing to encourage him in his walk of faith in the Lord Jesus. Evidently Timothy was suffering from some kind of fear and perhaps reluctance to be bold in his testimony for the Lord, perhaps due to much opposition. And so Paul was encouraging him to fan into flame (to reignite) the gift of God within him, to not be afraid, and to not be ashamed of the testimony of Christ or of Paul who was a prisoner for Christ and for his gospel. But he was to join with Paul in his suffering.

But now when Paul said that Jesus saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, please do not take this like many do and assume that he was teaching that no works are required of us by God at all. For he was speaking of works of the flesh and going through the motions of religious practice trying to earn our own salvation and heaven as our eternal destiny. Not one of us can be saved and on our way to heaven based on our own fleshly works, of our own choosing. Only by God’s grace and by God’s persuasion can any be saved.

But then we have to look at the gospel message that Paul taught consistently throughout his teachings in the New Testament, reading them in their appropriate and correct biblical context, and not out of context. For he taught that, because of what Jesus did for us on that cross, by the grace of God, and because of God’s divine persuasion (faith), by faith in him we are now crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands.

So, yes, none of us are saved from our sins and on our way to heaven based on us doing “good deeds,” hoping those deeds will get us into heaven. But “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” And the grace of God is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord.

[2 Timothy 1:8-12; Romans 6:1-23; Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10]

For Paul did not suffer all the persecution which he faced because he was one of these popular “gospel” preachers who tell people that all they have to do is profess faith in Jesus and now all their sins are forgiven and heaven is their guaranteed destiny when they die. He taught the critical nature of repentance (turning away from sin, death to sin) and of walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands, in holy living. And he exercised divine discipline on those who professed to be Christians but who were still living in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in obedience to our Lord’s commands.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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According to His Own Purpose
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