Discipleship Devotional, January 17th, 2025
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
– Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
As believers, our factory setting is to do good works. The Apostle Paul writes in our anchor text that God created us in Christ Jesus for this very purpose. Although in the previous verse he clearly states that our salvation is not by our good works, he emphasizes that we have been born again in Christ for the purpose of doing good works.
God is not indifferent to good works. There’s a kind of “grace message” that implies God doesn’t care about what we do. This is absolutely untrue. The very purpose of redemption was because God cared that we were lost in sin. In fact, the reason we were lost in the first place is that God cares that sin should not thrive in His presence. Therefore, any sermon that makes you comfortable in sin is not from God.
In his letter to Titus, the Apostle Paul affirms this truth: the believer is redeemed unto good works, showing us the mind of God.
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
– Titus 2:11-14 (NIV)
Here, Paul emphasizes what the true grace message should do in people’s lives. It should teach them to say “No” to ungodliness and to live for God. In verse 14, he explains that Christ died to purify us and make us a people eager for good works. The King James Version describes us as being “zealous” for good works. This is our factory setting.
One clear sign of a believer is an eagerness to live for God. We are zealous for good works, not zealous to make people comfortable in sin. This is not God’s plan for us—it is Satan’s. God’s plan is not for His people to simply “accept” Christ but continue to live like the world. No, His will is for us to be separate from the world. Amen!
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, help me to become zealous for good works. Anything that has made me love the world, Lord, please rescue me back.
No responses yet