I started off yesterday saying that we are encouraged to prepare ourselves for our retirement by investing in Pension Funds, Annuities, Endowment Policies and the like to ensure we have an income that will give us a similar lifestyle to the one we had before retirement. I also mentioned that with COVID-19, the interest rates plummeted causing pensioners to adjust their budgets and lifestyle. The point is that in life on earth there are so many uncertainties … even with reference to our investments. Yet there is one certainty you may have for the future that will not and cannot ever change!
Yesterday I pointed out two aspects to this “secure investment” for our eternal future. The first was that we have a secure promise and the second is that we have a secure salvation. These give us great encouragement even when there are some many insecurities in this life.
3) You have a secured righteous position. From a human perspective it is almost unconceivable that we sinners, saved by grace can be righteous. There are two aspects to consider … the first is that because of the merits of the Lord Jesus at Calvary … those belonging to God’s Family because of Jesus’ Blood Sacrifice are counted righteous. This is a positional righteousness. When The Father sees the believer, He sees His Son Jesus.
Rom 4:22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Abraham trusted, or believed, God’s Word. He had faith in God who spoke the promise of a son. Because of his faith in God’s Word … “it was credited to him as righteousness.” If you had no money in your bank account and someone, without your knowledge deposited money into your account, your account, in place of being border line red, it would be beautifully into the blue. Your account would be credited with a positive balance. You were unrighteous because of sin, yet through faith in Jesus’ Blood Sacrifice God credits you with righteousness. Think of Noah:
Heb 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
He listened to God speak and believed God would do what He said leading to him building an Ark (boat). Everyone around laughed and scorned him for constructing such a huge sea going vessel in a dry desert region. In holy, reverent fear, Noah obeyed God’s Word. This was faith in action. It was faith that was scorned by man yet it was faith that credited Noah with righteousness! The believer, through faith in the Gospel promise, secures being credited with righteousness from God … and this faith becomes the way of life!
Ron 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”’
Because God sees us positionally as righteous because of faith in the merits of the Cross … we continue to live life by faith. The second is practical righteousness. In practice we are unrighteous but in our position in Christ we are righteous … this is why we live by faith and faith seeks more and more to live in positional righteousness!
4) You have a secured life. This secured life is life in Christ! Although speaking directly to the husband in 1 Peter 3:7, the wife is included as heir … joint heir with the husband in the “gift of life” … referring to eternal life.
1Pe 3:7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
The husband, by God’s design is the head of the home and the wife, yet the wife is equal to the husband in the Faith.
She enjoys equal spiritual privileges and an equal eternal destination. My point however is, that because of Jesus’ sacrificial death, Christians enjoy the gracious gift of life. Remember:
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
God’s grace is a gift … and His grace is life.
1 Joh 5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
This life is not a physical life. It has nothing to do with the body of flesh and bones. This life is spiritual. It is eternal. It is other worldly. You cannot live in the flesh in the spirit world … the body dies and decays … but the soul lives forever … and once the soul is made alive through the New Birth (being born again), you have life to the full! This life to the full is not just for the here and the now living for Jesus and enjoying it … it includes eternal life in the splendor of God’s holy, majestic, radiant presence. That is true life and that life is secured for all believers. Once again we see something so encouraging, so thrilling and so motivational. Not only has God given us worthless, undeserving sinners life with Him in His glory, right now He see us as positionally righteous because of that Blood Stained Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here is the great encouragement for today:
Ro 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
It’s not that no one will be against us … many will because we are Christian … but because God is for us it does not matter who is against us! He sees you as righteous right now. You are His beloved. He purchased your soul. He owns you and He has written your destiny as heaven, forever … so what if people are against me … my God, the true living God is for me. That is all that matters!
O Lord my God, the more I dig into the valley of spiritual blessings the more I find that excites my soul, filling me with desire to know more and experience more in Your precious Word as I’m helped by the Holy Spirit. Grant me Your servant a real hunger for the things of God. Amen.