Keeping it All Together

I haven’t mentioned the title of this blog for a while; I’ve let the passage from 1 Corinthians under the title explain the strange name. We are new lumps by the sovereign power of God. It is God who declares sinners to be righteous because of Christ.

My ‘Word for the Week’ post on ‘dissipation’ left an unresolved chord. How do we avoid wasting our lives? What is the secret to getting rid of the yeast of malice, wickedness, dissipation, debauchery and profligacy? How do we get it together?

Again, we must focus on what God has done for us in Christ. Our comfort and security is found in His power to save and keep: . . . he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25 ESV).

In Colossians 1, we read that in Christ, all things hold together. For those without hope, who have plunged into a flood of dissipation, Christ, and only Christ, can put them back together. Even as Christians, if we are deceived and begin to rely again on works of the law for our right standing before God, we will find our lives coming apart at the seams.

Our greatest need is reconciliation with God through Christ. God calls his people to Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we who were dead are made alive and united to Christ forever. When speaking on behalf of His sinful people before the Father, Christ was heard. His righteous life, propitiatory death and the vindication of His resurrection are the reason that we may boldly come before the throne of grace. Justification and adoption into God’s family is by God’s grace through faith in Christ. This is the pinnacle of human significance, hope and wholeness forever.

So much of modern evangelicalism is sold out to moralism and individual spirituality. I was just talking to a friend who is having a very hard church finding a church that actually preaches the gospel. There are pockets of reform – I’m pleased to see the number of doctrinally sound bloggers out there, for instance – but there is much work to be done in terms of calling God’s people back to the centre.

God did it all, salvation is of the Lord. Only God can knit together the scattered bones of His people and breathe life into them. What a privilege it is to preach to those bones and watch God work through His Word and power.