The guest contributor is Heather Christopher – the oldest daughter of Don Walker, the president of Basileia Ministries. Heather carries a passion to teach on the principles of the Kingdom of God in order to bring believers into maturity.
Truth is something that we are brought to while clinging to our presuppositions. So fragile is our understanding of it, that we are seldom able to give way to its capacity for deliverance. (John 8:32). Instead, we grasp at gleaned scraps; clutching them tightly in our fists, rendering the smallest of truths incapacitated. However, if we were to sincerely serve God, instead of bending our knees to our fears; we would know what it is to truly be free!
Realizing that holiness is for the redeemed. The law of God wasn’t given to save Israel it was given to qualify them to be fit to have God live among them. Christ fulfilled the law, thus He now embodies the law. Inciting His own righteousness, to infer us fit for God to live among us; in us. Salvation is a gift and our holiness a means of honoring such a bestowal.
Our identity is in Christ. Our bridegroom. Just as when a woman takes her husbands name as her own; when she enters into the covenant of marriage. We have taken Christ’s righteousness as our own. He has changed our name from sinner to saint. Not that we be made ashamed of having been sinners, but that we could rejoice in having been made saints!
Israel was, to never forget their struggle in Egypt. In fact, they were to always commemorate their having been delivered from it. We are not expected to cover up what we’ve been, but to delight in whom we have and are to become! It is in our remembering of our plight as sinners that we have grace towards other sinners. To forget or cover up our past transgressions is to become Pharisaical/holier than thou.
We like Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:7) have had our eyes opened to our shortcomings and it is extremely difficult for us to stand before one another that exposed. We scramble to sow fig leaves for ourselves when we have no need of such covering, because we’re covered by the blood. Too many times, however, we have been guilty of having acted like Ham (Gen. 9:22). Making light of others nakedness. The very issue that Christ addresses in Matthew 7:1-5. We need to be concerned more with our own humility rather than with attempting to bring about another’s humiliation.
While it’s true that we’re both sinner and saint concurrently; God doesn’t want us to dwell on having been sinners. But to simply acknowledge it, and dwell in having been made saints. Not in some sort of way, where we are left pretending that we have achieved our final pristine form. For how can one truly appreciate redemption when forgetting what one was confined to? Freedom loses its sweetness when we leave the shadow of captivity.
Having received the righteousness of Christ, our bride groom. As His bride we’ve also received His mantle. What is the mantle of Christ? Let look at Hebrews 2:17. The mantle of Christ is mercy, faithfulness and priestly. The entire Christian walk is about learning to receive and then taking that which we have received and sharing it with others. Because there is nothing that God gives us intending for us to keep it to ourselves. (Matthew 25:14-30) It goes back to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 that he would be blessed and would be a blessing. In the same way, we are comforted that we may be a comfort.
The point I want end on is this: Having morals for salvation sake is empty. Man wasn’t lost to God through immortality, but through unbelief. Adam and Eve trusted the serpent over God. Even from the beginning, it has always been about faith! It is through the demonstration of His faith that Christ saved the world!
