Greetings.
Q: What do your actions say about who you are?
I certainly don’t mean to trip you up here.
Summarizing an event in the Book of Luke, one day as Jesus was teaching to a large crowd of people, His mother and brothers tried to make their way through the throngs of people, but couldn’t reach Him. When someone buddied up to Jesus and mentioned that his mother and brothers were waiting, He simply responded:
“My mother and my brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” (Lu 8:21)
Now, Jesus’ words don’t leave any room for ambiguity. We can deduce that those who are in the family of God actually do what the Word of God says. In fact, many of Jesus’ listeners probably knew He had a mother who gave birth to Him.
The Apostle Paul says:
“So in Jesus, you are all children of God, through faith.” (Ga 3:26)
Jesus’ family is not one of natural birth, but one of rebirth and this happens by faith.
The writer of Proverbs gives the appropriate definition, I think of what a “doer” is:
Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright. (Pr 20:11)
This is one of those verses that is way above my pay grade.
The Bible proposes the idea that one’s character is predominantly shaped by one’s choices and actions over time. Apart from God’s grace, we’re fundamentally incapable of doing what He commands in the Bible. We don’t have it in us. And John the Baptist gives the remedy, “Repent and be baptized.”
When we give our life to Jesus in this way, we trade our old rags for clothes of white, and ultimately (down the line) we are a pure and spotless bride.
And from God’s point of view, this is already a done deal. We are reconciled to our Creator, and able to offer ourselves to God, and as Romans 6:13 suggests, are “those who have been brought from death to life,… instruments of righteousness” in His hand.
I think this is the type of doer that Jesus was envisioning.
I’m excited we will be having a baptism here at the church on Sunday at the end of the sermon. Repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus enables us to hear and to do, to be sons and daughters of God, to be reconciled to our Creator, and to be able to offer ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, instruments of righteousness.
Exciting Times,
Seth
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