May 17th, 22

 KEEP A FIRM GRIP

Our readings today are I Kings 3,  II Chronicles 1, Psalm 78, and II Thessalonians 2.  We are reading through the New Living Translation.

Stand firm and keep a firm grip. Paul says,  

With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. (II Thess 2:15-17)

Keep a grip on those things

Where do you stand?  You stand firm in his love, and his grace, and his comfort. What do you keep a grip on?  You keep a grip on your ongoing experience of the Gospel, that is rooted in the Living Word, in Jesus himself.  He is the Good News.

He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (II Thess 2:14)

It starts with the gospel of Christ and it continues in the gospel of Christ.   The gospel is compared to the glory of Jesus Christ.  What is the glory of Christ?  For us, it is Christ in you.  He is your hope and your glory.  That’s the Gospel, not just that Christ has died for your sins, as glorious and wonderful as that is.  But the Good News of the Gospel is that he has also come to re-inhabit you, to live in you, now.  This is the truth that we hold firm to, this Gospel of Christ in you.  

It’s so easy to let that life-giving truth out of our grip.  Other things will come and try to wrestle it from our hands, but we must not let it.  It may be religious things, even, or concern and anxiety about the end times.  That’s what this church was struggling with. We must not lose our grip or move from where we stand.  We must not let our religious anxieties about whether we are doing enough, or the many ways we try to justify ourselves before God, move us.   We must hold firm to the truth that Christ has done a new thing in us, that he’s made us new, forgiven us of our sins, and come to live in us.  That’s where we are going to find that eternal comfort and strength and hope to move forward in life.  

Remember where you stand.  You stand in his love.  Hold firmly to the truth of Christ in you.  This is Kingdom living.

You are loved!