Romans 5:1(NLT) states, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to save us, and we desperately needed to be rescued. Adam, the first man, sold us into the slavery of sin and darkness. Said another way, because of Adam’s disobedience toward God, sin became our master, therefore, satan was our master, because sin comes from his kingdom. Romans 5:17(NLT) says, “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.” Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, saved and redeemed us from this wretched curse. Now, we are free, and Galatian 5:1(MSG) proclaims, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” We are free in Christ! His example sets the boundaries of our promised land!
We can learn much from the Old Testament about the importance of meeting God’s requirements so that we are covered under His blessings and care. In Deuteronomy 28:1-4,6-9(NLT), God set the parameters of His blessing. These verses state, “1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. 2 You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: 3 Your towns and your fields will be blessed. 4 Your children and your crops will be blessed. 6 Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. 7 “The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! 8 “The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9 “If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do.”
We can see very clearly that God’s blessings follow our obedience to keep His Word and to do what it says. He tells us in Malachi 3:6 that He doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When Heavenly Father establishes a precedent, He does it perfectly. Just as He mightily blessed His people living in Old Testament times, He will do even more so for His children living today. The condition upon which His promise rests is that of obedience to His Word.
God wants us to walk in His love, and we do this by living through Jesus Christ. This means that we must talk, think, and act like Christ. We must do the things that Christ did, and God has empowered us through His Word to get this done.
When it comes to uplifting God’s Kingdom, our mouths are the greatest tools in our possession. In John 7:16-18(NLT), Jesus Christ teaches “16 My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. 17 Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. 18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.” We are so apt to speak our own opinions and assumptions, or we repeat what we’ve heard from others. Sometimes these words are not seasoned with God’s love. They aren’t encouraging or they are not the truth according to what God has told us in His Word.
Our mission and responsibility as God’s children are to speak God’s truth, and to do it in love. In Ephesians 5, God tells us to avoid those who use hollow words to entice us. They are trying to dismantle our faith so that we will not please God. The last thing any of us should want to do is to be grouped in with folks like these. Before we knew Christ and gave our lives to him, we were once trapped in this same darkness, doing things that were beneath the privilege Christ has given us. Now, we know better and we must do better. We have come into the light of Christ, and everything that we do should be illuminated by God’s love and light; for we are now children of His light.
God has given us spiritually mature leaders to help equip us in the faith. His goal with this is that we all, each of us, will grow up into the full measure of Christ. He wants us to make sure that darkness totally loses its grip on our lives, and we will no longer be influenced by fly-by-night people that try to trick us with their lies. Ephesians 5:15(NLT) states, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.”
We cannot allow the world to dictate the amount of faith that we place in the Father, nor should the world ever influence the amount of His truth that we speak. God wants us to know that there is a separation between those that love and honor Him and those that do not. With every moment that passes, we are choosing who we are going to be. God knows what’s in our hearts; He knows those that truly love Him. Our entire reason for being on this earth is to choose to love God and to live through His love. He commands us in Ephesians 4:1(NLT) to “to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.” We do this by living and speaking God’s truth. It’s the most excellent and extraordinary thing than any of us can do.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Speak God’s Truth!”, written for 4theChristianman.com. Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.