I love how the NIV renders 2 Corinthians 1:21,22: "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."
Did you catch that? It is easy to read something REALLY profound but not stop long enough to drink in its significance. Let's look at the first sentence of that passage again...
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
Who is it that makes you and me stand firm in Christ?
Is it you? Is it me? Is it our good behavior? Is it our staying away from sin? Is it our hard work of reading the Bible, praying, fasting, hoping, pleading...? No, no, a thousand times, NO!
It is God. Period. God is the one who put us in Christ, and it is God who keeps us in Christ. That reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1:30 (NASB): "But by His [God's] doing you are in Christ Jesus..."
It is God's grace that puts us and keeps us in Christ, not our efforts. It is God's power that puts us and keeps us in Christ, not our hard work. It is God's faithfulness that puts us and keeps us in Christ, not our faithfulness.
So if it is not our good works that keep us in, then our bad works will not take us out. We are in Christ because God has done it and God will keep doing it until we are safely brought to Him in heaven (see 1 Peter 1:3-5).
So where is fear? Gone! Where is anxiety? Bye bye! Where is uncertainty and doubt? See ya'! Where is drivenness to perform to keep God's favor? Outta here!
Now, just in case you and I might be tempted to take God's grace for granted and party hearty here on earth (though Romans 6 makes it clear that a true understanding of grace would NEVER bring that result!), God has also anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us and given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment of what is to come.
God's anointing sets us apart from the darkness of sin into the kingdom of light and teaches us what is right and wrong (see 1 John 2:20,27). His seal of ownership...which is currently invisible but will one day be visible (see Revelation 7:3; 9:4)...basically tells those who would harm us, "Hands off! This one belongs to Me and the enemy cannot touch him!" And to seal the deal, so to speak, God has given us His Holy Spirit as a down payment of what is to come!
A down payment! The presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit is the DOWN PAYMENT!!??!! If God Himself is the down payment, what could the rest of the gift possibly be? It blows your mind!
What an incredibly giving, generous, abundantly lavishing God we have! He has taken care of everything. He saved us and placed us in Christ. He anointed us, and protects us with His seal that tells the entire universe of evil..."Don't you dare touch the Lord's anointed!" And as if that weren't enough, He seals the whole deal by placing His very presence in our hearts as we await the final consummation of the ages when God bestows our full inheritance as sons on us in heaven!
And yet some believers still want to mess around with sin and the cheap, counterfeit stuff the world has to offer? Come on! Let yourself be swept up in the grandeur and the wonder of Christ and who you are in Him!
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