Sovereign Grace of God - The Believers Task

SOVEREIGN GRACE OF GOD Concerning 'The Gospel' LORD JESUS CHRIST Grounded In Biblical Truth
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There is an area of Christ's work in which the Christian can and is, in fact, mandated to follow Jesus. He is our example, our leader, our King, and His wish is our command. We, therefore, as citizens of His Kingdom wish to be entirely obedient to him. And there is a glorious area of Christ's ministry where we can follow and are indeed mandated to follow.

Christ preached the Gospel. During his ministry He declared to the multitudes that the Kingdom of God was at hand. And this is the mandate He gives to God's man, the believer.

Go therfore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The born again Christian, who has been adopted into the family of God and who has become citizen of the kingdom headed up by Christ, declares to the world what Christ has done at the cross.

This is why he is called an ambassador of Christ. The Christian himself is the evidence of Christ's victory on the cross. This is the only area of the cosmos where the effect of Christ's work on the cross can be seen on this side of judgment day. The redeemed soul of the Christian is the only portion of the cosmos that is changed because of the cross. The creatures and the earth must await judgment day before the evidence of Christ's victory will be seen in them.

But even in God's man the victory of the cross is not manifested as a total victory. While his soul has been transformed--it needs no further changing to enter heaven--his body, his old nature, has not been changed at all as a result of the cross.

But because man is an integrated personality consisting of both body and soul, it is in his body that he can first demonstrate the power of Christ in his life. When he became a citizen of Christ's kingdom, he was freed from bondage of Satan, in both body and soul. While his soul was renewed by the Holy Spirit (he was born-again), his body was unchanged. It still bears all the desires of the natural man. It still lusts after the world. But it was freed from Satan's power. This is the reason the Christian longs for the resurrection of the body. The resurrected body is the hope of the Christian.