May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14) Critics of the Christian doctrine of trinity usually posit that the Bible does not explicitly mention trinity. However, the infallible word of God has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Godhead is made of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The three are co-equal with distinguishing roles. All were involved in creation and in the regeneration of the sinful man. As believers, we experience the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
‘Koinonia’, the Greek word for fellowship implies an intimate unity. When we have koinonia with the Holy Spirit, we have a personal relationship with Him. We interact with Him. We speak to Him and we hear Him. The Holy Spirit is a person and any relationship with Him must consider His personality. We should be aware that we can grieve Him, make Him angry and even quench His presence in our lives. Only born again believers can have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. Of course the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin but His residence is in the regenerated man. We should seek daily to commune with Him and hear from Him. The Holy Spirit teaches, leads, guides, gives illumination into scriptures, etc. To develop a personal relationship with Him, we need to spend time with Him in prayer, in word and make a conscious effort to hear His voice each day.
The Grace of God
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:10a KJV) I can not claim anything I have which was not by the grace of God and I know many believers share similar conviction. Whatever we have now, it is just by the grace of God. The Father in his great love for us sent His begotten Son to die for our sins. If not for love, why will a just God send His Son to die for an unjust people? But, mercy spoke for us. God didn’t let us go like a sheep without a shepherd. Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross has paid for our sins once and forever. That is GRACE. Every believer has been bestowed upon with grace to do exploits, to influence your world and to bring men to the saving knowledge of Christ. We have been saved to save others. We should be loving enough to share with our friends and family who do not know the Lord. Don’t hesitate to tell the world of God’s grace and how He redeemed you from the kingdom of darkness to His glorious light. We should appropriate the grace on us to rescue the perishing, care for the dying and snatch people from the highway to hell. Let us remember to appreciate God for His grace unto us. Let us use every opportunity to tell someone of this grace. We might not be at our destination in life, but we should not be ashamed to share with the world what God has done, what He is doing and what He will do. When God places you on a bicycle, don’t ask how I will paddle since my feet are high up. He will make grace available for you to get to your destination without paddling. Be thankful for His GRACE. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) Imagine if we were to buy our way to salvation; what would have been your payment to God for Salvation? Few years ago, an East African millionaire commanded that his family bury him with 1000s of dollars to be able to pay for access to heaven. As funny as this sounds, the family heeded to his commands. When images of his dollar cladded corpse surfaced in the media, the government of his country ordered the excavation of the coffin to remove the money and it was done! He couldn’t even bribe his local government and he wanted to bribe God. What a joke! The entire process of salvation is grace. We have been saved by grace through faith. It is not from ourselves. How do I know if I am saved? Have you genuinely accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you forsaken your past sins and put on the new life that comes from Christ? As born again Christians, we have the assurance of salvation. You should have the confidence that you are saved. When you do, it influences your way of life and your thinking. Our salvation is not by our works so we do not boast of securing our way to Heaven. The exciting part is, when we are saved, we live daily to reflect Christ. As Ephesians 2:10 put it; “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We are saved by grace. After we are saved, God expects us to do good works. If good works alone could save, then Cornelius would have made it to Heaven without the Gospel being preached to him (Acts 10). So, doing good works should come naturally to us because we have been saved to show forth the nature of Christ.
When the Grace of God meet Koinonia, the body of Christ is transformed and made ready for the Lord. We will focus on the Love of God in another post.
Pray with me Dear Lord, thanks for Your love for mankind that has brought us salvation through grace. May I be a blessing to another person today. May the Christ in me be reflected by the works I do in Jesus’ name. Amen
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