Matthew 13:44-46
Luke 14:25–33
Ian Thomas in ‘The Saving Life of Christ’ writes:
‘Christ in you, on the grounds of redemption – this is the gospel!
To preach anything less than this must inevitably produce
‘Evan-jellyfish’ folk with no spiritual vertebrae, whose faith does not ‘behave’!
Do you remember what James says in his epistle? ‘As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also’ (James 2:26) The ‘spirit’ there means breath, and a body without breath is dead. Stop breathing – and folk will bury you! In other words a LIVING BODY breathes, and a LIVING FAITH breathes, and a living faith breathes with DIVINE ACTION. A living faith breathes with the activity of JESUS CHRIST. That is why the Lord Jesus, in John 6:29, said; This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.’
That is the work of God. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who IS IN YOU, which releases HIS divine action THROUGH YOU. It is the kind of activity that the Bible calls ‘good works’ as opposed to ‘dead works.’ ‘Good works’ are those works that have their origin in JESUS CHRIST – whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence.”
CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY!!!!!!!
