I was thinking yesterday how truth spans generations and has untarnished substance. Eternal things are like that. They don't fade or crack or change while everything around them does.
"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for 'All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.' And this word is the good news that was preached to you." - 1 Peter 1:22-25 ESV
The author says that the Gospel of Grace has that eternal quality and it has passed that quality on to us. The message of grace lives with God and we are born of it. It's DNA mixed with the unique DNA of our soul producing a child that Is of God. Instead of creating a new separate person... a new purified person was born in a moment retaining the thoughts and memories of the old but with eternal substance.
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." - 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 ESV
Darkness is a medium for light and this Earthen vessel is a medium for God's treasure to be manifested. Golden divine substance poured in Earthen vessels like pouring something in a mold and letting it set to take shape.
"I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." - Mark 1:8 ESV
"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." - Galatians 3:27 ESV
This treasure is in us by baptism. In other words we have been soaked in something that has made it's way into every spiritual cell and changed it. The outward baptism is not what makes the change it is a representation of the change that was made when God passed through our walls and presented Himself in our soul to make a home in us and provide us a home in Him.
" 'In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.' Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.' " - John 14:2-7 ESV
Grace is presented by the good news of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection on our behalf. God is there in a special way with those words. He has sent them specifically via a messenger of some kind or way unique to the situation and then if the words are received a saving transaction is made... an invisible transforming action... eternal substance is hidden in an earthen vessel.
'Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.' - 2 Timothy 2:20-21 ESV
Gold and silver vessels are used by God for royal use and belong in His house. They have a special place and every believer has a special place prepared in God the Father's kingdom. A 'mansion' to go to. Just as Jesus baptized us and passed through the walls of our life to make a home in us and ignite our human spirit to be intertwined and mingled with His Eternal Spirit we will pass through the walls of death as incorruptible people of substance and be brought to a divine place made just for us in God's house.
Grace prepares us for honorable use. Truth has illuminating substance that glows with life. It is not only accurate... it is living and makes divisions.
"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." - Hebrews 4:11-13 ESV
Grace will cause us to rest and truth will guide us and prune us at the same time.
Grace is what we need today. Truth is what we need. Eternal substance has both of these things. We ring with a certain sound like a tuning fork does when the right note is played because we are made of then same thing if we have believed.
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