<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.<\/p>\n
\u2013John 3:36<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The primary evidence that you are a Christian is not your profession of faith; it is your obedience to God. Walking in Christ proves that you belong to Christ.<\/p>\n
In John 14:15, Jesus said, \u201cIf you love Me, you will keep My commandments.\u201d And in John 3:36, He said, \u201cHe who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not\u00a0obey<\/em>\u00a0the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him\u201d (emphasis mine). If you believe in Christ, you\u2019re going to have a desire to follow Christ.<\/p>\n
The corollary of that is sobering: if your life is no different from that of the average non-Christian, then you may be in church every Sunday, but you are not in Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul said, \u201cIf anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.\u201d That doesn\u2019t mean the change happens the minute you\u2019re saved. But the process of sanctification\u2013that is, becoming more like Christ\u2013is always moving forward in a true believer\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
To illustrate the growth that should be occurring in our relationship with Christ, Paul used an illustration from agriculture: \u201cWalk in Him, having been firmly rooted\u201d (Colossians 2:6\u20137). The tense of \u201chaving been firmly rooted\u201d denotes an action that was completed at a point in time. Paul was referring to salvation. You were saved at a point in time, just as a seed is planted at a point in time.<\/p>\n
If Paul had written Colossians for his English class, he would have flunked for mixing metaphors. Notice his switch from agriculture to architecture: \u00a0\u201cWalk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith\u201d (vv. 6\u20137). The phrase \u201cbeing built up\u201d could be translated as \u201ccontinuing to be built up.\u201d Being planted in the faith is a once-for-all action; being built up in the faith is an ongoing construction project.<\/p>\n
Several years ago, our church completed the construction of a brand-new campus. When we finished the foundation, we didn\u2019t have a giant ribbon-cutting celebration. It was a milestone event, but it was simply the beginning of an even greater process. It is the same way in our Christian lives. So many Christians make salvation the end event in their spiritual lives. Yes, receiving Christ is a milestone event, but it\u2019s just the beginning of your relationship with God. God\u2019s plan for you is to be continually built up in the faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. \u2013John 3:36 The primary evidence that you are a Christian is not your profession of faith; it is your obedience to God. Walking in … Continue reading “Pathway to Victory – Devotion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190853,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190850\/revisions\/190853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}