Daily Word
A word of encouragement for your day.
THE ROCK FOUNDATION (4)
"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and …… But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."
Divine revelation is the rock foundation on which we must build our lives.
But that is not enough, say Jesus and his brother James.
It is not enough to be “hearers of the word” – we must be its “doers.”
Divine revelation must lead to divine life.
God’s Word is not a philosophy, religious doctrine, or thought-provoking and sentimental reflections.
It is living and life-changing.
But only if one obeys it uncompromisingly.
We do not know the real power and reality of the Word until it has transformed our lives into its own reality and become the rock foundation on which we build our lives.
How does that happen?
We must dig away all the “sand” from our lives until we come upon the “rock”!
What is the “sand”?
First and foremost, our self-righteousness and all our own achievements and efforts to live the Christian life, in other words, all self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
Our life must be based entirely on God’s grace and nothing else.
Furthermore, the sand is all our spiritual experiences, subjective feelings, and our intellectual
understanding of the Word.
They do not stand the test.
We must be based on the objective and unshakable facts of God’s Word.
Nor does our own decision to follow Christ and our surrender to him suffice, however important this may be.
No, God's eternal election and decision to save and transform us is the unshakable rock foundation that holds when our will and surrender are shaken and wavering (Eph.1:4-5).
Every ounce of deep and stubborn disobedience and all questioning of the directives of God's Word and Spirit must also be dug out. No matter how difficult and tough they may seem in the current situation.
What James is saying is that we must bend forward and look deeply into the Word of God so that it may expose and judge everything that is not in harmony with the life of the Spirit: “the perfect law of liberty.”
We must then obey this law, whatever the cost.
Then we are building our lives on the rock foundation that will withstand all the storms of life.
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