There's More To The Story

Have you ever tried to tell a story and for, whatever reason, you left parts out? We’ve all done it and the result is always the same - the story gets confusing. The story of God’s desire to save mankind is not different. Too often we tell the part of the story about forgiveness and how that cleanses us from our sins, but fail to share the rest of the story. Let me illustrate by using canning as an example.

Let’s say that you are going to preserve some peaches. The first thing you have to do is to sterilize the containers. This is an important step because sterilizing the containers preserves the peaches from spoiling.

Someone comes into your kitchen while you are cleaning the containers and asks why you’re cleaning them and your response is, “I just like to keep them clean.” The story doesn’t make sense. Cleaning jars for the sake of just having clean jars makes the story incomplete. It’s only part of the story, but this is exactly what we’ve done with the story of God’s salvation for mankind. We typically only tell about God’s sterilizing process - the cross - and neglect to share about God’s filling process - Christ living in us.

Too many times we are guilty of teaching only half the gospel. We teach about how the cross of Christ brings forgiveness of our sins, but fail to communicate a big part of the story that involves receiving the life of Christ. Christ’s paying the penalty for sin on the cross was so that we could be cleansed from our sins. That was done so that he could then fill us with Christ “without spoiling.”

There’s even more to this story. Like canning, cleaning the container is just the beginning. It’s cleaned so that it can be filled. Just as a fruit container is sterilized so that it can be filled with fruit without spoiling, we are cleansed from all unrighteousness by Christ’s cleansing power so that we can be filled with the life of Christ.

However, there is one more piece to complete the story. After sterilizing and filling the jars with fruit, they are sealed. Sealing keeps the good things in and the bad things out.

The Bible says: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”

Cleansing, filling, and sealing tells the whole story of God’s salvation. The Bible says that this seal is a guarantee that we will be preserved until our inheritance is complete.

There is so much more to the story of God’s salvation than simply being cleansed and forgiven. The very life of Christ fills us so that we can live free from the destruction of sin. Being sealed by God’s Spirit guarantees that we belong to him. There’s the whole story.

Learn more at www.newlifeonline.com or follow Steve Lingenfelter on Twitter, @stevOLL.