HCC Weekly - February 17th
- rachael6517
- Feb 17
- 2 min read
Pastor Joy
Today marks day 48 of our bible reading plan! What a journey we are on together! I'm praying that God continues to reveal himself to us more and more as we dig deeper and deeper into the Word!
And now for your weekly devotional...
Don't add to the Gospel
Luke 24:42 "Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And Jesus replied, 'I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.'"
The thief on the cross claims Jesus as Messiah, Christ tells him he will be in paradise today. Essentially, the thief has no time or days to work out his salvation. He cannot do good works, read his bible, attend church, volunteer, give tithe, nothing. Christ knows his heart, just like he knows each of our hearts. The thief is saved.
Philippians 3:2, "Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved."
Philippians 3:8-9 "Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
Paul shares with the Philippian church that faith in Christ is what saves us, not the cultural traditions like circumcision, but faith in Christ alone. There is nothing tangible by works that you can do to be saved.
The Gospel is simple, mysterious to non-believers (maybe believers as well), but never-the-less simple. Christ alone saves us. The enemy may try to lie and deceive the world into thinking, "There must be something more I have to do?!" "What am I missing? There may even be shame involved in your thinking. But Christ came, and that's it, nothing else is to be added. Let the simple saving grace of Christ give you peace, knowing that our salvation is a gift. Thank you Lord that your gospel is Jesus Christ alone, nothing added. We cannot work harder for it, we cannot earn it. Christ is enough!