July 8

I Thessalonians 5:23 conveys the concept of Christ’s all-sufficiency for our need for salvation to be supplied. Here it says, “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through, make you pure and wholly consecrated to Himself; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The God of peace Himself sanctifies us. The God of peace Himself makes us pure. The God of peace Himself consecrates us by making us blameless to stand before Christ when He returns. Our salvation is complete in Christ. It needs nothing else.

As long as we feel obligated to contribute to the package, we frustrate ourselves and evidence our total lack of understanding of what Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection entailed. As long as we feel our own righteousness, our own goodness, our own love are necessary components of our salvation, we are seeing through a glass darkly.

But, when we see the totality of what we require through the focused lens of faith in Jesus alone, it is then that we begin to clearly distinguish the full provision that He has supplied. When we take our eyes totally away from our frail self and look full in His wonderful face, it is then that the awe and wonder of what He’s done for us makes us sufficient—because HE is all we need!