Life After Grace

Kiosks and infomercials are wonderful places to discover gidgets and gadgets you never knew you needed. Sometimes you don't even know what it does, even if you buy one. In many respects, someone who is able to convince you to trade your hard-earned money for something you don't even understand is the sign of an effective salesman. While that may seem borderline unethical, what about things that we know aren't gimmicks? What about salvation?

Consider what a person knows about God, Christ, and Christianity before becoming a follower compared to what you'd think they might know after taking the plunge. Sadly, there isn't an app in your head for instant understanding; you just got to see how this actually works.

Since the Church of Christ broke away from the Disciples of Christ in the early 1900's, there has been a concerted effort to help people better understand what it means to become a Christian from a biblical perspective. The Scriptures make it plain what a person needs to know before they should choose to follow Christ – He IS the Messiah, the promised son of God who came to earth, AND He IS the only way through which any of us can become part of God's family. Outside of that there isn't much a person needs to know... yet. After a person realizes their need to be added to Christ's body (God's family) by being baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins, there opens up a whole new world of behavior transformation.

For the most part, the Apostles would spend the rest of their earthly lives helping believers understand life after grace. The Epistles were written to do just that. Colossians is one of several letters (books of the New Testament) written to help us out.

The complaint many new Christians have is that they felt welcomed and included while they were considering becoming a follower, but nearly forgotten once they make the decision. As mature believers, we have to follow the example of the Apostles in spending more time helping believers understand their new life, and not leave them half finished. 2 Peter 2:20 reminds us it would be better never to have known the way, than to have known it and then to fall away.

Let's encourage one another to be students of our faith.