•I Corinthians 1:4-9
•The Space Between
•4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
(I Corinthians 1:4-9, ESV)
•I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
(I Corinthians 1:4, ESV)
•that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—
(I Corinthians 1:5, ESV)
•even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—
(I Corinthians 1:6, ESV)
•so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(I Corinthians 1:7, ESV)
•who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(I Corinthians 1:8, ESV)
•God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
(I Corinthians 1:9, ESV)
•Main Point
•This portion offers thankfulness
•The thanks given is to God
•Specifically God’s grace given to them
•Application Points
•The Space Between
•Christ is very much the focus for Paul and the desire to honor Him above all else is apparent
•Christ is our ultimate foundation
•Without Jesus…we would still be in our sins and utter darkness
•The illumination Christ provides is worthy of rejoicing over
•We can be transformed into the likeness of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit within us
•Paul reminds us when the transformation begins
•It is the Gospel that ushers us into the kingdom of God
•That is also the first warning
•We forget that we have been changed here and now, and that right now we are in the kingdom of God
•
•Application Points
•The Space Between (2)
•Yet we recognize the great tension of being in the space between
•We have been saved from sin, yet we struggle with sin
•We have salvation from death, and yet we still die
•“Someone may have been saved (past) decisively from a sinking ship but as the lifeboat brings him or her through choppy, uncomfortable seas (present), the final safe landing on the solid shore lies still ahead (future).” –Thiselton, 99
•We are in the choppy waters
•We are in the struggle of the world in which darkness and light are in flux
•Despite the ability for us to go wrong even after the illumination of Christ…we can still be thankful
•It is when we focus off Christ and onto ourselves, we find our greatest problems occurring
•
•Application Points
•The Space Between (3)
•This is the case with many when it comes to congregations
•They will begin to let the cracks take up the whole
•Rejecting the Church as hypocrites
•It also leads to people separating themselves from the Church body
•They do not need the body of Christ, they do not need others in fellowship
•They believe they have made it to the shore, but they are still in the life boat
•Is this what Paul does, does he focus only on the cracks?
•He focuses on the good graces of God and gives thanks for the good knowing the good comes from God
•
•Application Points
•The Space Between (4)
•If only we could do the same
•Not a bland faulty love…that leads to death
•But love that sees God’s grace in others and trusting God’s ways lead to righteousness and life
• What about the individual who believes they do not need others?
•There is thankfulness over the corporate identity of the kingdom of God as there is the individual
•The “you” in these verses are the “you all” and “you all” have been enriched
•Each person being enriched in a particular way encouraging and blessing one another showing the faithfulness of God
•Application Points
•The Space Between (5)
•God has graced us with Himself personally, but He has also enriched us with each other
•We can remain humble recognizing we are not perfect in our own lives
•God has given us Himself and each other in order to help us in the space between
•“As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end.”
•We will be sustained through the person of Jesus who is with us
•If we take our eyes off Christ then we will be swallowed up in the cracks
•Application Points
•The Space Between (6)
•How do we know we will be sustained should we follow Christ?
•Because God is faithful
•We know Christ laid down His life for the glory of His Father which leads to our salvation, our fellowship, with Him and each other
•The space between is a hard place for us
•“O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be, let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee, Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, here’s my heart, O, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above”
•If we are honest we will acknowledge we have such wandering hearts, yet by God’s grace in our humility He binds us to Himself
•
•Application Points
•The Space Between (7)
•As such we can know we are not alone
•We can give thanks because we know the way is secure
•It is in Him we find sanctification
•We have fellowship with Him, and each other
•The foreshadowing is clear
•We are going to be warned that we are not there yet, and that we are responsible day in and day out to walk humbly before our God
•The space between is a place such as this, a place of struggle, a place of failure, and a place of incredible victory and joy in Christ
•It is in Him we find our satisfaction
•Our God is faithful, and we rejoice knowing that this is true even in the space between
•
•Application Points
•The Gospel of Christ
•Origins
•Where it begins
•Fall
•What went wrong
•Redemption
•How it is fixed
•Glorification
•Where it at leads
