Christ's People: Their Wealth, Work, and Witness

In a relatively brief space, the inspired Apostle Paul packed a series of memorable statements that furnish for the readers of this chapter a shining picture of the way in which Christians should live in this world. They live as those who know where they are headed and so can live without any fear about the future. They also know the reality that all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, a place that will be terrifying to those who are not in Christ. So Christians warn others to flee from that coming wrath while there is time to escape it. Everything in the Christian life rests on the substitutionary sacrifice that Paul expounds in the final verse of the chapter. Without the vicarious atonement of Christ, there is no way to be delivered from the wrath to come and no way to live in peace and confidence in this world.