In Zechariah 12:10-14, we are taken back a bit - and the Prophet answers for us, how do we come to belong to this immovable, invincible, victorious church? This is what God did for Israel, and it is what he shall do as well for us.
In verse 10 we read - I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, grace and supplication. God will create longing hearts that cry out to Him! The reality and the longing for grace and the realization of that Grace are the product of the will of God. Our cries for grace are not initially what activates the grace of God. Rather our cries for grace are the evidence that the grace of God has already been at work. Our pleas are the fruit of the work of grace by the Holy Spirit's powerful ministry in the hearts of desperately lost people.
Our repentance, our faith, every consequent cry of our hearts have their ultimate source and spring in the inward workings of the Holy Spirit applying the same resurrecting power that brought Jesus forth from the grave to our hearts freeing us too from the grips of sin and death. Grace applies the victory of Christ over every enemy of God - sin, despair, suffering, rejection, death - to a people who did nothing to have deserved such a victory. It is all of Christ and in Christ that we are saved. It is all of Christ and through Christ that we are made to belong to the Church.
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