Saturday, September
8, 2012, 5:45 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with this song playing
in my mind:
Near the Cross / Fanny J. Crosby / William H. Doane
Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Galatians 5:1-17 (NIV 1984):
It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery.
Mark my words! I,
Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no
value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be
circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to
be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from
grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for
which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has
any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
You were running a
good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of
persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works
through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will
take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the
penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why
am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been
abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and
emasculate themselves!
You, my brothers, were
called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature;
rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single
command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring
each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
So I say, live by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the
sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature.
True Freedom
Christ set us free so that we would be free and no longer under
a burden of the yoke of slavery. Now, in this particular instance, Paul was
speaking of slavery under the law, yet Christ set us free from other things, as
well, such as slavery to sin, to legalism, to idolatry, to man-made religion
and to works-based salvation (trying to earn our salvation by following a set
of external rules, regulations or religious rituals). If we think we can earn
our salvation by following a set of external rules and religious practices,
then we are alienated from Christ and we have fallen away from grace. Likewise,
if we think Christ does it all and nothing is required of us and that we can
continue in sin, idolatry and man-made religion of any sort and still claim to
know Christ, then we are, as well, alienated from Christ and have fallen away
from true grace.
In contrast, Paul said that “by faith we eagerly await
through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.” Externals have no
value at all, whether partakers or abstainers. The only thing that counts is
faith expressing itself through love. In other words, faith is not stagnant, it
is not an emotional one-time experience or decision, it is not acceptance of or
adherence to a particular set of rules, doctrines or religious practices, etc.
Even the demons believe, and they shudder. True faith proves itself genuine
through obedience to Christ and through action resulting from the faith, i.e.
faith expressing itself through love for God and love for others (see Hebrews
11 and 1 John).
If you are inside your house, it is on fire, and I tell you
that it is on fire and the only way out is to jump out the window into a safety
net (representing salvation by grace), will you:
·
Remain in the building?
·
Try to reach the safety net while still holding
on to the building?
·
Crawl down the side of the building slowly and
gradually toward the safety net?
·
Or, jump?
These four choices represent four approaches to the gospel
and to salvation, but only the fourth one is the correct choice (see Matthew
13:1-23 – Parable of the Sower). We can reject the gospel entirely, nothing
changes, and we will burn up in hell. Or, we can make a pretense of acceptance
or buy into a false gospel that does not require death to your old life
(jumping out of the building into the net) by trying to grab hold of the safety
net while still holding on to the burning building, and we will burn up in
hell. Or, we can buy into the false gospel that requires no death to the old
life and gives us the impression that we can kind of grow into letting go of
our old lives of sin (the crawling down the building slowly and gradually
toward the safety net), and still burn up in hell. Or, we can let go of our old
lives of sin, and jump into the arms of Jesus (the safety net), totally
abandoned to him, trusting our lives now into his hands with full surrender and
obedience to his commands, will and purpose for our lives, and we will live
with him in eternity.
Running a Good Race
Paul often used the image of a race to describe the
Christian life (faith that is not stagnant). He said we should run in such a
way as to get the prize (1 Co. 9). The author of Hebrews said that we should
throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run
with perseverance the race marked out for us. How? – By fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy (of our
salvation) set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame (Hebrews 12).
And, Paul said that we, as soldiers of Jesus Christ, should want to please our
commanding officer, Jesus Christ. We should compete as an athlete according to
the rules, and we should serve Christ like a hardworking farmer (2 Tim. 2).
Again, true faith is not stagnant. Christ does not do it all and require
nothing of us. There are rules we must follow, which include turning from our
sin (repentance – jumping out of the building), obedience (jumping into the
safety net), loving God and loving others. The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love.
Who cut in on you? What came to mind here is a couple (you
and Jesus) dancing together and another person interrupting your dance with
Jesus and claiming you as his or her partner. You are not dancing with Jesus
and the other person, too, in other words. This other person has interrupted
your dance with Jesus through lies and deception and has convinced you to dance
with him (or her) instead. What a picture! This other person can be a legalizer
who convinces you that you have to follow a set of external rules, such as religious
rituals and practices in order to be right with God. For instance, someone may
tell you that you have to give a tithe or follow the Sabbath or go to a
building called a church on a Sunday morning and go through a particular set of
religious practices for you to be in a right standing with God. You do not! We
are free from the law!
Yet, the person who cuts in on your dance with Jesus may
also be a libertine, i.e. one who teaches all-grace, i.e. that Christ does it
all and that nothing is required from us. He may tell you that Christ does not
require repentance and obedience for salvation and thus he would give you the
license to continue in your sin. This is a lie! Christ died so we would be
free, not only from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal damnation), but so we
would be free from slavery of sin day-to-day. Notice this person who cuts in
keeps you from “obeying” the truth. This kind of persuasion does not come from
God, but from Satan. So, if anyone is telling you that you do not have to turn
from your sin and you do not have to obey Christ, realize they have “cut in” on
your dance with Jesus and that their persuasion does not come from God, but
from Satan.
Offense of the Cross
Paul said, “If I am still preaching circumcision, why am I
still being persecuted?” In other words, his persecution was the result of him
preaching freedom in Christ and that we are no longer under the law. Jesus
faced the same kind of persecution and for many of the same reasons. Paul also
strongly taught that we must leave our lives of sin behind us and we must
follow Jesus Christ in full obedience and surrender to him and to his will for
our lives, and they persecuted him for that, too. Salvation by grace is neither
legalistic nor libertine. We are set free both from the strict adherence to a
set of external requirements and we are set free from slavery to (the mastery
of) sin. True grace; the true gospel teaches both.
So, I have another question to pose: “If you are preaching
the true gospel (the offense of the cross), then why are you not being
persecuted, hated and/or rejected for the message?” Perhaps it is because you
are not preaching the true gospel, which is supposed to be an offense and the
smell of death to those who are perishing in their sin (see Ro. 9:32-33; 1 Co.
1:23). Paul (speaking God’s God-breathed words) said that we are called to be
free but that we should not use our freedom to indulge in the sinful nature.
When we teach that repentance is not necessary for salvation, then we are
giving people a free license to continue in their sin. Rather, we are to serve
one another in love. In other words, if we truly love people, we will not sin
against them in any way.
Live by the Spirit
Instead of gratifying our sinful natures, we are to live by
the Spirit of God, because the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the
Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. I wish we would
get this! You can’t hold on to the burning building and try to hold on to
Christ, too! We can’t have it both ways. The only way out of the burning
building is to jump, i.e. to let go of our old lives of sin and to trust Christ
Jesus completely with our lives (to trust in his Lordship).
We can’t please ourselves and Christ, too. Jesus wants us
totally abandoned to him; fully surrendered. This is how we are to live day-by-day
and moment-by-moment. This is a radical change of lifestyle from what we lived
outside of faith in Christ. It is not something we just gradually and slowly
grow into, like growing into fidelity in a marriage, though we certainly grow
in our faith and obedience to Christ, just as a husband and wife grow together.
Yet, if we begin with Christ thinking we can just sort of roll our way into
obedience and kind of take it in increments, then we have begun with the wrong
attitude in mind, just like if we begin a marriage thinking we can slowly and
gradually work toward faithfulness and fidelity. The sinful nature is contrary
to the Spirit and the Spirit is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in
conflict with each other and cannot coexist. We can’t dance with Christ (be his
partner) if we allow someone else to “cut in” and leave Christ out.
Jesus, Lead Me / An Original
Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me
all the way.
Be my hope and
be my stay.
Gently lead me
where I should go,
So Your Spirit,
I want to know.
Open up my
heart to You.
Fill me with
Your love and truth.
Make my heart
want to obey.
Be my Lord
today. Gently lead always.
Jesus, lover of
my soul,
Cleanse my
heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed
in my heart today,
As I turn from
my sin and pray.
Make Your will
known to my heart.
May I not from
You depart.
How I long to
hear You now,
As I humbly
bow. Jesus, hear me now.
No comments:
Post a Comment