Tuesday, October 08,
2013, 4:30 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Who Believes?” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, your words to my
heart. I read Romans 6 (ESV).
What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no
means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life.
To believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives
means to have faith in all of whom he was and is, and in all that he did and
said. To believe in the name of Jesus means to believe in his divine character,
and his will and purpose for our lives. To have faith that Jesus Christ died on
the cross for our sins, so we could go free from slavery to sin, means to walk
in that freedom and to no longer (in lifestyle) walk according to the ways of
the flesh. Faith in God, though, does not mean perfection; otherwise we would
not need all of these wonderful words of encouragement to spur us on to live
holy and godly lives in Christ.
There are many professing Christians who believe God’s grace
is a free license to keep on sinning without condemnation. May that never be! I
believe one of the big reasons this false teaching has spread throughout
evangelical Christianity today is that a misconception of God’s grace is being
taught. Many are teaching God’s grace absent of repentance and obedience to Christ.
“Faith” then becomes an emotional feeling or decision, or a mere intellectual
acknowledgment of what Jesus Christ did for us in dying for our sins on a
cross, because Romans 6, in principle, is not being taught in the gospel
presentation. People are not being told that coming to Christ means that they
must die with Christ to their sins, and that we must be then raised with him to
walk in newness of life, not in cleaned-up old lives.
For
if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was
crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,
so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been
set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never
die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died
to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must
consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Wow! I wish that the evangelical church here in America
would go back to this central message of the gospel. Not all have abandoned the
true faith, but many have, and it is disheartening. When we come to faith in
Jesus Christ our old life of living for self and sin is brought to death so
that we will no longer be enslaved to sin. Amen! That is GRACE! That is HOPE!
Anything short of that is neither grace nor hope, for it still leaves us in our
sin. If, by true faith and God’s grace, we have truly died to our old lives of
sin, then we have been set free, not from ever sinning again, but from its
grip, its hold, and its control over our lives. We are no longer enslaved to
sin. Amen! Hallelujah! That is the awesome message of God’s grace! What good is
a get-out-of-jail-free card if you are still bound in your sin? Yet, death to
sin is not the end of the story. We are made alive to God in Christ to walk in
freedom from sin, to have eternal life with God, and to walk in Christ’s
righteousness and holiness, all in the power of the working of the Holy Spirit
of God within us, and not in our own flesh.
Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do
not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present
yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your
members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion
over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Coming to Christ, nonetheless, does not mean we have lost
the propensity to sin or that we will never be tempted by it again. I wish that
were so, but it is not. I so look forward to when that will be the case. Even
Jesus Christ, though sinless, was tempted in all ways in which we are tempted.
As long as we live on this earth in these flesh bodies we will still battle
with sin, but we should no longer allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies
again, i.e. sin should no longer have dominion (control) over us to where we
feel as though we just can’t help it. This needs to be taught! I used to
believe that there was still a question of who would win the battle, thinking
Satan still had some control over me or that he was too powerful for me, but
when we truly understand all that God’s grace provided for us, and that Jesus
Christ already won this battle, then “Wow!” what a difference that makes! Jesus
has already given us all we need for life and godliness. We just need to daily
tap into his divine grace, strength and power and allow him to work his will
and his ways in and through our lives instead of us continuing to yield control
of our lives over to the flesh and to Satan.
What
then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death,
or of obedience, which leads to
righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have
become obedient from the heart to
the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free
from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms,
because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your
members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness,
so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to
sanctification.
I believe this whole matter of law and grace is a confusing
subject for those of us who did not grow up under the law in quite the same way
as did the Jewish believers in Christ. Yet, the principle of law and grace
still applies to all of us, because we were all, at one time, under the law.
So, what does it really mean to be no longer under the law but under grace?
Well, for one, it means that, in Christ, we are no longer under condemnation,
i.e. the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal damnation) is no longer applied to
us, because Jesus Christ’s blood sacrifice for our sins paid the price for our
sin so we could go free. Amen! It also means that, wherein the law pointed out
our sin, which is good, and it led us to Christ, it is powerless to save us
from our sins. In other words, even if we could keep the whole letter of the
law, which none of us could, it cannot save us. It only serves to condemn us.
Yet, that is not the end of it. In Romans 3:31 we read: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?
By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” As followers of Jesus Christ,
we are not underneath all the old ceremonial Jewish laws. I don’t believe that
is the law being spoken of here. I believe the law we are to uphold has more to
do with the Ten Commandments, i.e. faith in Jesus Christ does not free us to do
whatever we please. Yet, what Jesus Christ did was take the Ten Commandments
and he summarized them into two laws: 1) You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the
great and first commandment. 2) And a second is like it: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. These laws we are to uphold (sustain; advocate; encourage).
Yet, we don’t have to follow them with absolute perfection or we are “out.”
Yet, does this mean we no longer obey the law? Scripture
teaches that obedience to Christ and to his commands is an essential element to
true abiding faith. In fact, it teaches here that obedience to Christ leads to
righteousness, and that faith in Jesus Christ means we are no longer slaves to
sin, but we have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to
which we are committed. Yet, this matter of obedience is confusing to some
believers, for it is reminiscent to them of a life bound by following the
letter of the law and of legalism, and so they reject it. Yet, scripture
clearly teaches that obedience is required. So, how do we reconcile this? I
believe it goes back to understanding God’s grace.
God’s grace not only brought us into relationship with God
via Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for our sins and via his resurrection back
to life, but it provided the way for us to be free from slavery to sin – from walking
in the flesh – and free to walk in Christ’s righteousness and holiness – to walking
in the Spirit. This is obedience, i.e. God does not just zap us and “poof” we
are now living and walking in his righteousness and we no longer have any
choice in the matter. We are not puppets on a string and no longer have minds
and wills that can still choose sin. Jesus said if any of us would come after
him, we must deny (disallow) our self-life, die daily to sin and self, and
follow (obey) him. Each day that we choose to allow Jesus Christ to live his
life out through us, instead of stepping back into walking in the ways and
patterns of our old flesh life, we are walking in obedience. Yet, it is his
Spirit’s work within us that gives us the power, strength and ability to obey.
For
when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what
fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now
ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to
sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Different translations word verse 20 in different ways, but
I believe most all have the same or similar meaning. I believe this is a very
important verse to understand. When we allow ourselves to come back underneath
the control of sin to where we obey its evil desires, we are thus free from the
control of righteousness. In other words, we can’t live in both worlds at the
same time. We can’t live for the flesh, the world, and our evil desires, and
live and walk in Christ’s righteousness simultaneously. I am not saying that
walking in the Spirit means absolute sinless perfection. It does not. Yet, it
should mean that we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s voice, and that we
should respond immediately to the Spirit’s voice when he convicts us of sin in
our hearts, and that we should confess our sin, and turn from it, and we should
continue walking in faith and in the Spirit of God.
Yet, I do know, from personal experience, that it is
possible for a believer in Jesus, at some point in his or her life, to get
caught up in the ways of the world and the flesh and to follow after those
things once again that Christ Jesus died from which to set us free. And, I can
tell you that there is no fruit gained from the things I am now ashamed of,
though now set free, but only the regret that I wasted that time I could have
been living for the Lord, and did not. Yet, Jesus’ grace lifted me out of that
pit, and he put me on the right path again. Praise Jesus! I love his amazing
grace!
What this passage of scripture is saying to us, I believe,
is to think about where we were before Jesus saved us, to consider carefully
what his grace truly means in our lives and in our walk of faith, and to take
into account the price Jesus paid for us so we would be free from slavery to
sin. I don’t want to ever go back! I pray I never will again. There is never
any benefit to sin. Yet, to walk in freedom in Christ and in his Spirit is
awesome! It is the best life ever! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
It makes no sense at all!
Who Believes? /
An Original Work / October 3, 2013
Based off Isaiah 53
Gospel message, who
believes?
Jesus Christ died on a
tree,
Saving us from all our
sin,
So we might be
cleansed within.
Had no beauty found in
Him,
That we should desire
Him.
Man of sorrows,
suffering;
Crushed for our
iniquities.
Surely He has borne
our griefs;
From our sadness,
brings relief.
Bore the stripes;
forsaken, He,
So forgiven we might
be.
We, like sheep, have
gone astray,
Each of us turned his
own way.
Jesus calls, “Repent
today;
My commandments, now
obey.”
Jesus said, to come to
him,
We must die to all our
sin.
Crucified with Him, we
live,
Walking in His
righteousness.
Suff’ring servants, we
will be,
Taking His identity on
us,
When confessing Him
As our Savior, Lord
and King.
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