Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 8:00 a.m. – the Lord Jesus put the song in mind, “He Lifted Our Burdens.” Speak, Lord,
your words to my heart. I read Galatians
6:1–18 (NIV84).
Don’t Abuse Your Freedom
The
Lord first drew my eyes to Galatians
5:13 (NIV84) where it says:
“You, my brothers, were called
to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature;
rather, serve one another in love.”
So,
what were we called to be free from? Jesus died so that we who have been
crucified with him, by his grace, through faith, have been set free from sin,
and have become slaves of righteousness. When we were slaves to sin, we were
free from the control of righteousness. We have also been set free from the
curse of the law, which is death, i.e. from eternal separation from God and
eternal punishment in hell. Our sins have been pardoned by his grace, so that,
through faith, Christ’s righteousness is now credited to our account. Yet, just
because we have been freed from the curse of the law, and Christ’s
righteousness has now been accredited to our account, we should not abuse that
freedom.
We,
as believers in Christ, still live in flesh bodies, and thus we are still
subject to temptation to sin and we are still capable of sin, otherwise we
would not be given these warnings in scripture to not use our freedom to
indulge in the sinful nature. So, what this means is that, although we have
been set free from sin, it is still possible for us, as believers in Christ, to
still sin, and even to be captivated by sin once again. Thus we have been given
the instruction (exhortation) in Hebrews 12 to throw off everything that
hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us so that we can run with
perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, and not on
our flesh. Yet, some believers will ignore those exhortations and will allow
themselves to be engrossed in sin all over again.
Each Other’s Burdens
Brothers,
if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.
But watch yourself, or you also may
be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will
fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when
he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own
actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to
somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load.
So,
what is our responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ if we have
knowledge that they are engrossed in sin once again? First of all, we should
examine ourselves and we must make certain we are walking in faith and that we
are not giving way to the flesh so that we don’t make a hypocritical judgment,
and so that we don’t try to remove a speck from our brother’s eye while we have
a log in our own. The next step is that we should restore the person gently.
This means that we don’t condemn the person, we don’t write him or her off, we
don’t get even, but we are humble in our approach with them by realizing our
own sinfulness, and that it is only by God’s grace that we have been set free.
Our object is not to put the person down but to lovingly confront him or her
with their sin, and then to show them the way out of their sin, as well as to
be there to support, encourage, strengthen, and love them along the way so that
they do not become discouraged and give up.
Yet,
when trying to help a drowning person, we must be careful that we are not
pulled down with them. We have to have our own guards up so that we don’t get
sucked in to the same or a similar sin. We must daily put on the armor of God
so that we can stand against the devil’s schemes. We must be engrossed (immersed)
in Christ. Christ and his word must be at the forefront of our lives, like a
shield or an armed force with which to fight off Satan’s attacks against us. We
live in the world, but we should not be part of the world’s system. We should
come out and be separate, even if it means being mocked, lied about,
mistreated, rejected and forsaken in return. We must find our refuge in Christ,
not in the things or the people of this world or even in the worldly church.
Yet, we should do so with all humility and with love and with a desire to serve
and to minister to people’s needs.
Lastly,
we must carry each other’s burdens. A burden is an excessive weight. In
context, this could be a direct reference to the burden of sin that a believer
in Christ has brought upon himself (or herself). If the sin is against us
personally, until the person repents of sin, we may bear the weight (results)
of that sin against us, but we should do so by responding with love, forgiveness,
humility, servanthood, by speaking the truth in love, and by finding our rest,
hope and source of strength and encouragement in Christ. We may also do so by
carrying that person’s burden of sin to the Lord in prayer, or by empathizing
with him or her in their entrapment to sin, feeling compassion upon them, and
grieving over their sin through tears and prayers to the Lord, who is the only
one who can remove that burden from them as they willingly forsake their sin
and choose to walk in Christ’s righteousness.
Reaping What we Sow
7
Do not be deceived:
God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows
to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one
who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let
us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of
believers.
Scripture teaches us
that if, after we have professed Christ as Savior and Lord, we still continue
to walk in the flesh (in darkness), then we don’t really know Christ/God, but
we have just made a superficial confession of him. So, don’t be deceived! We
are not saved by a mere confession or profession of faith, but we are saved by
the blood of Christ, and by his offering for our sin, and by his grace, but
also by faith which submits itself to the cross of Christ and willingly allows
the Spirit of God to transform us away from slavery to sin to new life in
Christ, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (See Eph. 2:8-9;
4:17-24; Ro. 6; Tit. 2:11-14; Ac. 26:16-18; Gal. 2:20; and 1 Jn. 1-5, et al).
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we die to sin. How can we live in it any
longer?
The Lord Jesus gave
me an encouraging word here with regard to not becoming weary in doing good,
doing good to all people, and reaping a harvest if we do not give up. He gave
me a picture both of a humble, submissive and loving response to being
mistreated, i.e. due to being the object (target) of other people’s sins, but
also of continuing to speak the truth in love - in loving confrontation,
through humility and servanthood, putting my security and refuge in Christ,
putting on his armor daily, and encouraging and exhorting the body of Christ to
do some housecleaning (spiritually), i.e. in ridding themselves of the works of
the flesh, the weights of sin and idolatry, and the ways of this sinful world.
He said that if I do not give up, I (we who serve him in this way) will reap a
harvest! Amen!
Trying to Compel You
12
Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised.
The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of
Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they
want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. 14 May
I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the
world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 16
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.
17
Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks
of Jesus.
We, in the United
States of America, and in the 21st Century, are not being faced with
this specific issue of adding circumcision to our faith, yet there is still a
lesson to be learned here, for this symbolizes putting our confidence in the
flesh, or adding the works of the flesh to our faith or to our daily walks with
Christ. So, are we, as believers in Christ, being pressured into a walk of
faith based upon the flesh of man? Most certainly! We are being bombarded with
all kinds of materials written by human beings, supposedly of Christian origin
and purportedly Biblically-based, which have little to do with the word of
Truth, and which frequently teach what is in direct opposition to God’s word,
but they do it so smoothly so that it looks good and sounds good, but it is
full of pitfalls, lies and deceptions. And, yet the people of God oftentimes
follow the materials blindly without any thought to challenge what is being
taught to see if it is consistent with scripture. So, beware false teaching,
for it comes in sheep’s clothing! We must examine everything we hear against
the word of God.
Many of these
materials give a script for us to follow, but we must make certain that the
script is written by God and not by human beings who are following other human
beings. We are to be led of the Spirit in what we do, not led of man. A lot of
what is passed off as spiritual food is unclean. We need to examine the “food”
we are given to see if it is of God, and we need to reject what is not. The
Lord Jesus gave me a picture here, though, that the pure word of God (food that
is clean) is becoming scarce, i.e. it is rarely being offered anymore, as so
many have gone to following the teachings and philosophies of human beings over
the teachings of Christ and his word.
Yet, we must be
prepared that if we stand for what is right, and we deliberately examine what
is being taught in today’s church, and we don’t readily accept whatever we
hear, i.e. we don’t accept a gospel which pleases the ears of the masses, but
we hold strong to the gospel as taught by the apostles, that we may be paraded
as the apostles were before us, put on display, condemned to die, made a
spectacle of and treated like garbage to be thrown out and discarded. We must
be prepared to be despised, rejected, hated, persecuted falsely, have lies told
about us, suffer false accusations and to be made to look like fools before the
world. Yet, we must remain constant and patient in battle, realizing that,
though the world or the worldly church forsake us, God will never leave us or
abandon us. Though the worldly church may cast us off as garbage, we are
precious to God! Amen! We should never shrink back from bearing the cross of
Christ in order to receive the approval of men.
He Lifted Our Burdens
/ An Original Work / February 15, 2014
Based off Isaiah 9:2-7
People walk in
darkness.
They abide in their
sin.
It has power o’er
them.
True belief escapes
them.
Jesus Christ came to
save them.
He gave His life up
for them;
Crucified; died for
our sin,
So we might be
forgiven,
And have life up in
heaven.
Many come to know Him.
God’s love now
o’erflows them.
They rejoice in vict’ry.
Their sin is but
hist’ry.
We were once bound in
slav’ry.
Jesus lifted our
burdens;
Set us now free from
Satan,
So we now walk in
freedom.
Sin has no more
dominion.
Praise be to our
Savior!
He showed us His
favor.
He took all our
burdens;
Cast them all upon
Him.
He is our mediator;
The Light which shines
in darkness.
Counselor in our
troubles;
He gives peace now in
our hearts;
Joy which is
everlasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment