Wednesday, June 3,
2015, 8:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “Jesus, Rescue Me.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Galatians 1:1-12 (NASB).
From This Evil Age
Paul,
an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus
Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren
who are with me,
To
the churches of Galatia:
Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age,
according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore.
Amen.
Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins so that he might
rescue us from this present evil age, i.e. that he might deliver us from all
manner of evil which is in the world, in order that we might be holy, unlike
the world, because we are becoming like Christ. “For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). He rescued us
from the power (or control) of sin and Satan over our lives so that we would no
longer be slaves to sin, but so we would be slaves to righteousness. “…the Lord
knows how to rescue the godly from temptation…” (2 Pet. 2:9). “Now to Him who
is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of
His glory blameless with great joy…” (Jude 1:24). He is able to deliver! We do
not have to live in sin any longer! We should no longer walk according to the
flesh.
Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness (See: 1 Pet. 2:24). He died so we would no longer
live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us (See: 2 Co. 5:15). His
grace, which brings salvation, teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and
worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we
wait for his return (See: Tit. 2:11-14). When we believe in Jesus Christ, and
we come to know him as Lord and Savior of our lives, we put off our old lives
of living for sin and self, we are made new in the attitude of our minds via
the power and working of the Spirit of God within us, and we put on the new
self in Christ Jesus, “created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness” (See: Eph. 4:17-24). By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, God “condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the
flesh but according to the Spirit” (See: Ro. 8:3-4). This is God’s grace, to
free us from the power of sin over our lives and to free us to walk daily in
his righteousness and holiness. Amen!
A Different Gospel
I
am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of
Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are
some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even
if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what
we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say
again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you
received, he is to be accursed!
A “different gospel” which is the most prevalent in the
church today, particularly here in America, is a gospel of false grace which
teaches its adherents that all they have to do is “believe,” although belief is
not usually explained, or that they just have to pray a prayer to “receive
Christ,” though often that is not really explained, either, or is only
partially. And then they tell them they are guaranteed eternal life. Part of
what they teach is the true gospel, i.e. that Jesus Christ died on the cross to
take away the sins of the world, that he was resurrected to give us new lives
in Christ, that he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, and that one
day he is coming back to take us to be with him forever. Yet, they leave out
the part that he died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and
that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk
not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, for if we conduct our
lives according to the flesh, we will die, but if, by the Spirit we put to
death (present, not just past tense) the deeds of the flesh, we will live. If
we want to live with Christ forever, we must first of all die to sin.
Another “different gospel,” though, which is not so popular,
but which some people have taken ahold of, is the gospel of sinless perfection.
They believe that once you are saved you must never sin again or else you are
not truly saved. Although I do believe that salvation requires that we die to
sin so that we might live to righteousness, I don’t believe it teaches that
sinless perfection is required or that we are not saved at all, or that we lose
our salvation every time we sin. In 1 John 2:1-2 John wrote to his “dear
children,” i.e. to true followers of Christ, that they might not sin, but if
any of them did sin, they were to know that they had an advocate (comforter, helper,
and intercessor) with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is the atoning sacrifice
for our sins. So, what does this mean? It means that we are not saved by our
own righteousness, and it is only through the blood of Christ that we are even able
to be made righteous. The righteousness of Christ stands in for us, and is our
defense. We are not condemned to die if we should sin. Yet, if we conduct our
lives according the flesh, and not according to the Spirit, we will die. But,
if by the Spirit we put to death (present, not just past tense) the deeds of
the flesh, then we will live.
I believe it all comes down to our understanding of salvation
and what that means, and I believe that is where a lot of people get hung up. It
helps if we understand that we, who are in Christ Jesus by faith, have been
saved (past), we are being saved (present tense - progressive action), and we
will be saved (future) when Christ returns for his bride. And, it helps, too,
if we understand that the kind of belief that saves us is present tense, which
is, by the very nature of what that means, continuous and progressive in
nature, i.e. we are not guaranteed eternal life with God based on past belief.
It does not say "to all those who at one time believed," but it says,
"to those believing," meaning we must continue in the faith, we must
abide in Christ, we must continue in his word, etc. In other words, our salvation
and our faith are progressive and are not complete until Jesus Christ returns.
Yet, we don't lose our salvation if we should sin at some point nor are we
given free license to sin without guilt and without remorse just because of
God's grace to us.
A true Biblical understanding of God's grace to us and of
our salvation is half-way in between these two opposing beliefs. It says that
it is possible for a believer in Jesus Christ to sin (1 Jn. 2:1, as well as the
whole of the epistles), but that we are not called to sin but to holiness, and
thus we must conduct our lives in a manner worthy of the calling we have
received. We must surrender to the cross, and submit ourselves to Christ, and
we must obey Christ, yet it teaches that daily we put to death the deeds of the
body, and we throw off the sins which easily entangle us so we can run the race.
We resist Satan, and flee temptation, and draw near to God, but if we do sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our
sin. We, who conduct our lives no longer according to the flesh, but according
to the Spirit, are no longer under condemnation.
Not of Humans
For
am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men?
If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
For
I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is
not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it,
but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
This point that Paul made here is essential to us following
Christ and not humans. We have to be students of the Word of God, and not of
the teachings of human beings. If we are following a preacher, someone who
calls himself or herself a “prophet,” or a particular theology or denomination,
then we are in danger of following after a gospel of men, rather than the true
gospel of Jesus Christ. We can’t pull a few scriptures out of context and build
entire belief systems around those few scriptures. We have to compare scripture
with scripture, and look at the whole of the New Testament, in context, to see
what it is teaching with regard to our salvation, and then we have to
reconcile, by the Spirit within us, those scriptures which seem to contradict
one another, because they do fit with each other. I have found that going to
the Greek, which I know everyone cannot do, has been very helpful, because our
English translations don’t always pick up the verb tenses in the Greek, which
can make a huge difference in interpretation. [I sometimes use biblehub.com,
and I look at the interlinear, but I rely upon the Holy Spirit to show me what
it all means.]
The modern church of today here in America is so focused
around human thinking, reasoning, and human philosophies and business marketing
schemes for how to grow their churches and draw in large crowds of the unsaved
people of this world. Thus, they often reject the teachings of scripture
because the teachings are too hard, i.e. they require death to sin so we might
live to righteousness. This makes fleshly humans uncomfortable and it is
offensive to them. The church of today is big on not offending people, so they
dilute the gospel of Christ in order to make it more appealing to the flesh,
and to make it more desirable to those who are listening. Instead of holiness
being taught, we are being taught tolerance. Instead of the Word of God being
taught, in many cases, books written by mere humans are being taught, some of
which are evil, and are intended to lead people away from pure devotion to
Jesus Christ. “Worship” services have become more about entertaining the masses
so that they will like what they experienced and will want to return.
Jesus, in his death on the cross for our sins, rescued us
from sin and death, and provided the way of escape for us so that we can no
longer be under the control of Satan and sin, but we can now to be slaves to
righteousness. Jesus said that if we (anyone) want to come after him, we must
deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow
(obey) him. We must walk no longer according to the flesh, but according to the
Spirit, and we must, by the Spirit, put to death (present tense) the deeds of
our flesh. So, if you have been walking according to the flesh, I pray you will
surrender your life to Jesus today. We can’t do this in our own flesh, but only
in the power and working of the Spirit within us.
Jesus, Rescue Me
/ An Original Work / September 18, 2011
Based off of Romans
7:7-8:39
Jesus, rescue me today.
Listen while I bow and pray.
I need Your help to obey You;
Live for You always.
Meet me in my hour of need, Lord,
As I pray to You.
Help me walk in fellowship, Lord,
Living in Your truth.
Jesus, how I long for You to
Change my heart anew.
Father, God, my heart’s desire
Is to live for You this hour
In Your Holy Spirit’s power
Living in me now.
Teach me to walk in Your love, Lord,
Guiding me each day.
Help me to show love and kindness
To the lost, I pray.
Father, teach me to love others
As You love always.
Holy Spirit come in pow’r.
Revive our hearts in this hour.
Change our hearts to be like You, Lord;
Live for You each day.
Help us to forsake our sins, Lord,
As we humbly pray.
Teach us how to live for You, Lord,
Obey You always.
Holy Spirit come in power,
Revive us today.
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