Friday, April 29,
2016, 5:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “Fully Ready.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Romans 6 (ESV).
By No Means! (vv.
1-4)
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.
Peter said that Jesus died that we might die to sin and live
to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24). Paul said that Jesus died that we might no
longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his life up for us (2 Co.
5:15). He also said that Jesus died that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but who live our lives
according to the Spirit (See: Ro. 8:1-14). Jesus DIDN’T DIE just so we could
escape hell and go to heaven when we die! God’s grace is NOT a free license for
us to continue in sin without guilt and without remorse. May it never be! God’s
grace teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we wait for Christ’s return
(Tit. 2:11-14). Death to sin, and living to righteousness is the essence of
what the gospel of our salvation is all about. This is true grace, which frees
us from sin!
Crucified with Him
(vv. 5-11)
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.
When we trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our
lives, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are resurrected
with Christ in newness of life, “created to be like God in true righteousness
and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). The old has gone, the new has come. Believing in
Jesus does not mean we slightly clean up our old lives, and according to our
own choosing and timing. Yet, it also does not mean that we reach instant
perfection, or that we never sin again (See: 1 Jn. 2:1). What it does mean is
that we choose, by the Spirit, to put to death our old lives of living for sin
and self so that we can now walk according to the Spirit in Christ’s
righteousness and holiness (See: Eph. 4:17-24). Yet, it is a process of
sanctification as daily we die to sin and self and daily we put on the armor of
God with which to fight off Satan’s evil attacks against us (Lu. 9:23-25; Eph.
6:10-20).
So many people today are not teaching this. They are
teaching a diluted gospel message which does not put sin to death in the life
of the one claiming to believe in Christ. In fact, they are teaching that
nothing is required of us – no repentance, no obedience, and no submission to
Christ. They completely bypass the crucified life and move from Jesus’ death
for our sins on a cross to the promise of heaven when we die, with nothing in
between. Belief in Jesus is reduced to an intellectual assent to what Jesus did
for us or to some emotional decision one makes based upon a desire to escape
hell and/or to end up in heaven when one dies. So, there is no heart
transformation of the Spirit of God, and thus they are not really saved, and
they do not have the Spirit of God living within them.
I don’t know how anyone can read Romans 6 and Romans 8 and
teach anything else that is not in agreement with this teaching. If we continue
in sin, i.e. if we continue to live sinful lifestyles, we will die, but if by
the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live (See:
Ro. 8:1-14). We are not saved just because we said some magic words or just
because someone congratulated us and told us we had the hope of heaven. Just as
Jesus died to sin once for all, and the life he lives, he lives to God, we also
are to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. This means
we no longer live our lives to please our own selves, but we live our lives to
please and to honor God with our lives.
Do Not Continue!
(vv. 12-23)
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.
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.
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.
Why is it that so many people in America claim to believe in
Jesus Christ, but so few are living like this talks about? We need to take
these words seriously. A saved life is not a life that merely professes faith
in Jesus Christ and thinks it has the hope of heaven, yet can live however it
wants. We can’t fill our lives with the junk of this world, and be passionate
over everything but Christ, and think we belong to Christ! Does it matter to us
at all what Christ thinks of our lifestyles? Do we think he is satisfied with
10 minutes of our time each day and maybe a couple of hours once a week on
Sundays? And, that he is ok with us spending the rest of the week just living
for our own self-pleasure? May it never be!!
So many who profess the name of Jesus have this Americanized
vision of what a Christian should look like, but it isn’t what the Bible
teaches at all. And, it isn’t just that they are lazy, apathetic or complacent
about their Christian walks, but that so many are excusing away sinful behavior
on the basis of God’s grace. Not only that, but they are teaching against
repentance, obedience and submission to Christ and his word, while falsely
accusing those who teach such things of teaching works-based salvation. What a
mockery they make of what Jesus Christ did in dying for our sins, for he didn’t
die that horrible death, and he didn’t become sin for us just so we could
continue in sin. He died that sin might be eradicated from our lives! He died
that we would no longer be slaves to sin, but that we might now become slaves
of his righteousness! Amen! THIS IS TRUE FREEDOM!
The wages of sin is death, not just to those who make no
profession of Christ as Savior, but also for those who profess Christ but still
walk according to the flesh, and not according to the Spirit. If we want to
have eternal life with God, and have the hope of heaven when we die, then we
must be crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we must be resurrected with
Christ in newness of life. If we say we have fellowship with God, but we
continue to conduct our lives in the darkness (sin), then we are liars, and the
truth is not in us (1 Jn. 1:6).
Yet, know that if you believe this, and you are radically
transformed of the Spirit of God, and you no longer live your life to please
your flesh, but you live to please God, and/or if you are proclaiming the truth
of what Romans 6 and 8 teach, you will be hated and persecuted, even within the
church, or most especially within organized religion and/or the institutional
church, and even by its leadership. Already there is a plan in motion globally
to silence those of us who preach this gospel message, and there is already
much persecution being promoted and practiced against such as those who hold on
to these truths of scripture. We are being targeted for extinction, and we are
being tagged as intolerant, bigoted, hateful and as extremists who must either
be reeducated or done away with. Yet, we should not fear, for God is with us,
and he will not leave or forsake us. Amen!
Fully
Ready! / An Original Work / June 19, 2013
Based off Acts 20-22, 26; Mt. 28:18-20; Ac. 1:8
Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?
I’m fully ready to suffer for Christ.
If I must die for the sake of His name,
I am convinced it will not be in vain.
Glory to God and to His Son Jesus,
Who has redeemed us; bought with His blood.
May I speak to you? Jesus came to me;
Asked of me, “Why do you persecute me?”
He said, “Now get up and stand on your feet.
Go, and you’ll be told all I have for you.
I have appointed you as a servant,
And as a witness; you have been sent.”
“Go into the world and preach the gospel.
Open the blind eyes. They will receive sight.
Turn them from darkness to the light of Christ;
From power of the evil one to God,
So they may receive forgiveness of sins,
And a place among those who’re in heav’n.”
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