Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Faith and Obedience
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, to be Lord and Savior
of our lives, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised
with Christ to newness of life in him, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness, and to be lived to the glory and praise of God. For
Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to his
righteousness.
But it doesn’t end there. We don’t “get saved” and then we
live however we want, and then one day when we die we get to go to heaven
because of some one-time decision we made in our lives to “believe” in Jesus. This
is not what the Scriptures teach, but it is what many church pastors are teaching
their people, and many, thus, are believing a lie and not the truth.
This “great cloud of witnesses” is in reference to Hebrews
11 which is commonly referred to as the “faith chapter” of the Bible, for it
lists for us quite a few names of people in Bible history who walked with the
Lord by faith in him and who did what he said to do, i.e. they walked in
obedience to his commands and they honored God with their lives.
They are examples to us. Now, these were not perfect people,
but the ones mentioned for their faith were mentioned because of their
obedience to the Lord in doing what he told them to do or because they were
acting in faith in doing what they believed was right to do in the eyes of the
Lord. And so God honored them for their faith.
So, here we see that faith and works go hand in hand, but
not the works of our flesh, not “good works” done in the flesh that we decide
to do believing that we are pleasing God or hoping that God will be pleased.
The works being done are being done by faith in the Lord and according to God’s
will for our lives, so they are the works of God he planned for us to walk in.
And as we read the New Testament and the Old Testament, too,
we soon learn that God has always seen and he still sees obedience to him as
faith and disobedience as unbelief. For, if we do not obey him we do not know
him and he does not know us and therefore we do not have salvation and
forgiveness of sin and the hope of eternal life with God, but we will die in
our sins because we refused to die with Christ to our sins.
So, it doesn’t matter what we profess with our lips if we do
not follow that confession or profession of faith with obedience, i.e. with
doing the works that God has called each of us to do. For, we are all going to
stand before God one day, and he is going to judge us according to our deeds. And
many who professed Jesus as “Lord” are going to hear him say, “Depart from me
you workers of iniquity. I never knew you!”
Sin Which Clings so Closely
Before we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of
our lives we are dead in our sins, separate from God, and without the hope of
salvation and eternal life with God. Sin is clinging closely to us. We are
enslaved (addicted, in bondage) to sin. Addiction and “Christian” do not go
hand-in-hand. We are either enslaved to sin or we are slaves of righteousness,
and if sin, it ends in death, not in eternal life with God. So, you can’t be a
Christian addict.
In fact, the Scriptures teach that if we walk (in conduct,
in practice) according to the flesh, and not according to the Spirit, and if
sin is what we practice and righteousness is not what we practice, and if we
are not obeying our Lord but we are living in sinful rebellion against him,
heaven is not what awaits us on the other side. We will die in our sins.
Period!
The truth that is in Christ Jesus is not just that Jesus
died to take away the guilt and punishment of sin and to forgive us our sins
and to give us the hope of eternal life with God. The truth that is in Christ
Jesus teaches us that sin must be put to death in our lives, and we must be
changed in heart and mind, and we must walk in holiness and righteousness in
the power of God.
So, we are to forsake our sins, we are to put them away, throw
them off, get rid of them, die to them. It is not okay with God if we continue
living in addiction to sin or that we take a lifetime to “recover” from our
sinful practices. Jesus died on that cross to eradicate sin from our lives so
that we would no longer be under the dominion of sin, but so we would now be
slaves of God and of his righteousness.
But it isn’t just the sin that we are to put away from our
lives, but anything that is weighing us down and is keeping us from walking in
obedience to our Lord or that is leading us into sin. Many “Christians”
continue in moral failure because they don’t get rid of those things in their
lives which are either distractions, which are keeping them from obeying the
Lord, or which are points of temptation to sin which they have not bothered to
discard.
For example, you are not going to be morally pure if you are
regularly watching or listening to or reading what is morally filthy or
sexually suggestive or that excuses away sinful behavior or that glorifies sin,
such as romantic affairs, adultery, fornication, lying, cheating, and the like.
We can’t play with fire and expect not to get burned in the process.
Run With Endurance
Many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ are
living morally filthy lives. They are regularly giving way to sin and are leaving
doors wide open for the devil to get a foothold in their lives. Some of them
are doing so because they have accepted a belief that says that they don’t have
to obey the Lord or repent of their sins or honor Jesus as Master of their
lives.
Others may not openly profess such a “faith,” and they may
even profess to believe the true gospel of Christ, but they live one thing
while they profess another. So, they are busy trying to give an impression of
righteous living on the outside, like the Pharisees, while they are secretly engaged
in moral depravity when they think no one can see what they are doing.
If this is how any of you live, you are not going to be able
to run with endurance the race that our Lord has set before us to run. We can
only run with endurance if we are walking in obedience to our Lord, and if
daily by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh. We can’t be
walking in sin and running with endurance at the same time.
And we can’t be walking in sin, repeating the same sins over
and over again, habitually, deliberately, and premeditatedly and then claim
after each sin that we have repented and so we are in good standing with God.
For repentance involves a spiritual U-turn. We were walking according to the
ways of this sinful world but now we are walking according to the Spirit.
Daily we must take up our cross and follow Jesus. We must
die with Christ to sin and deny self and walk in obedience to his commands if
we are going to run this race with endurance. And Jesus is our example, and the
one we are to look to, for he endured that cross for you and for me so that we
could now live free from our slavery to sin and so we could live holy and godly
lives, pleasing to our Lord, and for his glory and praise.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom
2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb
10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]
The Prayer
Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,
Alberto Testa and Tony Renis
I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know
Let this be our prayer
When we lose our way
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.
I pray we'll find your light
And hold it in our hearts
When the stars go out each night
Remind us where you are.
Let this be our prayer
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.
No comments:
Post a Comment