Ephesians 4:17-19 ESV
“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
We who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of
our lives should no longer be living our lives in practice as though we are
still among the ungodly of this world. For if our faith in Jesus Christ is
genuine God-given faith, then we should have been crucified with Christ in
death to sin, and we should have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of
life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness.
We should not be those whose hearts are hardened against the
Lord and against his word and who feel as though we have the freedom to keep on
in deliberate and habitual sin against God without concern, conscience,
compassion or genuine remorse. So we should also not be those who have become
callous and who have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice
every kind of impurity. Yet, some professing Christians are there.
So, what is sensuality? Well, sensual is fleshly, erotic,
and carnal. And sensuality is “outrageous conduct, conduct shocking to public
decency, wantonness, lewdness” and it is “violent spite which rejects restraint
and indulges in lawless insolence” (source: biblehub.com interlinear). And
lewdness is indecency or obscenity; vulgar sexual character or behavior. So,
this is serious stuff this is talking about here.
And this reminds me of what it says in the book of Jude
about those people who have crept in among the sheep of God’s pasture unnoticed
for who they are and for what they do. They are ungodly people who pervert the
grace of God into sensuality and deny Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord
(see Jude 1:4). But these were the shepherds of the sheep, so these are pastors
today who also pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny Christ.
And how do they do this? By teaching the people that they
can make a once-in-their-lifetime profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and now
all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and heaven is guaranteed
them when they die, and it can’t be taken away from them, but regardless of how
they live. And so many people here in America are professing faith in Jesus
Christ but they are still living in sin for the pleasures of the flesh and not
for God.
Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV
“But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
But that perversion of God’s grace which is permeating the
American church at large is not the way any of us should have learned Christ if
we were taught the truth that is in Christ Jesus. For Jesus said if anyone would
come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and
to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in
sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus
we die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, we have
eternal life (see Luke 9:23-26).
And Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-23 that those of us who have
died with Christ to sin and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness
of life in him had our old self 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.
So we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its passions,
for if sin is what we obey, it ends in death. But if obedience is what we obey,
it leads to righteousness and sanctification and its end is eternal life with
God.
And John wrote in 1 John 1,2&3 that if we claim to be in
fellowship with God/Christ while we continue to walk in sin, we are liars. And
he said that if we claim to know God but we do not obey our Lord’s commands
(New Covenant), we are liars. And he said that it is those who practice
righteousness who are righteous in the sight of God, and that those who
continue to practice sin are not of God but they are of the devil. But how many
pastors are teaching that?
And the point here is that Jesus and Paul and John and the
other NT apostles did not teach perverted grace. In fact, Paul taught that the
grace of God which is bringing us salvation trains us to renounce (say “No!”
to) ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and
godly lives while we await Jesus’ return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us
to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his
own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14).
So, please know that the truth that is in Christ Jesus does
not give us permission to keep on in deliberate and habitual sin once we
believe in Christ. The truth we should have learned teaches us to put off our
old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through
deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and to put on
the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and
holiness.
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh,
to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This
is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly
I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus,
Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh,
to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving,
forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping
the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking
the wandering sinner to find.
O
to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy
and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly
enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing
to suffer others to save.
O
to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour
out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make
me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit
me for life and Heaven above.
Oh,
to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd
Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come
in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp
Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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