If We Keep His Commandments

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:1-6 ESV)

When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-gifted and God-ordained and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord, we will die in our sins. But if obedience is what we obey, it leads to righteousness and to eternal life.

Now, the goal of our salvation from sin is not just so that we can be forgiven our sins and so that we can have eternal life with God. The goal of our salvation is that we die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, that we daily deny self, and that we surrender our lives and our wills to the will of God, and that we walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, by the grace of God, in the power, strength, and wisdom of God, and not in our own flesh. But we might still sin sometimes. Yet God’s grace is enough to cover those intermittent sins. Still we should repent of all sin and follow Jesus.

But this does not mean that God now gives us a “pass” for all future sin. He does not! His word is clear on that subject, that if we walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, and not in righteousness, and not in obedience to our Lord, that we do not have eternal life with God. In fact, we do not even know God if we do not keep (obey) our Lord’s commandments (New Covenant) as a matter of life practice. So, we cannot just profess faith in Jesus Christ with our lips and then consider ourselves to be Christians. We must deny self, die daily to sin, and walk (in conduct) in obedience to his commands.

So, if we claim to know God, and that we are in relationship with him, and that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of our lives, but we continue in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord, and against other humans, and if we deliberately and habitually refuse to obey the commands that we know he has for our lives, and so we go our own way, instead, then we are liars who do not live by the truth. And if this is the path that we continue on, and if we do not turn from our sins to obey our Lord and his commands, then we are not saved from our sins, and we do not have eternal life in Him.

But if we are those who, by the grace of God, and in the power of God, are walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living, and no longer in deliberate and habitual sin, in us truly the love of God is being perfected. For we are following our Lord wherever he leads us, and we are doing the will of God for our lives, in practice, in the power of God. And, by the grace of God, we are patterning our lives after the life of Jesus Christ and how he lived his life when he walked on this earth. And this does not make us perfect, but we are in the process of being perfected by our Lord.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Our Eyes on Jesus 

 

An Original Work / April 23, 2012

Based off Hebrews 12:2-13 

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.

Our faith starts and grows in Him,

Who for the joy set before Him

Endured all our sin.

Scorning the shame of the cross,

He sat down beside God above.

He was willing to die for us,

To save us, in love.

Think about the opposition

He endured from sinful men,

So when you go through life’s trials, 

You stay strong within.

Knowing all He went through for us

Helps us not grow weak of heart;

Not grow weary; don’t give up;

And not from Him depart.

In your struggle against sin’s ways,

Resist not to shed your blood.

Have you forgotten the words 

God spoke to us in love?

“My child, don’t ignore it when

The Lord corrects you; do faint not,

Because the Lord disciplines those

That He loves, of God.”

God rebukes us all for our good;

Share with Him in holiness.

It produces a harvest of

God’s own righteousness.

Therefore, strengthen all within you

That is weak and might give way.

Stand firm in the faith God gives you;

Trust Him and obey. 

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