Renouncing Ungodliness and Worldly Passions

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who 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.” (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)

So many people today are teaching God’s grace as merely forgiveness of all sins with a promise of heaven when you die, absent of all works, including the works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them (in conduct, in practice), and including the renouncement of all sinful practices, but with the new practice of living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return. For many are teaching that God makes no requirements at all of his followers other than a cursory profession of faith.

But as these two passages of Scripture prove to us, and not these alone, what so many are teaching today as God’s grace is just a free license to continue living in sin absent of any feelings of guilt. And many are teaching that if you begin to feel guilty because you are deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord, then you are to just “claim who you are in Christ.” And then they provide a list of “who you are in Christ,” some or most is biblical, but perhaps not all, but it is not being used in a biblical manner.

For the Scriptures are clear on what it means to be “in Christ.” It means repentance and faith in Christ Jesus resulting in righteousness and self-control. 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 as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. We are dead to sin and alive to God. It is obedience to Christ leading to righteousness. We are set free from the law of sin and death and we walk according to the Spirit, not by the flesh.

Our minds are set on God’s Spirit. We no longer live according to the flesh. By the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh. We no longer live for self, but for Jesus Christ. The old us is dead and gone and the new us has come to life by the Spirit. The old us is crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are now God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Sin is no longer our practice. Righteousness and obedience to our Lord are our practice. For Jesus saved us to a holy calling, set apart for him.

In Christ: [Ac 20:20-21; Ac 24:24-25; Rom 6:3-7,11,16; Rom 8:1-17; 2 Co 5:14-17; Gal 2:20; Gal 5:6,16-21; Eph 1:1-12; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:20-24; Eph 5:3-6; Php 1:29; Php 2:5-8; Col 2:11; 2 Tim 1:9; etc.]

Therefore, God’s grace to us is not free license to continue living in sin without feelings of guilt. His grace, which is bringing salvation for all people, is training us to say “NO!” to ungodliness and worldly passions (desires), and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age while we await our Lord’s return. God’s grace frees us from our enslavement to sin so that we can now live for God in walks of surrender to him and in obedience to his commands, and no longer in sin. Our desire is now for Him.

For Jesus Christ gave himself up for us on that cross to buy us back for God, i.e. to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works, the works God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (in conduct, in practice). So our salvation from sin is not absent of works. It is absent of the works of the flesh and the works of our own creation. But we are created in Christ Jesus for good works which are the works God prepared for us to walk in them.

Biblical Teachings on Works

[Tit 2:11-14; Eph 2:8-10; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 2:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 15:58; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 2 Co 9:8; Gal 5:6,16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Phil 2:12-13; Col 1:9-14; 2 Thess 1:11-12; 2 Tim 2:21; Tit 3:8; Jas 2:17; 1 Pet 1:17-21; 1 Peter 2:24; Rev 2:1-29; Rev 3:1-22] 

So, if we are those who truly love God and who are called of God and who are in fellowship with the Lord, we will not be those who are living in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord and not in walks of obedience to his commands. For if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord and to his commands, then the Scriptures teach that we will not inherit eternal life with God, but we will die in our sins. Heaven will not be our eternal destiny, but it will be hell, instead.

And this is regardless of what we profess with our lips. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God the Father. And many will stand before God on the day of judgment professing him as Lord, but they will hear Jesus say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they did not obey the Lord. They continued in their sinful practices convinced Jesus would still let them into his heaven.

So, don’t be like them. Believe what Jesus and his NT apostles taught us regarding what biblical faith looks like, for it is proven by what we do in practice. For biblical faith = obedience, and disobedience = unbelief. It is what Jesus and his NT apostles taught, which we can learn about if we read the Scriptures in their full context, and if we do not rely on Scriptures taught out of context to secure what we believe and put into practice. So be students of the Scriptures who put into practice what they teach in context.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

My Jesus, I Love Thee

Hymn lyrics by William R. Featherstone, 1864

Music by Adoniram J. Gordon, 1876

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;

For thee all the follies of sin I resign.

My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I love thee because thou hast first loved me,

And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;

I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight;

I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;

I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;

If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHrF4_1r-qA 

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