Friday, July 6, 2012

Understanding Grace and Your sinfulness: A Key to Holy Living


This is topic that people just teach around. In the hopes that people will understand from the inferences of what they are saying. My text will be the Book of Romans Chapters 6, 7 and 8 and we will be looking at different passages.

Now I could have chosen a story or a parable but, personally I am tired of people assessing an idea that the bible does not say or support. That is believers can commit sins without price or consequence. Let me straighten that out from the start. The bible has never supported that kind of behavior. However, many believers when they are caught up in a sinful behavior, they attempt justify themselves by saying that we are under Grace and not under the law. Then they quote Romans 8:1 as though that scripture excludes them from receiving any negative results from their actions. That is not even a half truth, it is a full lie, and we preachers must stop telling people that they are not under any law. The bible does not say that. It does not support lawless behavior. What it says is that we are under the Law of the Spirit of Christ.. However this spiritual condition is not guaranteed. Because running parallel to it is the Law of Sin and Death. Let us look at Romans 8:1

"There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

Yes there is no condemnation for a believers sinful behavior if he is walking in the Spirit Of God. But that is not possible is it? For once someone commits to living by the Spirit of Christ he must seek out and put to death everything that would not be considered acceptable to living at that level. So If someone is walking by the spirit he can not fulfill the desires of the sinful flesh. How ever someone who believes that he is under grace and that grace provides a cloak for unacceptable behavior is mislead and deceived that God will be content with that believer being lukewarm in his faith. Let us read Romans 8:2

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death"

The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is not the Law of Moses as some have taught. It is the life of Christ as exhibited in the Gospels. Simply put His life is our law. Now what about the Law of Sin and Death? This law has been in effect since Adams transgression. Simply put; If you disobey Gods will and word for your life and you will die. |The problem is and was that no man could obey God's will and word for his life and live. The Law of Moses' administration made the Law of sin and death more evident in an individuals life. Thereby making it impossible for any man to remain sinless. Here Enters Jesus, a man to most that has changed the world. Jesus by dying on the cross disabled the power of the sinful nature in mankind, that power was enhanced by the Law of  Moses' administration. If they believe in Him. By having faith in his sacrifice for us on the Cross, we move from under the condemnation of the the Law of Moses to under the Law of the Spirit of Christ by the grace of God.

Now the Law of Moses is holy and Good and was designed to bring a person into the kind of life God wanted him to live. However the flaw was not in the Law but in the adherents of the Law of Moses' administration. Simply put: The Law of Moses was Holy and Good but Mankind was and still is sinful and the two could only meet under the condition of blood. The shed blood of animals temporarily atoned for sin. But not every one could afford to do it. Many good and righteous people died in their sinful condition. A condition inherited from Adam. Here again enters Jesus who was fashioned in the condition of sinful flesh, after living a perfect sinless life in it, offered himself up as a perfect sacrifice for the sinfulness of mankind for all time. He put to death sin in the flesh and the Law of sin and death held no more dominance over the lives of mankind. Read Romans 8:3

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:"

Now what sense does it make to live in sin when Jesus died for you to live righteous and free?
The key is walking by the Spirit of Christ and not living in the sinful pleasures of the flesh. By walking in the Spirit of God a person must put to death fleshly pleasures. By walking in the spirit of Christ the person will discover the greater pleasures for living in the will of God. 

This is the problem, Satan and this world has made every earthly pleasure something for everyone to desire except living for God. Making living for God appear like we are settling for less.  This is the deception, the same deception Satan used on Eve in the Garden.  The same temptation that Satan presented Jesus, the Christ with when he was tested in the wilderness. The Good News is that because of Christ's sacrifice, we now have the power to resist Satan and his tempting deceptions. When we decide to begin living for God, He will shower us with his blessings and no one in the world can out do God. Try living according to the Spirit of God and see for yourself.  God is awaiting for you.

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