Jesus saves, obeying the law cannot save
Believers, let’s not be like the Galatians who were bewitched into thinking they could be made perfect by obeying the law – Galatians 3: 1 – 4. They received the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith but were deceived by false preachers into thinking that they still had to keep the law in order to be made perfect. But righteousness in God's sight cannot be attained by what we do or do not do. It is God’s gift to us (Romans 5:17), purchased for us with the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It is not obtained by keeping the Ten Commandments. It is not obtained by doing righteous works, teaching Sunday School, cleaning the church toilet, praying long hours, sowing seeds and fasting or doing anything at all with the aim of getting salvation, getting right with God or getting Him to bless us. Trying to get right with God by doing these things point to law keeping and according to Galatians 5:4, make Christ become of no effect in the lives of believers! – “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”
But many preachers today still go about saying “Yes, Jesus Christ died for your sins BUT you still have to obey the law/stop sinning in order for you to be right with God, be truly saved and overcome the devil.” What then is the role of our Saviour Jesus in saving you when you have all it takes to stop sin and be righteous? How can a Saviour who came to save us from our sins use those very sins as an excuse to punish us or withhold His blessings from us? Christ did not come to condemn but to save! Do you see that these agents of the devil are telling you that it is up to you to save yourself, just like the ‘bewitchers” that Paul spoke of in Galatians 3?
In Christ, the law has been fulfilled in us, but not by us. Jesus died as us and rose as us. He paid the ultimate price for our disobedience. No court will exact judgment on a dead man; we in Christ are dead to the law but alive in Christ!
Joseph did not have the Ten Commandments but he instinctively knew that it was wrong to sleep with Potiphar’s wife. He even referred to doing this as a great wickedness and a sin against God. All of this without the Ten Commandments! How was he able to do this? The same way he interpreted Pharoah’s dream, forgave his brothers that sold him into slavery and helped a whole country to prosper during a famine - the Lord was with Him, as He is with us today (His Spirit dwells in us), transforming us to the image of His glory.
In Christ, we don't HAVE to try to do God's will in order to be righteous (law keeping); we GET to do God's will BECAUSE we are made righteous in Christ! His gift of no condemnation makes us go and sin no more. This is Grace - undeserved, unmerited favour. We get to live a holy and godly without even knowing it. We get to pray more, read the bible more, love more, give more and glorify our Lord and Saviour Jesus more, and we don't even realise it until other people tell us so. Our paths get brighter and not darker like the wicked. We get to work out the victory He put in us because "it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
God hates sin. He wants us to live a sin-free life. But what law keeping and “self” righteousness (no pun intended) do is produce more sin. According to Paul in Romans 7:5, the law arouses sinful passions -trying to keep it makes you want to sin!
The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). Like Peter did, when a believer thinks that he can overcome sin and be righteous by his own efforts, Christ becomes of no effect in his life; he falls from grace… and fails. But when we receive God’s gift of righteousness, the devil has no grounds to accuse us: Romans 8:33 “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect (His chosen ones)? It is God who justifies us [declaring us blameless and putting us in a right relationship with Himself].”
Again, Proverbs 4:18 says – “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.” But “The path of the wicked grows darker” (Proverbs 4:19)
In the eyes of our Heavenly Father, the difference between the righteous and wicked is not what they do or do not do (by their efforts). It is how they believe that they are made righteous – either by faith (a free gift given by our Heavenly Father through our Saviour Jesus Christ) or through works/righteousness of self (filthy rags generated by human effort).
In Christ, we don't work to be righteous. We have righteousness as a gift. We are no longer condemned. And it is this gift of no condemnation that makes us go and sin no more; not more laws and threats of judgment from wicked preachers.
Like Joseph, who was under Grace and not under the Law, depend on our Lord for your righteousness and watch your path shine brighter unto the perfect day!
Believe Right and you will Live Right!
It is not obtained by keeping the Ten Commandments. It is not obtained by doing righteous works, teaching Sunday School, cleaning the church toilet, praying long hours, sowing seeds and fasting or doing anything at all with the aim of getting salvation, getting right with God or getting Him to bless us. Trying to get right with God by doing these things point to law keeping and according to Galatians 5:4, make Christ become of no effect in the lives of believers! – “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”
But many preachers today still go about saying “Yes, Jesus Christ died for your sins BUT you still have to obey the law/stop sinning in order for you to be right with God, be truly saved and overcome the devil.” What then is the role of our Saviour Jesus in saving you when you have all it takes to stop sin and be righteous? How can a Saviour who came to save us from our sins use those very sins as an excuse to punish us or withhold His blessings from us? Christ did not come to condemn but to save! Do you see that these agents of the devil are telling you that it is up to you to save yourself, just like the ‘bewitchers” that Paul spoke of in Galatians 3?
In Christ, the law has been fulfilled in us, but not by us. Jesus died as us and rose as us. He paid the ultimate price for our disobedience. No court will exact judgment on a dead man; we in Christ are dead to the law but alive in Christ!
Joseph did not have the Ten Commandments but he instinctively knew that it was wrong to sleep with Potiphar’s wife. He even referred to doing this as a great wickedness and a sin against God. All of this without the Ten Commandments! How was he able to do this? The same way he interpreted Pharoah’s dream, forgave his brothers that sold him into slavery and helped a whole country to prosper during a famine - the Lord was with Him, as He is with us today (His Spirit dwells in us), transforming us to the image of His glory.
In Christ, we don't HAVE to try to do God's will in order to be righteous (law keeping); we GET to do God's will BECAUSE we are made righteous in Christ! His gift of no condemnation makes us go and sin no more. This is Grace - undeserved, unmerited favour. We get to live a holy and godly without even knowing it. We get to pray more, read the bible more, love more, give more and glorify our Lord and Saviour Jesus more, and we don't even realise it until other people tell us so. Our paths get brighter and not darker like the wicked. We get to work out the victory He put in us because "it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
God hates sin. He wants us to live a sin-free life. But what law keeping and “self” righteousness (no pun intended) do is produce more sin. According to Paul in Romans 7:5, the law arouses sinful passions -trying to keep it makes you want to sin!
The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). Like Peter did, when a believer thinks that he can overcome sin and be righteous by his own efforts, Christ becomes of no effect in his life; he falls from grace… and fails. But when we receive God’s gift of righteousness, the devil has no grounds to accuse us: Romans 8:33 “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect (His chosen ones)? It is God who justifies us [declaring us blameless and putting us in a right relationship with Himself].”
Again, Proverbs 4:18 says – “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.” But “The path of the wicked grows darker” (Proverbs 4:19)
In the eyes of our Heavenly Father, the difference between the righteous and wicked is not what they do or do not do (by their efforts). It is how they believe that they are made righteous – either by faith (a free gift given by our Heavenly Father through our Saviour Jesus Christ) or through works/righteousness of self (filthy rags generated by human effort).
In Christ, we don't work to be righteous. We have righteousness as a gift. We are no longer condemned. And it is this gift of no condemnation that makes us go and sin no more; not more laws and threats of judgment from wicked preachers.
Like Joseph, who was under Grace and not under the Law, depend on our Lord for your righteousness and watch your path shine brighter unto the perfect day!
Believe Right and you will Live Right!
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