Christ is the Way out of temptations, trials and tests.
Believers, believe right. Due to false teaching, many among us, after receiving Christ, are still depending on our own ability to obey the Ten Commandments and human effort at doing right to remain right with God, receive from Him and be Rapture-worthy. This is great folly, as the reason why we are not committing particular sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. No matter how hard a weightlifter trains or his experience and dedication, he cannot carry a weight that is designed to crush him 100 times over. Bear in mind that we are not all of the same size so what is crushing for you might be nothing to another. Plus, life does not consider weight, stature, resources or level of preparedness before throwing weights (trials and temptations) at anybody.
Sometimes, we catch ourselves saying of others: "how could he do such an evil thing" or "how could she be so careless with her child" or "I can never do that." Peter thought so too, until his circumstances changed and he ended up denying Christ...three times. No sin is beneath anybody. The the only reason why we are not wallowing in sins and making stupid mistakes like the people we sometimes criticize and look at with contempt is 1 Corinthians 10:13-
"We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously."
The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think that some sins are beneath them. No matter how Reverend a person is, whether little, more or Most Reverend, he will fail if he gets tempted beyond what he can bear. But Christ saves from sins.
No point in telling sinners (who are only sinning because have been tempted beyond what they can bear) to "try harder" to obey the law or that they can be godly by obeying the law. This is like deceiving a person suffering from cancer into believing that his cancer can be healed if he puts plaster on the sores that plague his body because of his cancer. See this in Romans 8:3-4 (MSG)-
"The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us."
Beware of false teachers who actively preach redoubling human effort at obeying the law in order to be godly; those ones that say: "Now that you are born-again, you have to make your ways straight and obey the law so that you won't be left behind at the Rapture." Notice no Christ as Saviour from sins in their equation of salvation. This part-Law/part-Grace false doctrine is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3. Matthew 1:21 says of Christ:
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Romans 3 says of God: "26...for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."
But with this false doctrine, it's all about YOU doing the work of saving yourself from sins while calling Jesus "Saviour" and ensuring that YOU obey the law to get "right with God so that you don't get left behind."
2 Corinthians 3:18 says: "But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed to the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
But such false teachers have cast aside from their teaching God's gift of everlasting righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ (Romans 5:19) and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the sinner who believes from a life of sins and addiction to the likeness of Christ, deceiving many. Such preach reliance on the arm of flesh that will fail as the means of attaining godliness. This is how Satan deceived Eve that she could be godly by human effort at doing something, after God made she and Adam perfect. This is the false doctrine that the Christians in Galatia believed and were practicing and it made Paul write this to them- Galatians 3:
"Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of His death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? 4 Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?
5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."
This is the gospel of Christ: Righteousness by faith in Christ. Believer, because we believe that Christ shed His blood for us, we have absolute right-standing with God and are 100% righteous in His sight and not because of anything we did. See Romans 5:9-
"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."
ONLY through the blood of Jesus are we righteous in God's sight and get to escape judgment. The vilest offender who believes that "The Lord our Righteousness" is his righteousness is forever righteous in His sight and Rapture-worthy because we are made right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus and not by obeying the law.
To anyone who is wondering about how a vile offender gets chosen to go to heaven and are bickering about how "sinners still have to do their best to stop sinning and obey the law to be godly," our transformation is totally in Christ's hands: John 6:43-46 (MSG) says:
"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."
Christ Himself transforms the sinner to right living.
Believer, are you still struggling with some sins and addictions? Know that you and I would be dirt and would commit worse sins without God's grace. He came to save us from our sins. Know that because God sent His own Son to die for our sins, we no longer owe God a sin debt. See yourself as having no good in you of yourself. None of us do. Christ is our Good. Good works are EVIDENCES of our salvation, not CONDITIONS. Don’t fret over when or how these evidences of your salvation will manifest. God works His salvation in us and these good works come about “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13.
See yourself as a little child whose father has a long, full beard. Imagine the child worrying that he is not the child of his father because he has no beard! In time, as he grows and matures, he will grow a long, full beard, just like his father. And it will grow without him straining or doing anything to make it grow. He was complete, beard and all inside him, on the day he was born; just as we were made complete in Christ when we became born-again. So look forward to your long, full beard- the hope of our righteousness in Christ.
But some "men of God" try to make you feel that you ought to grow a long, full beard and start driving on the day of your birth; they tell you that you are not your Father’s child anymore because you don’t have a beard yet. Having a beard is not what makes you a child of your Father. Your beard grows according to the kind that your Father has BECAUSE God is your Father. Good works are not CONDITIONS for salvation. They are EVIDENCES of our salvation in Christ.
Believer, Christ says in John 15:5— “I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me.”
We were all dead branches (dead in sin) when God grafted us to Christ the Vine, giving us life. The same Vine life of Christ the Vine is flowing in us and giving life to His branches. The fruits of our union with Him might not be evident to false teachers who are eager to point fingers and criticize with their "and you call yourself a child of God" fiery darts of accusation and myriads of things they ask you to do in order to become or prove that you are a child of God. This is the same way Satan used "If you are the Son of God..." on our Saviour Jesus Christ when His situation in the wilderness did not reflect His glory and majesty to the ordinary eye.
The same accusers would have turned up their noses at Abraham (whom God declared righteous because he believed Him) when he lied about Sarah to save his own neck and when he slept with Hagar after God promised him Isaac. But the Lord was working in Abraham and never saw him as unrighteous because of his failures. Abraham went on to do a work of faith that is an example for all today. The Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Keep on abiding in Him (believe that you are one with the Vine: Righteous by faith in Christ) and you will bear fruit in His time. He is doing the work of transforming His branches.
Works (of the law are products of effort.) Fruits are the result of life.
Trying to obey the law to be godly (righteous) like the Galatians is saying that Christ's death for us (to make us right with God) is for nothing or that it is not enough. See Galatians 2:21-
"I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!"
Believer, in Christ, we have God's perfect, everlasting righteousness that is apart from works. With His gift of righteousness to us in Christ comes no condemnation. It is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more."
Right believing always produces right living.
Sometimes, we catch ourselves saying of others: "how could he do such an evil thing" or "how could she be so careless with her child" or "I can never do that." Peter thought so too, until his circumstances changed and he ended up denying Christ...three times. No sin is beneath anybody. The the only reason why we are not wallowing in sins and making stupid mistakes like the people we sometimes criticize and look at with contempt is 1 Corinthians 10:13-
"We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously."
The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think that some sins are beneath them. No matter how Reverend a person is, whether little, more or Most Reverend, he will fail if he gets tempted beyond what he can bear. But Christ saves from sins.
No point in telling sinners (who are only sinning because have been tempted beyond what they can bear) to "try harder" to obey the law or that they can be godly by obeying the law. This is like deceiving a person suffering from cancer into believing that his cancer can be healed if he puts plaster on the sores that plague his body because of his cancer. See this in Romans 8:3-4 (MSG)-
"The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us."
Beware of false teachers who actively preach redoubling human effort at obeying the law in order to be godly; those ones that say: "Now that you are born-again, you have to make your ways straight and obey the law so that you won't be left behind at the Rapture." Notice no Christ as Saviour from sins in their equation of salvation. This part-Law/part-Grace false doctrine is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3. Matthew 1:21 says of Christ:
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Romans 3 says of God: "26...for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."
But with this false doctrine, it's all about YOU doing the work of saving yourself from sins while calling Jesus "Saviour" and ensuring that YOU obey the law to get "right with God so that you don't get left behind."
2 Corinthians 3:18 says: "But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed to the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
But such false teachers have cast aside from their teaching God's gift of everlasting righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ (Romans 5:19) and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the sinner who believes from a life of sins and addiction to the likeness of Christ, deceiving many. Such preach reliance on the arm of flesh that will fail as the means of attaining godliness. This is how Satan deceived Eve that she could be godly by human effort at doing something, after God made she and Adam perfect. This is the false doctrine that the Christians in Galatia believed and were practicing and it made Paul write this to them- Galatians 3:
"Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of His death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? 4 Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?
5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."
This is the gospel of Christ: Righteousness by faith in Christ. Believer, because we believe that Christ shed His blood for us, we have absolute right-standing with God and are 100% righteous in His sight and not because of anything we did. See Romans 5:9-
"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."
ONLY through the blood of Jesus are we righteous in God's sight and get to escape judgment. The vilest offender who believes that "The Lord our Righteousness" is his righteousness is forever righteous in His sight and Rapture-worthy because we are made right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus and not by obeying the law.
To anyone who is wondering about how a vile offender gets chosen to go to heaven and are bickering about how "sinners still have to do their best to stop sinning and obey the law to be godly," our transformation is totally in Christ's hands: John 6:43-46 (MSG) says:
"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."
Christ Himself transforms the sinner to right living.
Believer, are you still struggling with some sins and addictions? Know that you and I would be dirt and would commit worse sins without God's grace. He came to save us from our sins. Know that because God sent His own Son to die for our sins, we no longer owe God a sin debt. See yourself as having no good in you of yourself. None of us do. Christ is our Good. Good works are EVIDENCES of our salvation, not CONDITIONS. Don’t fret over when or how these evidences of your salvation will manifest. God works His salvation in us and these good works come about “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13.
See yourself as a little child whose father has a long, full beard. Imagine the child worrying that he is not the child of his father because he has no beard! In time, as he grows and matures, he will grow a long, full beard, just like his father. And it will grow without him straining or doing anything to make it grow. He was complete, beard and all inside him, on the day he was born; just as we were made complete in Christ when we became born-again. So look forward to your long, full beard- the hope of our righteousness in Christ.
But some "men of God" try to make you feel that you ought to grow a long, full beard and start driving on the day of your birth; they tell you that you are not your Father’s child anymore because you don’t have a beard yet. Having a beard is not what makes you a child of your Father. Your beard grows according to the kind that your Father has BECAUSE God is your Father. Good works are not CONDITIONS for salvation. They are EVIDENCES of our salvation in Christ.
Believer, Christ says in John 15:5— “I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me.”
We were all dead branches (dead in sin) when God grafted us to Christ the Vine, giving us life. The same Vine life of Christ the Vine is flowing in us and giving life to His branches. The fruits of our union with Him might not be evident to false teachers who are eager to point fingers and criticize with their "and you call yourself a child of God" fiery darts of accusation and myriads of things they ask you to do in order to become or prove that you are a child of God. This is the same way Satan used "If you are the Son of God..." on our Saviour Jesus Christ when His situation in the wilderness did not reflect His glory and majesty to the ordinary eye.
The same accusers would have turned up their noses at Abraham (whom God declared righteous because he believed Him) when he lied about Sarah to save his own neck and when he slept with Hagar after God promised him Isaac. But the Lord was working in Abraham and never saw him as unrighteous because of his failures. Abraham went on to do a work of faith that is an example for all today. The Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Keep on abiding in Him (believe that you are one with the Vine: Righteous by faith in Christ) and you will bear fruit in His time. He is doing the work of transforming His branches.
Works (of the law are products of effort.) Fruits are the result of life.
Trying to obey the law to be godly (righteous) like the Galatians is saying that Christ's death for us (to make us right with God) is for nothing or that it is not enough. See Galatians 2:21-
"I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!"
Believer, in Christ, we have God's perfect, everlasting righteousness that is apart from works. With His gift of righteousness to us in Christ comes no condemnation. It is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more."
Right believing always produces right living.
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