"So are you saying that people can just go and be sinning anyhow if they believe that they are righteous by faith in Christ?"
Believers, consider Romans 9:
30 "What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in Him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in Him
will never be disgraced.”"
Believers, let's not be like these "people of Israel" that Paul was talking about here. These people who rejected Christ as their righteousness (this is the stumbling stone) were not people who wanted to go out and commit sin. God's word says they "tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law," just as many who are under the teaching of Pharisee-type pastors are doing today. But trying to obey the law to get right with God instead of trusting Christ is an effort in futility,
"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.
Like the law-keeping Jews (who desired righteousness) that Paul spoke of in Romans 9 above, many religious people who attend church religiously are stumbling over the Rock that came to save: Jesus Christ our righteousness. How?
- By trying to obey the law in order to get right with God when this is this same reason (to make us righteous) that God gave His own Son for the world that He so loved; see this in Romans 5:19-
"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."
- By trying to make themselves acceptable to God by human effort at obeying the law when it is only in Christ the Beloved that we are accepted. See Ephesians 1:6-
"to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."
- By trying to curry God's favour/get Him to bless with various fasts, neglecting the body, sowing seeds, etc when He gives believers all things FREELY with Christ. See Romans 8:32-
"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
- By running from pillar to post trying to break generational and other curses that Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from. See Galatians 3:13-
"13 Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed it completely as He became a curse in our place. For it is written:“Everyone who is hung upon a tree is doubly cursed"....."
Just to digress a little, Satan did not institute the curse. Satan himself is cursed. Fighting Satan, binding demons of somebody's father's house and fasting in order to break curses is pointless. The only way to be free from every curse is to believe in Jesus- having Him as one's righteousness. No matter the number of deliverance/curse-breaking sessions, the generational curse remains on all those who are under law (evidenced by trying to obey the law in order to be godly and doing things like fasting to break curses that Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from) because the generational curse is God's word; see Numbers 14:18-
‘I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.'
Satan is the Accuser. "HaSatan" is literally prosecutor at law in Hebrew. Satan can't 'dash' anybody the curse any more than a prosecutor at law can throw someone in jail or sentence him to death. This is the Judge's jurisdiction and His law demands that the guilty be punished to the uttermost. Fighting and binding Satan in order to be free from curses is as useless as fighting a human prosecutor in order to escape the sentence of the Judge.
Like any prosecutor, Satan's work is to accuse people of breaking the law in the court of the Law of Moses and threaten people with harsh judgment. But all have sinned so anyone without Christ as his righteousness- anyone who is trying to obey the law to be righteous before God the Righteous Judge - is guilty and thus cursed. Galatians 3:10 says:
"Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”"
No human descended of Adam can obey everything. Without that perfect righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ, we all fall short.
Many pastors are doing Satan's work of accusing the brethren straight from the pulpit, telling the flock to obey the law in order to be godly/righteous in God's sight...so the curse remains. The curse, including the generational curse, is the outcome of breaking God's law and all who believe in Jesus Christ are free from it because we are no longer under law but under Grace. Christ paid the wages of our sin that the law demanded from us.
Back to how religious people who attend church religiously are stumbling over Christ the Rock that came to save:
- By trying to escape God's wrath through human effort at obedience when Romans 5:9 tells us:
"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."
Remember:
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in Him
will never be disgraced.”"
In essence, many religious people are stumbling and falling because they reject God's abundance of Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ.
This is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith in Christ. This is the Good News that Paul preached unashamedly. See Romans 1:
16 "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.""
Notice: "This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight." Romans 3 tells us how we are made right in God's sight:
26 "...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."
Yet many are trying to redo the finished work of Christ in making the sinner who believes righteous by trying to obey the law to make themselves right in God's sight.
Believer, all efforts at obeying the Ten Commandments, fasting, sowing seed, giving to the poor, paying tithe, attending vigils, etc in order to get right with God, be godly, score points of righteousness with God or receive from Him are useless. Doing these things in order to be righteous or obtain favour from God is THE EVIDENCE of rejecting the gift of righteousness that Grace-personified- Jesus Christ- died that we might have. Doing these things in order to get right with God is THE EVIDENCE of unbelief.
The only brand of righteousness that suffices for God the Righteous Judge is the one He provided for us by Himself- that which proceeds from the obedience of Christ and not our own obedience.
Before we became born-again, we all owed God a sin debt. The wages of sin is death. This death is a one time death, as it is written in Hebrews 9:27- "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,"
This death is also not just a physical death. Lack, fear, worry, sickness, stress, oppression, generational curse, depression are all symptoms of death aka "death begun." Remember Adam did not drop dead immediately after his death sentence came into effect. Moses said of the Lord in Psalm 90:4 -"A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by,..." Adam's almost 1000 years, spent sweating and toiling, are like a day in God's sight. He spent those years "dying" his death like many religious folk who are under law are paying the wages of sin today.
For all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ died this death for us, including all of the "death begun" that comes with it. See Hebrews 9:27-28:
27 "And just as it is destined that men die only once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so also Christ died only once as an offering for the sins of many people; and He will come again, but not to deal again with our sins. This time He will come bringing salvation to all those who are eagerly and patiently waiting for Him."
Believer, let's not join the ranks of those who think that Christ is coming to deal with the sins of believers. He paid the wages of our sin in full. In Him, He is to us "The Lord our Righteousness." Paul says in Galatians 2:21:
"I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
To believe that our eternal security in Christ is dependent on how well we obey the Ten Commandments and the good things we do even just the tiniest bit is to reject Christ's finished work in making the sinner who believes righteous. Isaiah 64:6 says:
"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."
All those good works, fasts and tithes paid in a bid to get right with God or receive from Him who gives us all things freely with Christ (Romans 8:32) are like a menstruation rag in His sight. Doing them in order to be righteous is THE EVIDENCE of rejecting Christ's sacrifice to make the sinner who believes righteous.
Only the righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ- with no admixture of a menstruation rag of works of the law- will suffice for God the Righteous Judge. But many see Grace merely as an addition to their lives of trying to be godly by obeying the law. Christ says in Matthew 7 (MSG):
24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock."
A life that is built on the foundation of righteousness by faith in Christ will stand forever. But this "Rock" is making many religious people in the church stumble because they are relying on their own strength to obey the law, even when God's word says "the arm of flesh will fail." Many still think that they can score points of righteousness with God by presenting Him with a menstruation rag of laws kept and good deeds done! These are dead works. Believers, let's not be found here.
There is the valid question of believers living a life of moral excellence. Many who do not yet understand God's grace ask the question:
"So are you saying that people can just go and be sinning anyhow if they believe that they are righteous by faith?"
Such people do not yet see that the reason why we who are not committing particular sins are so is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. I dislike 'Titus' fish, mayonnaise, cheese and any kind of meat fat with a passion and cannot manage large portions at meal times. I also can't stand to watch people kissing or sex scenes on TV - I literally have to cover my eyes here and not for any 'churchy' reason. I just don't like it. Other people love meat fat, their plates always look like they are eating for three, and they are comfortable with watching pornography. Praising me for my dietary and pornography restraint is pointless. Those are just not areas of temptation for me. If they were and it was up to me to save myself, I would fail woefully. The arm of flesh will fail. Replace meat fat and huge food portions with any kind of sin or addiction.
The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody, thanks to the OLD/SINFUL NATURE inherited from Adam (see Romans 5:19.) God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think and even boast that some sins are beneath them, just as Peter did when he boasted that he would never deny Jesus... but when his circumstances became unfavourable, he did...three times.
This is why we who are under Grace have victory in times of trials, tests and temptation- 1 Corinthians 10:13-
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."
Someone needs to bring you out of your testing and that Someone is Jesus Christ. Matthew 1:21 says of Him:
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
People who are living in sin need a Saviour, not more law to add to the burden that is already crushing them. Telling people to obey the law and stop abusing drugs/stealing/fornicating/committing whatever sin by human effort and threatening them with hell fire if they don't won't get anyone anywhere. Human effort may suppress sins for a while but the arm of flesh (human effort at obeying the law) will fail and when it does, the suppressed sinful urges will explode in a volcanic eruption of sinful deeds that lead to death. See this in Romans 7:5-
"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."
The old nature is the sinful nature inherited from Adam. Remember Romans 5:19- "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." The old nature is characterised by trying to obey the law in order to be godly. Such here are not new creation that have been made righteous by Christ's obedience.
The very law that many are trying to obey in order to be godly causes acts of sin to proliferate. We see this also in Romans 6:14- "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Try to obey the law to be righteous and sin will have dominion. But many teach this backwards.
This brings us back to Romans 9 in the first paragraph-
30 "What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in Him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path."
By grace, believer, let's not stumble over Jesus Christ as our righteousness! The way to stumble is to reject the gift of righteousness that He died that we might have. A person does this when he believes that his right-standing and acceptance before God is dependent on his own obedience and not Christ's obedience as it is written in Romans 5:19-
"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."
The people who stumbled and fell over Christ the Rock were not Jews who wanted to go out to steal and fornicate. They were religious people who were trying hard to obey the law in order to be godly, same as many in the church today. This preaching of the false doctrine of "you can be godly by human effort at obeying the law" has been Satan's strategy since the Garden of Eden when he deceived Eve into believing that she could be godly (be like God) by human effort at doing something. But sin had dominion and death reigned through Adam.
Believer, believe right. God Himself provided the Way for us to be godly (righteous in His sight) as well as live in triumph over sin and death. His name is Jesus Christ. See Romans 5:17-
"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."
Let's not put the cart before the horse. The gospel of Christ is not about doing one's best to obey the law in order to be accepted by God. No one can and the works from trying to do so are like a menstruation rag in His sight. The gospel of Christ is all about believing that we are righteous by faith in Christ. This is right believing. Right believing always produces right living.
In Christ, we don't HAVE TO live right; we GET TO live right. In Christ, we don't GIVE TO GET; we GET TO GIVE, and not by human effort at obeying the law. How? Because "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."
Christ does it all. See Paul's experience in Galatians 2: 19-21:
"19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
The Law condemns the very best of us. Grace saves the very worst of us, even salvation from sins and death.
30 "What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in Him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in Him
will never be disgraced.”"
Believers, let's not be like these "people of Israel" that Paul was talking about here. These people who rejected Christ as their righteousness (this is the stumbling stone) were not people who wanted to go out and commit sin. God's word says they "tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law," just as many who are under the teaching of Pharisee-type pastors are doing today. But trying to obey the law to get right with God instead of trusting Christ is an effort in futility,
"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.
Like the law-keeping Jews (who desired righteousness) that Paul spoke of in Romans 9 above, many religious people who attend church religiously are stumbling over the Rock that came to save: Jesus Christ our righteousness. How?
- By trying to obey the law in order to get right with God when this is this same reason (to make us righteous) that God gave His own Son for the world that He so loved; see this in Romans 5:19-
"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."
- By trying to make themselves acceptable to God by human effort at obeying the law when it is only in Christ the Beloved that we are accepted. See Ephesians 1:6-
"to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."
- By trying to curry God's favour/get Him to bless with various fasts, neglecting the body, sowing seeds, etc when He gives believers all things FREELY with Christ. See Romans 8:32-
"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
- By running from pillar to post trying to break generational and other curses that Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from. See Galatians 3:13-
"13 Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed it completely as He became a curse in our place. For it is written:“Everyone who is hung upon a tree is doubly cursed"....."
Just to digress a little, Satan did not institute the curse. Satan himself is cursed. Fighting Satan, binding demons of somebody's father's house and fasting in order to break curses is pointless. The only way to be free from every curse is to believe in Jesus- having Him as one's righteousness. No matter the number of deliverance/curse-breaking sessions, the generational curse remains on all those who are under law (evidenced by trying to obey the law in order to be godly and doing things like fasting to break curses that Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from) because the generational curse is God's word; see Numbers 14:18-
‘I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.'
Satan is the Accuser. "HaSatan" is literally prosecutor at law in Hebrew. Satan can't 'dash' anybody the curse any more than a prosecutor at law can throw someone in jail or sentence him to death. This is the Judge's jurisdiction and His law demands that the guilty be punished to the uttermost. Fighting and binding Satan in order to be free from curses is as useless as fighting a human prosecutor in order to escape the sentence of the Judge.
Like any prosecutor, Satan's work is to accuse people of breaking the law in the court of the Law of Moses and threaten people with harsh judgment. But all have sinned so anyone without Christ as his righteousness- anyone who is trying to obey the law to be righteous before God the Righteous Judge - is guilty and thus cursed. Galatians 3:10 says:
"Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”"
No human descended of Adam can obey everything. Without that perfect righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ, we all fall short.
Many pastors are doing Satan's work of accusing the brethren straight from the pulpit, telling the flock to obey the law in order to be godly/righteous in God's sight...so the curse remains. The curse, including the generational curse, is the outcome of breaking God's law and all who believe in Jesus Christ are free from it because we are no longer under law but under Grace. Christ paid the wages of our sin that the law demanded from us.
Back to how religious people who attend church religiously are stumbling over Christ the Rock that came to save:
- By trying to escape God's wrath through human effort at obedience when Romans 5:9 tells us:
"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."
Remember:
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in Him
will never be disgraced.”"
In essence, many religious people are stumbling and falling because they reject God's abundance of Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ.
This is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith in Christ. This is the Good News that Paul preached unashamedly. See Romans 1:
16 "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.""
Notice: "This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight." Romans 3 tells us how we are made right in God's sight:
26 "...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."
Yet many are trying to redo the finished work of Christ in making the sinner who believes righteous by trying to obey the law to make themselves right in God's sight.
Believer, all efforts at obeying the Ten Commandments, fasting, sowing seed, giving to the poor, paying tithe, attending vigils, etc in order to get right with God, be godly, score points of righteousness with God or receive from Him are useless. Doing these things in order to be righteous or obtain favour from God is THE EVIDENCE of rejecting the gift of righteousness that Grace-personified- Jesus Christ- died that we might have. Doing these things in order to get right with God is THE EVIDENCE of unbelief.
The only brand of righteousness that suffices for God the Righteous Judge is the one He provided for us by Himself- that which proceeds from the obedience of Christ and not our own obedience.
Before we became born-again, we all owed God a sin debt. The wages of sin is death. This death is a one time death, as it is written in Hebrews 9:27- "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,"
This death is also not just a physical death. Lack, fear, worry, sickness, stress, oppression, generational curse, depression are all symptoms of death aka "death begun." Remember Adam did not drop dead immediately after his death sentence came into effect. Moses said of the Lord in Psalm 90:4 -"A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by,..." Adam's almost 1000 years, spent sweating and toiling, are like a day in God's sight. He spent those years "dying" his death like many religious folk who are under law are paying the wages of sin today.
For all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ died this death for us, including all of the "death begun" that comes with it. See Hebrews 9:27-28:
27 "And just as it is destined that men die only once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so also Christ died only once as an offering for the sins of many people; and He will come again, but not to deal again with our sins. This time He will come bringing salvation to all those who are eagerly and patiently waiting for Him."
Believer, let's not join the ranks of those who think that Christ is coming to deal with the sins of believers. He paid the wages of our sin in full. In Him, He is to us "The Lord our Righteousness." Paul says in Galatians 2:21:
"I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
To believe that our eternal security in Christ is dependent on how well we obey the Ten Commandments and the good things we do even just the tiniest bit is to reject Christ's finished work in making the sinner who believes righteous. Isaiah 64:6 says:
"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."
All those good works, fasts and tithes paid in a bid to get right with God or receive from Him who gives us all things freely with Christ (Romans 8:32) are like a menstruation rag in His sight. Doing them in order to be righteous is THE EVIDENCE of rejecting Christ's sacrifice to make the sinner who believes righteous.
Only the righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of Christ- with no admixture of a menstruation rag of works of the law- will suffice for God the Righteous Judge. But many see Grace merely as an addition to their lives of trying to be godly by obeying the law. Christ says in Matthew 7 (MSG):
24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock."
A life that is built on the foundation of righteousness by faith in Christ will stand forever. But this "Rock" is making many religious people in the church stumble because they are relying on their own strength to obey the law, even when God's word says "the arm of flesh will fail." Many still think that they can score points of righteousness with God by presenting Him with a menstruation rag of laws kept and good deeds done! These are dead works. Believers, let's not be found here.
There is the valid question of believers living a life of moral excellence. Many who do not yet understand God's grace ask the question:
"So are you saying that people can just go and be sinning anyhow if they believe that they are righteous by faith?"
Such people do not yet see that the reason why we who are not committing particular sins are so is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. I dislike 'Titus' fish, mayonnaise, cheese and any kind of meat fat with a passion and cannot manage large portions at meal times. I also can't stand to watch people kissing or sex scenes on TV - I literally have to cover my eyes here and not for any 'churchy' reason. I just don't like it. Other people love meat fat, their plates always look like they are eating for three, and they are comfortable with watching pornography. Praising me for my dietary and pornography restraint is pointless. Those are just not areas of temptation for me. If they were and it was up to me to save myself, I would fail woefully. The arm of flesh will fail. Replace meat fat and huge food portions with any kind of sin or addiction.
The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody, thanks to the OLD/SINFUL NATURE inherited from Adam (see Romans 5:19.) God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think and even boast that some sins are beneath them, just as Peter did when he boasted that he would never deny Jesus... but when his circumstances became unfavourable, he did...three times.
This is why we who are under Grace have victory in times of trials, tests and temptation- 1 Corinthians 10:13-
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."
Someone needs to bring you out of your testing and that Someone is Jesus Christ. Matthew 1:21 says of Him:
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
People who are living in sin need a Saviour, not more law to add to the burden that is already crushing them. Telling people to obey the law and stop abusing drugs/stealing/fornicating/committing whatever sin by human effort and threatening them with hell fire if they don't won't get anyone anywhere. Human effort may suppress sins for a while but the arm of flesh (human effort at obeying the law) will fail and when it does, the suppressed sinful urges will explode in a volcanic eruption of sinful deeds that lead to death. See this in Romans 7:5-
"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."
The old nature is the sinful nature inherited from Adam. Remember Romans 5:19- "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." The old nature is characterised by trying to obey the law in order to be godly. Such here are not new creation that have been made righteous by Christ's obedience.
The very law that many are trying to obey in order to be godly causes acts of sin to proliferate. We see this also in Romans 6:14- "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Try to obey the law to be righteous and sin will have dominion. But many teach this backwards.
This brings us back to Romans 9 in the first paragraph-
30 "What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in Him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path."
By grace, believer, let's not stumble over Jesus Christ as our righteousness! The way to stumble is to reject the gift of righteousness that He died that we might have. A person does this when he believes that his right-standing and acceptance before God is dependent on his own obedience and not Christ's obedience as it is written in Romans 5:19-
"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."
The people who stumbled and fell over Christ the Rock were not Jews who wanted to go out to steal and fornicate. They were religious people who were trying hard to obey the law in order to be godly, same as many in the church today. This preaching of the false doctrine of "you can be godly by human effort at obeying the law" has been Satan's strategy since the Garden of Eden when he deceived Eve into believing that she could be godly (be like God) by human effort at doing something. But sin had dominion and death reigned through Adam.
Believer, believe right. God Himself provided the Way for us to be godly (righteous in His sight) as well as live in triumph over sin and death. His name is Jesus Christ. See Romans 5:17-
"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."
Let's not put the cart before the horse. The gospel of Christ is not about doing one's best to obey the law in order to be accepted by God. No one can and the works from trying to do so are like a menstruation rag in His sight. The gospel of Christ is all about believing that we are righteous by faith in Christ. This is right believing. Right believing always produces right living.
In Christ, we don't HAVE TO live right; we GET TO live right. In Christ, we don't GIVE TO GET; we GET TO GIVE, and not by human effort at obeying the law. How? Because "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."
Christ does it all. See Paul's experience in Galatians 2: 19-21:
"19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
The Law condemns the very best of us. Grace saves the very worst of us, even salvation from sins and death.
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