Live free of Anxiety and Depression in Christ.

Believer, Proverbs 12:25 says: "Anxious fear brings depression, but a life-giving word of encouragement can do wonders to restore joy to the heart."

What better way to be anxious and thus depressed than to believe the false doctrine that says your access to salvation, freedom from demonic oppression, lack, sickness, terror attacks as well as from generational curses hangs on the thread of your own human effort at doing things? What better way to be anxious than to believe that you are cut off from Christ when you sin and thus have become fair game for Satan, unless you do certain things prescribed by people who have designated themselves as "high priest?"

Believer, believe right and be free from anxious fears that lead to depression. Believe Right and be free from oppression by "men of God" who, like the Pharisees, put terms and conditions (law-keeping) between you and your ability to FREELY receive what Christ died that you might have.  Romans 5:9 tells us how God sees us based on the finished work of Christ at the cross:

"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."

Revelations 16:1 says "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

The Great Tribulation is the wrath of God. In Christ, we will NEVER experience the wrath of God. "Never" means "never", and this promise that we will never experience the wrath of God is not contingent on our ability to keep the law or do good things. It is because of the sacrifice of Jesus (Romans 5:9.)

Believer, in Christ, we are imperfect people whose perfection is found in Christ. See Romans 4:25- "who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous."

See the TPT- "Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!"

God raised Jesus from the dead BECAUSE we have been declared RIGHTEOUS. All of our lifetime of sins FORGIVEN and every demand of the Law fulfilled for all who believe in Christ Jesus. As we are right now, believing Romans 4:25 and trusting in Christ for our every need, if the trumpet should sound right now, we who are believing Jesus will all be caught up in the air with our Saviour Jesus Christ at the Rapture. But He does not just leave us to continue to wallow in sin. Titus 2:14 says of Him:

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

And this is what He is doing as we await His coming at the Rapture- John 6: 43-46 (MSG)

"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." 

In Christ, the thoughts of the Holy Spirit in us become our action. We get to live a life of moral excellence that exceeds that which the law demands, yet not us but Christ in us.This is the Good News. No room for anxious fears that lead to depression here. Only the Good News that "nourishes the bones."

By grace, let's not bicker with or be swayed by those who twist Scripture with their misinterpretation of Romans 6:1 - "...Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound" and thus separate themselves from Christ our Salvation with their futile attempts at trying to be godly or earn God's gift of eternal life by human effort - Galatians 5:4 says:

"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."

These are the same people who lie that sinning is what makes one fall from grace! Let's take our blessed brains to church. 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.”

How can sins make a person fall from grace? How can our Saviour who came to save us from our sins use those very sins that He gave His life to free us from as an excuse for pushing us off His elevation of Grace? He saves from sins. It is Christ's "neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more."

Believer, beware of those who twist Paul's  "...Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound" to place an additional burden of the Law on you. Such do not have the Father's love in them, not yet- that is why they can comprehend sinning wilfully against Someone who loves you so much that He gave up His own Son to die for your sins. Such are yet to experience the Father's love.

"Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound?"- is a favourite of those who try to twist the gospel to mean that we have to rely on human effort at keeping the law and suppressing sins in order to be godly/saved from sin and death. Such say things like: 

“Yes we are saved by Grace but we still have to keep the Law, not to be justified, but as a guiding principle for morality and to make sure that we don't fall from grace.” 

This is a doctrine of salvation by “part-Law and part-Grace” and thus, not salvation. This horrid mixture that is neither Law nor Grace is the “neither cold nor hot” that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3. Those who quote Romans 6:1 out of its context will never tell you the background that is Romans 1-5 which tells us that we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law or futile efforts at “not sinning” in order to be godly. As believers under Grace, sin is abhorrent to us and we overcome not by human effort (arm of flesh) at suppressing sin but by the power of Christ who came to save us from our sins.

Paul preached "righteousness by faith" to the extent that religious people who thought they could keep the Law accused him of preaching that it is okay to sin because of Grace (Romans 3:7-8,) just as many are accusing true believers today when they twist  "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace my bound" out of context. By this question, Paul was asking:

Do all these things that I wrote in Romans 1-5 mean that we can just go and be sinning anyhow? It is akin to asking  Shall we go and get cancer and be wallowing in cancer because a cure is now available?" 

And what are the things that Paul wrote in Romans 1-5? Here is one. Romans 5:19 - found in the chapter right before the often misinterpreted Romans 6:1-  tells us:

"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." 

From the above verse, we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes a person a sinner. Adam's disobedience did made all of his descendants sinners. Even if a person lived his life doing good things and trying to keep the Law, as long as the sin nature inherited from Adam by all mankind is intact, he is still a sinner "continuing in sin." Sinners will produce sins. 

The sin nature is characterized by dependence on human effort at attaining godliness. Such reject God's gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have or say that Grace is not sufficient for our salvation from sin and death. Such also to twist "Faith without works is dead" to mean we who believe must do certain things to PROVE that we are saved- same way Satan tempted Jesus with "If you are the Son of God...." Believer, good works are not CONDITIONS for salvation. They are EVIDENCES, much like how a child whose father has a bushy beard will grow one when he comes of age. But these false doctrine preachers tell a five-year-old that he is not his father's child because he has no beard!

Christ says in John 15:5 -  “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

You can't be in Christ and not bear "much fruit." Our bearing much fruit is all because we are in Christ and not because we the branches did its best to produce fruit. Apart from Christ, we cannot. 

Remember "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." 

Just as sinners (having the sin nature) produce sin and "continue in sin" no matter how much they try to keep the law, a believer in Christ cannot continue to live in sin because we believe that Christ's obedience has made us righteous. The thing that made us sinners (sin nature inherited from Adam) and made us produce sins was excised by Christ when we believed: see Colossians 2:11-

"When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature."

Just as the one with the sin nature will produce sins and continue in sin, we who believe that we are made righteous by Christ's obedience GET TO produce righteousness and cannot continue to live in sin. We did not make ourselves dead to sin. Christ did. Hence Paul's response to his own rhetorical question: 

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

But many just pick one half of a verse - "...Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound..."- and twist it out of context to mean that human effort is involved in the story of our Salvation. 

True believers do not want to commit sin but unlike many churchgoers today and Peter before he denied Christ, we know that the only reason why we are not committing particular sins is because God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:12-13.) 

But people who quote "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound" out of context think that they can overcome temptation to sin by human effort. This is the height of foolishness and pride. There is something about the arm of flesh (dependence on human effort at obedience) that wants to be relevant in the story of our salvation. That something is Pride. God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) is powerless, will fail and cannot: Romans 7:18- 

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

There is nothing good in us of ourselves. We can do no good of ourselves says God's word! But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort) that will fail says: 

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law and not sin by my will-power."

This is right where Peter was when Christ told him about his then upcoming denials. He knew 100% that he would die for Jesus, until Satan sifted him like wheat. Then he saw how empty of good he was. Many are yet to see this.

Like Peter who boasted in his own strength and ended up breaking the Law, many wrongly believe that they have the will-power to do what is right and keep the law, until their eyes are opened after Satan sifts them like wheat as he did Peter, and sin has dominion:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

Those who think they can keep the Law and use their twisted interpretation of what Paul meant when he wrote "Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound" as evidence of their law-keeping prowess have no idea about the severity of the Law. The letter kills and gives sin dominion - "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace."

Many believe that we "Grace children" just want an excuse to sin and live lawlessly. But can you imagine feeling great guilt and condemnation because you responded with 12 o'clock when it was really 12.02? Let's not talk about anticipating punishment for sins for saying something like: "You spilled water all over the floor" when the water did not cover the entire floor:) This is how much we "Grace people" want to sin. Those who think they can keep the Law have no idea about its severity. It condemns all who try.

The arm of flesh will fail. Only by God's grace do we live in triumph over sin and death (Romans 5:17) Salvation is not behaviour modification by human effort aka the arm of flesh that will fail. Sin has dominion over those who are trying to keep the Law in order to be godly (Romans 6:14.)   Salvation in Christ is all about hearts' transformation by the Holy Spirit. In Christ, we desire to and GET TO live lives of moral excellence, yet not us but Christ in us. 

Right believing always produces right living.