Believer, whatever happens, whatever the situation or the sins you find yourself struggling with, by God's Grace, hold on to these words of Christ as it is written in John 5:24-
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."
See The Living Bible version: “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to My message and believes in God who sent Me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life."
Believer, let these words spoken by our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself sink in for a bit. Now consider the following truths-
Only people who have sins deserve to face judgment. All have sinned.
By default, ALL mankind deserve to be damned/condemned and to face death. There is nothing that man can do by his arm of flesh (human effort or will-power at obedience aka law-keeping) to escape God's judgment-
"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
Christ says in John 5:24 - “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to My message and believes in God who sent Me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life."
This blessed assurance from Christ Himself is for people who have sins!
Beware of antichrist pastors who like to jump in here to say that the words of Christ is a licence to commit sin and present Grace- Christ Himself- as being synonymous with sin and reckless living. Such preach dependence on the arm of flesh at keeping the Law in order to be right with God and threaten churchgoers with God's wrath which His word says believers in Christ will never experience: 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 the blood of the sinless Lamb of God will suffice for God the Righteous Judge to declare anyone righteous. No additives. No human effort. Romans 11:6 says of our salvation in Christ:
"And since it is by God’s grace, it can’t be a matter of their good works; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a gift of grace, but earned by human effort."
We are saved by Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) through faith. The Law is not of Faith.
But what about works?
Antichrist pastors lie that being under Grace means we do nothing but twiddle our fingers idly or commit sins with reckless abandon since our sins are forgiven. Not so! On the contrary, in Christ, under Grace is where we GET TO work harder and produce a harvest of good works for God. Our testimony is like Paul's in 1 Corinthians 15:10-
"But because of God’s grace I am what I am. And His grace was not wasted on me. No, I have worked harder than all the other apostles. But I didn’t do the work. God’s grace was with me."
How is God's grace wasted on a person? See this in Galatians 2:20- "I do not get rid of the grace of God. What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!"
Dependence on even an iota of human effort (arm of flesh) at obedience or producing good works aka keeping the Law in order to be godly is akin to throwing God's grace in the trash. This does not make sense to those trust in their human effort living a godly life and thus who reject Christ's finished work of making the sinner who acknowledges his sins and believes righteous-
"For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18.
False doctrine preachers promote that abomination of human striving at attaining righteousness/godliness (be like God.) This is the same evil doctrine that Satan used to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden where he told her that she could be godly (be like God) through human effort at doing something. Believer, just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the letter (law) kills.
Believer, beware of such evil doctrine preachers. The spirit of the antichrist is not anti-God. In fact, its hosts seem to be very pro-God, just like the religious Pharisees who hated Christ. Such try to subtly remove and replace Christ's finished work for our salvation with human effort (arm of flesh) at keeping the law and doing all sorts in order to be saved and get God to bless, e.g fasting to break generational and other curses when Galatians 3:13 says "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law...."
Their aim is to keep churchgoers away from enjoying the free benefits of God's saving Grace who saves from sins and make you work to be godly (be like God.) Beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:
"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."
Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "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."
Law-keeping is dependence on human effort at attaining the right-standing with God that Christ suffered and died that we might have. Anyone who depends on himself to attain this right-standing before God has been cut off from Christ-
"For if you are trying to make yourself right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace." Galatians 5:4.
Believer, this is smack where Satan wants churchgoers to be- striving to get right with God and to earn His freely-given blessings by doing all sorts when Christ died for these purposes and much more. Doing this is to reject and be cut off from Christ who saves from sins so no salvation from sins for anyone who falls for this deceit of striving to be godly by human effort aka law-keeping. Satan knows that this is how to keep churchgoers locked down under the dominion of sin-
"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.
Beloved of God, by Grace, believe right and right living will follow. Understand that the reason why anyone can choose to not commit sin or is able to do good works and seems to be able to keep the Law is because God did not allow him to tempted beyond what he can bear. Think Peter when he thought he would never deny Jesus. His circumstances changed and he sinned...three times.
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 or that they can keep the law and be good people. Believer, take this from Christ: "There is none good but God."
Boasting or depending on human effort-driven works (fasts, seeds, obedience) or that non-existent ability to be good in man is akin to the physical flesh of man boasting that it can move about, play football and score goals by itself. God's mercy in man (even unbelievers and wicked sinners) is the "skeleton" that holds many upright. This is His goodness that leads to repentance.
For we who are in Christ, Christ Himself holds us upright. To us, He is "The Lord our Righteousness."
If God took away His restraining hand that restrains us from sins and which makes many churchgoers and unbelievers believe that they can be good and successful by their own will-power, we would all fail and devolve into committing the worst sins - collapse into the helpless heap of flesh that we are of ourselves. Paul addressed this in Romans 1 where a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) DEVOLVED into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —
“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”
If God lifted off His restraining hand that restrains us from devolving into committing heinous sins and let us rely on our human effort and will-power at keeping the law in order to be saved or for whatever reason, we would all see the full expression of the sinfulness of man.
Beloved of God, through the blood of Jesus, we are as right with God as Christ Himself is at the Father's right Hand. See 1 John 4:17
This right-standing with God that we have in Christ has got nothing to do with what WE did. It's all about what CHRIST has done. Add even the tiniest dash of works of man (law-keeping) to it and it is no longer Grace and therefore, no salvation. Grace is undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Grace is John 5:24-
“I say emphatically that anyone who listens to My message and believes in God who sent Me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life."
In Christ, God sees us as 100% righteous, "even though we are guilty of many sins." As Satan did with Eve, antichrist preachers try to deceive churchgoers into believing that that they can attain the tiniest bit of godliness (be like God) by wielding their useless will-power aka arm of flesh that will crumple in a heap should God lift His restraining hand. Such describe Christ's words in John 5:24 as "hypergrace" in a derisive manner and say it is just an excuse to commit sins. But God's word says differently. His word says only by receiving God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ do we get to reign over sin and death: Romans 5:16-17-
"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 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."
Right believing always produces right living.
Comments
Post a Comment