V
SLAVE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
There is a considerable amount of time, effort and space spent in the Bible Discussion forum in heated debates and dreadful “admonition”. I’ve read elsewhere in the other forums that this particular forum has earned quite a reputation as a frightfully unpleasant place to come into. Many members refuse to venture into the Bible Discussion forum because the Word of God is most often delivered like a weapon rather than shared as food. And unless you’re considered a “scholar in the Word”, you may be silenced by condescending posts that attempt to prove you "unskilled" and in "grave error".
I don't believe any one of those who post here with words of fire and brimstone would ever attempt to physically stand in an assembly of believers and audibly proclaim in the same manner they do in this Bible Discussion forum. People take serious liberties behind this computer screen. I'm sure no respecting body of believers would allow brothers and sisters in Christ to breathe such fiery contradictions back and forth to one another. People, we need to pray and seek God about our motives before posting things on this site for the whole world to read.
I’m convinced that the majority of saints who post in the Bible Discussion believe they are doing God a service by defending the faith. They believe it is their calling to debate the Word and set people straight to “obey the law”. Yet they fail to see that human goodness, personal holiness, is NOT the reality. The reality is Redemption of Jesus Christ. That is the ONLY reality we need to be aware of.
Holiness is the result of Jesus’ redemption. We do not make ourselves holy to get redeemed or to maintain redemption - we are redeemed by the Blood of Christ Jesus and He makes us holy. He conforms us and makes us in His image through His work by the Holy Spirit He placed in us. Christ has taken up residence in us whereby He reigns sovereign in us and we now reign in Him, by Him and for Him only.
If we focus on ourselves, if we put our faith in our own efforts to be holy, we will never endure testing and trials, we will only come up short. If we dwell upon the weakness in ourselves or in others, repelled by the horrid sinfulness in the world, we have not allowed Christ to be the sole focus of our life. Jesus did not despise nor condemn the world. He came to offer salvation through His redemption. You must abandon your entire will to Him, even your identity. The only identity we have now is Jesus Christ. He is the only reality.
We do not separate ourselves, Romans 1:1 tells us that it pleased God to separate us to the gospel. We should have no interest in our identity or in our character or in our personal holiness. That is not anywhere near the life of Redemption. It is the work of God.
There must be reckless abandon to the Lord. We cannot walk in victory and deliverance while our interest is in our own character. We must be conscious of Jesus Christ, not of ourselves. When you tell people to focus on their own character, to make themselves obey, you are leading them away from the Cross of Redemption. We must be so totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus that we proclaim to the world Jesus Christ crucified - nothing else.
Romans 6
15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16. Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17.But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22. But now that you have been set free from sinand have become slaves of Jesus, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How do you offer yourself a slave to righteousness? By abandoning your own intellect and personal goals to be holy and reckon yourself a salve, captured and ruled now by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. YOU ARE GOD’s SLAVE! Nothing you can do will separate you from that fact once you are a child of God. You are His, not your own. He has set you free and you need to come to terms with that reality. You are holy because of Christ. Now walk in it like you believe it!
The Law in the Old Testament was to show us that we could never keep the law perfectly by human effort. Jesus tells us that if we keep the Law but then stumble in one little tiny thing, we are GUILTY OF ALL. Brothers and sisters, don’t kid yourself. You cannot even begin to make yourself good and holy. NEVER! It is God at work in you making you want to obey Him and then performing His will through. It is a mystery and an amazing grace at work because of Jesus Christ.
So how exactly is God keeping us from the law of sin? I only know that it is a FREE GIFT of GRACE, a miraculous Redemption that when I am focused on Jesus Christ and not myself, sin has no place in my life. Either I am looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, and am walking in liberty and joy – or I am conscious of my own sin, every day unnecessarily striving and struggling to keep my flesh holy.
Jesus has set us free from sin and has renewed our hearts to see only Him, His righteousness, His holiness, His glory, His wisdom, His mercy, His love for mankind. If you are focused on yourself, your righteousness, your holiness, your glory, your wisdom, your mercy, your love for mankind, you are lost, my friend.
I pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord that this Bible Discussion forum would come to the end of harsh debating and prideful boasting and begin teaching and preaching the Redemption in Jesus Christ. What joy and blessing in God’s sight it will be when new people come into this room and learn of Jesus Christ and His great redeeming love, and nothing more. May the Lord Jesus be glorified and honored and praised!
Grace of Jesus Christ to you all, brothers and sisters in Christ. And to those who have not yet received spiritual sight, I pray the Lord open your heart to receive His Light and Love. ♥
There is a considerable amount of time, effort and space spent in the Bible Discussion forum in heated debates and dreadful “admonition”. I’ve read elsewhere in the other forums that this particular forum has earned quite a reputation as a frightfully unpleasant place to come into. Many members refuse to venture into the Bible Discussion forum because the Word of God is most often delivered like a weapon rather than shared as food. And unless you’re considered a “scholar in the Word”, you may be silenced by condescending posts that attempt to prove you "unskilled" and in "grave error".
I don't believe any one of those who post here with words of fire and brimstone would ever attempt to physically stand in an assembly of believers and audibly proclaim in the same manner they do in this Bible Discussion forum. People take serious liberties behind this computer screen. I'm sure no respecting body of believers would allow brothers and sisters in Christ to breathe such fiery contradictions back and forth to one another. People, we need to pray and seek God about our motives before posting things on this site for the whole world to read.
I’m convinced that the majority of saints who post in the Bible Discussion believe they are doing God a service by defending the faith. They believe it is their calling to debate the Word and set people straight to “obey the law”. Yet they fail to see that human goodness, personal holiness, is NOT the reality. The reality is Redemption of Jesus Christ. That is the ONLY reality we need to be aware of.
Holiness is the result of Jesus’ redemption. We do not make ourselves holy to get redeemed or to maintain redemption - we are redeemed by the Blood of Christ Jesus and He makes us holy. He conforms us and makes us in His image through His work by the Holy Spirit He placed in us. Christ has taken up residence in us whereby He reigns sovereign in us and we now reign in Him, by Him and for Him only.
If we focus on ourselves, if we put our faith in our own efforts to be holy, we will never endure testing and trials, we will only come up short. If we dwell upon the weakness in ourselves or in others, repelled by the horrid sinfulness in the world, we have not allowed Christ to be the sole focus of our life. Jesus did not despise nor condemn the world. He came to offer salvation through His redemption. You must abandon your entire will to Him, even your identity. The only identity we have now is Jesus Christ. He is the only reality.
We do not separate ourselves, Romans 1:1 tells us that it pleased God to separate us to the gospel. We should have no interest in our identity or in our character or in our personal holiness. That is not anywhere near the life of Redemption. It is the work of God.
There must be reckless abandon to the Lord. We cannot walk in victory and deliverance while our interest is in our own character. We must be conscious of Jesus Christ, not of ourselves. When you tell people to focus on their own character, to make themselves obey, you are leading them away from the Cross of Redemption. We must be so totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus that we proclaim to the world Jesus Christ crucified - nothing else.
Romans 6
15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16. Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17.But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22. But now that you have been set free from sinand have become slaves of Jesus, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How do you offer yourself a slave to righteousness? By abandoning your own intellect and personal goals to be holy and reckon yourself a salve, captured and ruled now by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. YOU ARE GOD’s SLAVE! Nothing you can do will separate you from that fact once you are a child of God. You are His, not your own. He has set you free and you need to come to terms with that reality. You are holy because of Christ. Now walk in it like you believe it!
The Law in the Old Testament was to show us that we could never keep the law perfectly by human effort. Jesus tells us that if we keep the Law but then stumble in one little tiny thing, we are GUILTY OF ALL. Brothers and sisters, don’t kid yourself. You cannot even begin to make yourself good and holy. NEVER! It is God at work in you making you want to obey Him and then performing His will through. It is a mystery and an amazing grace at work because of Jesus Christ.
So how exactly is God keeping us from the law of sin? I only know that it is a FREE GIFT of GRACE, a miraculous Redemption that when I am focused on Jesus Christ and not myself, sin has no place in my life. Either I am looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, and am walking in liberty and joy – or I am conscious of my own sin, every day unnecessarily striving and struggling to keep my flesh holy.
Jesus has set us free from sin and has renewed our hearts to see only Him, His righteousness, His holiness, His glory, His wisdom, His mercy, His love for mankind. If you are focused on yourself, your righteousness, your holiness, your glory, your wisdom, your mercy, your love for mankind, you are lost, my friend.
I pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord that this Bible Discussion forum would come to the end of harsh debating and prideful boasting and begin teaching and preaching the Redemption in Jesus Christ. What joy and blessing in God’s sight it will be when new people come into this room and learn of Jesus Christ and His great redeeming love, and nothing more. May the Lord Jesus be glorified and honored and praised!
Grace of Jesus Christ to you all, brothers and sisters in Christ. And to those who have not yet received spiritual sight, I pray the Lord open your heart to receive His Light and Love. ♥
