Good Morning Meetpastordan Readers…As I mentioned in a previous message, when we are in Christ, the sin-issue ceases to be an issue. To drive that point home, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins – past, present and future – at Calvary. Therefore, as it states so clearly and succinctly in Romans 8:1-2; “…there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” Does that mean we no longer have to be concerned about how we live our lives? Or does it mean that since we are saved, we can continue living the way we did before without consequence? I’ll let Apostle Paul answer that same question; “Of course not!” (Rom. 6:15) There is more to God’s Gift of Grace than forgiveness of sin. Now that we are “a new creation in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17), meaning at conversion our sin-nature was replaced with the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are faced with the challenge of living the Christian life in this fallen world. To meet that challenge our focus must shift from who we were as “sinners” to who we are today as “saints”. (explanation below)
A sinner is one who sins. When we followed our sin-nature, or as our culture calls it, our “human nature”, we lived with our focus on self-satisfaction and self-aggrandizement. Through that lens our gods became power, status, wealth, material gain, pleasure, etc. When we lived that way, our lives were about adhering to the standards of this world rather than to God’s standards. As long as we are dependent on our own best effort, we will discover that we have bought into the same lie that seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden; “…You will become just like God, knowing everything both good and evil.” In other words, you will become your own god; you won’t need God.
Unfortunately, many Christians still live their lives after conversion seemingly unaware of their new identity in Christ. Here are the common reasons people get stymied. We still live in these fleshly bodies and are tempted to yield to our carnal passions and desires; we are still living in a fallen world that espouses standards quite contrary to God’s standards; and satan, the great liar and manipulator, is hard at work in each of us trying to sabotage the new Christian life we have chosen to pursue. Remember, before you decided to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you were a slave (not my word, but Apostle Paul’s in Rom. 6:17) to your sin-nature. Satan had you right where he wanted you, in his grasp. The devil does not give up without a fight, and as new Christians, we have a target on our backs and are vulnerable to his tactics. Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us to put on “the whole armor of God (the foundation of scriptural truth) so that we will be able to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the devil.”
One of satan’s most effective tactics is to try to convince us we are unworthy of God’s Gift of Grace. Since there is no mental delete button to push after conversion, if we keep focused on who we were before we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can get mired in guilt, shame and remorse. We all have a past; we all lived in sin, and like it or not, we are still going to continue to fall short during our new walk with Christ. But take solace in the truth of this mini-gospel found in Rom. 3-21-25: “We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us NOT GUILTY! He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.” And did God wait until we cleaned-up our act to step in on our behalf? No!! Rom. 5-6 tells us, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”
God provided a savior to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He did this because he is a God who loves us beyond our ability to comprehend, and he wants a relationship with us – an eternal relationship! Rom. 8:38 tells us, “nothing can separate us from the love of God.” Now when we fall short, and we all will, it’s not about repenting for sin, but rather asking the Holy Spirit to empower us to be the person God created us to be. Our goal now is to become more Christ-like each day.
What we have been talking about is who we were before salvation. But after salvation, we are a new creation in Christ, and we have a new identity. Rom.1:7 refers to those in Christ as Saints, meaning holy…without sin and set aside for a sacred purpose. Now we can come boldly before God without any fear of condemnation, not because of anything we did to make ourselves acceptable to God, but because of what Jesus Christ did for us 2018 years ago. Now when God looks at us he no longer sees a sinner, but instead he sees a Saint because we are covered with the blood of Jesus. That’s why the sin issue is no longer an issue!
But once we have made the decision to move from the domain of darkness into the domain of light, satan will attack us unmercifully as he tries to derail our efforts to change. Therefore, we need to be vigilant because we will experience temptation after temptation as we follow our new path. But here is our hope. 1 John 4:4 tells us, “He that is in me (The Holy Spirit) is greater than he (satan) that is in this world.” That is a promise from God! We are told in Gal. 5:17-18, “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just the opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.” But as we learned from the scripture above, we are already promised victory because the Holy Spirit will empower us to make choices that bring honor and glory to God.
As we realize the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the more confident we are that we can become the “masterpiece” referred to in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can NOW do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (my caps) Along with our new identity in Christ comes security, freedom, joy, peace and serenity. That is what we all had always been looking for, but here-to-fore had been looking in all the wrong worldly places. The more we experience this new manner of living, the more sin loses its appeal.
Before I close, I want to be very clear about the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us to do the necessary work to be pleasing to God. He does not do the work for us, then tap us on the shoulder and say, “problem solved, now enjoy your life.” No! He empowers us to do the work. So whatever “mountain” we need to tackle – whether it is a temptation from satan, a mean person, an unkind boss, loss of a job, an embarrassing situation, etc. – we call on the Holy Spirit to give us His wisdom, patience, strength, courage, perseverance… whatever we need, to “cast that mountain into the sea.”
God’s plan is absolutely perfect. Not only do we have assurance about our eternal destiny, but He has provided the Holy Spirit to empower us to rise above this fallen world and begin experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth right now. Take it from one who has been on both sides; there is nothing like being in Christ and turning your will and your life over to the care of God.
So my question to you today is…do you allow the Holy Spirit to empower you to be victorious over circumstances?
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May God bless ya,
Dan Presgrave(a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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