Good Morning, My Friends: This is always a great time to live in St. Louis. When the Cardinals are soaring, everyone is soaring. Not only are the Birds are flyin’ high, but so is the Saint Louis Wind Symphony…excellent rehearsal yesterday. Between those two blessings, my beautiful wife and my four-legged boys, all I could say when I awaken today was “Thank you, God!”
Last week I wrote about being Free from the Yoke of Slavery. The term “yoke” means oppression, burden or bondage and was used in reference to living under the Law (the 10 Commandments). Now don’t mistake what I am saying…there is certainly no intent to suggest that God’s Law is faulty. In fact, Psalm 19:7 states “…God’s Law is perfect.” If you remember from an earlier blog, when the Lord gave the law to Moses on Mt.Sinai it served two purposes. God’s chosen people, the Israelites, were experiencing freedom for the first time after 400 years of slavery to the Egyptians and they had no idea how to live together in harmony. The Law served as their civil law. But it was much more than civil law: it was God’s standard. It was what He expected from us if we expect to spend eternity with Him in Paradise. It is still His standard today!
When giving us His law, God knew that man would struggle with it because it’s simply contrary to human nature. Now I know many of you reading this may think, “I’m a good person. I have never stolen anything; I certainly have never killed anyone; and I haven’t committed adultery”. But what about the others laws? Have you ever gossiped or bore false witness against anyone? Have you ever taken the Lord’s name in vain? Do you set aside a day to honor God? Is God the Lord of your life or do you spend more time focused on other gods such as money, power, prestige, getting ahead, the next new car or house? Do you ever covet? Hummm?
Unfortunately, God’s standard is not measured on a grading curve. It’s not about getting more pluses than minuses after your name or coming close with a score of 98%. James 2:10 states, “For the person who keeps all laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all the laws.” You may think, “Wow! That doesn’t seem fair”, but God states in 1 Peter 1:16, “You must be Holy because I am Holy”.
To be Holy means to be clean; to be without sin. God cannot tolerate sin because it is contrary to his perfect, holy nature, and because it separates man from Him. Isaiah 59:2, reads, “but your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” And finally, we cannot come into the presence of God stained with sin because sin spreads, contaminates, kills and destroys. If you doubt that, look at the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. It was paradise. Adam and Eve were spiritually connected to God and all of their needs were met; there was no sickness, suffering, poverty, famine, hatred, wars, not even death. It was paradise! But after sin entered the world, all of that changed. Just look at the world we live in today; look at its standards; its values; turn on the TV; listen to the latest news, or read the popular magazines. Does this world look or feel like paradise??
It may seem odd to you that God would give us a standard to live by that would prove to be beyond the capability of man. But God’s plan was always to show man’s inability to meet His standard based on man’s own effort. But the good news is…God always had another plan to implement at “just the right time.” In Romans 5:6 Apostle Paul wrote, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” ‘Utterly helpless’ is a very powerful statement. It is clear that in God’s eyes man had proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, his inability to live a sin-free life based on his own strength. At “just the right time” means God decided to implement what was always his “plan A”; to provide for man a Savior to do what he was totally incapable of doing for himself. That is God’s gift of grace. We did not earn it, we did nothing deserve it. It was a gift given to us because God is love, and he wants a relationship, an eternal relationship, with us.
In last week’s blog it was shown that man’s bondage was to his human-nature, or as the Word of God calls it, his sin-nature. Bear in mind, we didn’t become sinners because we sinned; we sin because we’re sinners, meaning we were born with a sin-nature (spiritually separated from God because of the fall of man at creation). We just do what comes naturally; we live with the focus on ourselves instead of on God. Fortunately we can restore that connection with God any time we choose to do so. For many of us it happens when we discover the hopelessness of our own efforts and are ready to surrender to God and seek his will for our life; for others it happens when the pain resulting from our choices literally breaks us and we cry out for help; for others it may be a revelation that “there has to be more to life than this.” Whatever the reason, when we are ready to repent, meaning we have decided to change from our old path and are willing to follow a new path, God – just like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son – says (with open arms), “Welcome home!” (Luke 15:11-23)
Because God paid a hefty price for us – the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ– he wants us to accept His gift of grace so we will be sin-free when we come before him. Roman’s 8:1 states, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.” We are in Christ when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and as a result of that decision we inherit forgiveness of sins and eternal life. While that is indeed awesome and mind-boggling in itself, there is more…much more! We also receive the Holy Spirit to empower us to live a life that brings honor and glory to God right here, right now in this fallen world. We are called to be his “light on the hill” to those who do not know Jesus, and to live a life that reflects the principles he taught, ie. love, compassion, mercy, grace, service.
That, my friends, is difficult for three reasons: we live in these carnal, fleshly bodies; we live in this fallen world; and the Enemy (Satan) attacks us at warp-speed to sabotage our efforts to change. That is why one of my favorite Christian authors, Bob George, states in his renowned book, Classic Christianity: “You will never have a changed life until you have an exchanged life.” What he is referencing is what happens at salvation. The mystery of salvation is the exchange of our spirit. 2 Cor. 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old self is gone; the new is here”. This is the good news. Our old nature was to sin. But our new nature is not to sin because the Holy Spirit empowers us to live for Christ.
As I stated earlier, when we accept God’s gift of grace, we still live in this fallen world; in these fleshly bodies and Satan is an ever-present threat to our success. Make no mistake, Satan is very real and very much alive today and will use any lie or deception necessary to keep us mired right here in our bondage. But as stated in 1 John 4:4, “The spirit that is in me [The Holy Spirit] is greater than the spirit in this world. [Satan]” Now we don’t have to yield to our lustful thoughts or any other temptation that may come our way because we have the Holy Spirit to empower us to make choices, and to follow them, to bring honor and glory to God. Our role is to call on the Holy Spirit to give us patience, strength, courage, perseverance, wisdom…anything we need to overcome the challenging circumstance we are facing.
The more we realize the power that we have within us and how to use it, the more we can grow in our effort to live a life based on Jesus teaching; a life that truly brings honor and glory to God. The more we travel down that road, the more blessings we will receive because we are now in line with God’s will. As his children we are heirs to all the promises of Abraham; all the promises in the Bible; and all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm. Once we experience His blessings and the new life that comes from being in Christ, the more sin loses its appeal. We are now like the beautiful butterfly that has freedom to soar above the world. Why would we ever again want to go back to being a caterpillar crawling around on the ground? After all, in Christ we are promised an abundant life, and God is true to his promises.
My question to you today is… Do you call on the Holy Spirit to help you overcome? What blessings have you received as a result of purposely living your life for Christ?
May God bless ya, and we’ll connect again next week. Let me know your thoughts on this.
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
I know what it means to be “utterly helpless,” and I know what it means to be convicted of sin – the smallest as devastating as the largest. I also knows what it means to be washed clean of that sin through no effort of my own. Even recognizing this, I have not found that sin loses its appeal. In fact, I think the opposite is true. Satan works hardest on those who strive to have a closer relationship with Christ and he is certainly working double-time on me. Fortunately, I know that my God shields me from the attacks of the devil, even when I am at my weakest. Even through the wreckage and devastation that has become my life, I have experienced the love and compassion shown to me through my family and friends and I have experienced God’s very real grace and mercy through them. My life has been truly blessed!
Awesome, Mary. What a wonderful testimony. I admire you for your strength and conviction, and I can tell from your words, you really do get IT! You are indeed blessed and I know the blessings will continue to come. I’m glad our paths crossed.