The foundation, the whole nature of the Christian religion rests upon two secretive pillars, which are,
1) The greatness of our fall.
2) The greatness of our redemption.
Some people, not many, see the greatness of our fall but then do not come to understand the greatness of our redemption. Until both of these great truths have awakened, and opened our minds for the full reception of Divine light, all reformation and pretence to change, is only a dead and superficial thing, a mere garment of hypocrisy.
Let’s start with the greatness of our fall.
When you see, that sin begins with your first decisions formed from self-will, and that it rises up in the essence of your nature, and lives in the very form of your life, and that you are chained in the very jaws of death and hell, as unable to alter your own state, as to rise and fly by flapping your arms. Until you understand this truth, living the Christian life can only be pretended. After you truly understand this truth you will not from this point on be able to attribute any degree of good to yourself anymore than you would try to take credit for the creation of the world.
The Greatness Of Our Redemption.
And now with this knowledge you need to see that the free grace of God has provided you with a remedy that is greater than all of your problems. The reason the blood had to flow from the cross was to cleanse you from all sin; yes, God has given you freely of the holy blood and life of Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, to enter as deeply into your soul, as sin has entered, to change the very form and essence of your life, and bring forth in you a new birth of the Divine Nature of the Living God! And all of this is done by God, we have but little to do with it, other than to want it with all of our hearts. When we truly desire to be set free from sin, then our repentance is real and acceptable to God. Repenting is our part; it is our main part in God’s plan of redemption; we must see our fallen, miserable, ungodly state, and with all of our heart want it to be changed and then we can start walking holy before our God. He can, and will do all of this for us, and only He can bring this about by His infinite power.
After repenting God will put His Spirit in you, this is the start of Jesus Christ ruling in your life! Our lives consist of covetousness, pride, wrath, envy, hypocrisy, hatred, revenge, and self-exaltation, until a humility comes into us from above in the form of Jesus Christ ruling in our hearts. Pride is the father and mother of wrath, envy, hypocrisy, hatred, revenge, and self-exaltation. Whenever pride is alive in you the rest of this ungodly crowd is also alive in you, whether or not you realize it. Humility is the exact opposite of pride and is the real proof that conversion has taken place in you (that Christ is in you of a truth.) After you are converted your soul will now find God to be all love, and your soul will have only one desire, and that is, to be itself all love to God and man. This is the conviction that brings about conversion and it arises from an inward awareness of these truths.
Every man that has ever lived, has Jesus Christ for their Savior, and none other; they can receive the promise made to Adam, and receive through that promise, the same thing that Adam received from it, which is a seed of the woman, an incorruptible seed of life, springing up in the essence of their life, which will oppose and resist the seed of the serpent, which is the diabolical nature that is in all of us.
Remember, the soul is only so far cleansed from its corruption, and delivered from the power of sin, and purified, as it has renounced all of its own will, and desire to have things. When it wants to be nothing but what the will of God chooses it to be, and have. This might be hard for you to understand, but, it is true and in time you will realize it.
A few Scriptures to point out these great truths.
John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” And Mark 4:19 And the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Today’s “Christless Christianity”
For the last hundred plus years Christianity has been drifting away from the true and living Christ. Turn the clock back before the Civil War and you will see a very different Christianity. When someone came to Christ they would kneel down at the altar until a change took place in their lives, a change that was evident and didn’t need assurance from others. They wouldn’t get off of their knees until the Prince of Peace came into their lives and they had the witness of God’s Spirit in their lives, which is peace, patience, meekness and humility! Compare that with today’s “All you have to do – Burger King religion,” you know what I mean, I believe the phrase is “Have it your way.” Believe me this is not the Christianity of the Bible.
A Few Scriptures To Point Out These Truths.
Deuteronomy 4:29 "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, And to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?"
God has not stopped wanting this last commandment of His to be obeyed by us, but only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring about this true Christianity, which is obedience to God.
Matthew 5:48 tells us the same thing in a nutshell. "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is the will of God for us all. Many have said, “I can’t be as perfect as God is perfect,” but, in reality all they are saying is that God can’t bring about this type of obedience in us.
The creator of the universe can’t do this? ? ? ?
This is very typical of the way people set aside the commandments of God, for shame! If we can’t obey God in this commandment then God is being unjust to command us to do something that is impossible to do. Please remember what the Bible has said about God - Matthew 19:26 “And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible."
The truth is most people that go to Church and participate in the things of God operate in unbelief most of the time, so it is easy for them to “walk by sight” and say “I can’t” when in reality, the truth is they just don’t want to!
This is what should be done, look at every commandment that God has given us, and if it looks impossible, realize that God can, and will do what He promises. I have always viewed Matthew 5:48 as a promise, not a command!
Most people have been taught that they must sin each and every day in word, thought, and deed. Now after the Devil programs people to believe something like this, it is very difficult for them to take seriously all of the manifold commandments of God to walk without sin. A few examples –
John 5:14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you."
Hebrews 10:26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? Notice that continuing in willful sin is trampling under foot the Son of God, and insulting the Spirit of grace
1John 2: 3-6 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. God is saying here the proof is obedience!
1John 3:4-6 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. If we still sin we don’t know Him (Jesus)
1John 3:8 The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
This is a little sample of what God has to say about Christians sinning; none of the above Scriptures give us a license to sin. Jesus came to save us from sin, (Matthew 1:21.) If selfishness (SIN) in any form still rules in your heart my friend you need to be saved!
How can a person truly receive this great salvation?
The first step in receiving the victorious Christian life is repentance, without truly repenting of being the boss of your own life you will be like the sow, after washing, always returning and wallowing in the mire. Most people when told they need to repent think about some great and damning sin that they are under bondage to practice. They tell the Lord that they won't do it anymore, and for the most part they are sincere, tears flowing, heart broken before God's throne, but in a few weeks or days they are having problems with that same sin again! What is wrong here? It is really very simple, they were sincere but did not look in faith to the God of all power, the God of all grace, and went in their own strength and their own power to conquer the enemy of their soul. You must understand the biggest enemy of your soul is your selfish self; yes just look into the mirror and you will see the real and powerful enemy of your soul, YOU!
Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. The Apostle Paul is telling us here the same thing that Jesus said in John 3:3-7 You see, in order to be born again, you must give up your first life, you must deny it, you must die to it, or you can't be truly born again.
In 2 Peter 1:4 we are told “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” We are saved by faith; we must believe the Gospel and all of the promises we find in God's Holy Word! Here is one my favorites. Ezekiel 36:25-27
25:"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But that’s not all; God will remove all of the idols in our life! He promises to do this because He and He alone is our Savior. If God does not deliver us from our sin and the idols in our lives, no one else can.
26: "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Then God promises to remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place we make our decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart; this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of all love removes this rebellious (heart) from us and replaces it with a moldable heart.
27: "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could possibly receive, God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.) But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. In verse 27 "And cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them."
Yes, God has promised to cause us to walk Holy!
The Steps To Holiness
1. Seeing that we are living wrong.
2. Repenting. (Stop sinning, turn from it)
3. Believing that God is stronger and more powerful than our sinful life.
4. Consecration, a life of prayer.
We have covered the first three, now we will look at Consecration.
This is the last part of God’s work in our lives while we are here on earth, to bring us into a consecrated life, a life lived for others as Jesus Christ demonstrated everyday He lived here on earth. He lived for God’s glory and the redemption of mankind. He is truly our example.
1 Peter 2:21-24 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” This Scripture clearly shows us the will of God for our lives, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”
Peter had another thought on God’s will for our lives and it is this;
1 Peter 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. Prayerfully read these Scriptures again starting with 1 Peter 2:21. Allow God’s Spirit to speak to you; He will, if you allow Him to!
(Prayer)
We must be fruitful, it is God’s will for our lives; for just as God loves you and is at this very moment trying to redeem, fulfill or consecrate and bless you, this He also wants to do for everyone, and He wants you, after you have been filled with His Spirit to live for the same purpose that Christ lived for, to seek the lost and introduce them to the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. You must have no other purpose in your life but to live as a Holy vessel completely given over to God. (Prayer)
John 15:5-6 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
(Pray)
You must deny yourself and pick up your cross if you want to be His disciple. Matthew (16:24) You must understand Romans 12:1-2 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(Pray)
Without dying to your self-life you will never be fruitful, YOU MUST LIVE TO LOVE EVERYONE YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH, FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOUR LIFE, TO LIVE FOR OTHERS.
(Prayer)
This is the purpose of your life after you have been sanctified, to lead others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! This can only be done as you give of yourself by suffering in the flesh. (Prayer)