do it half-way or just miss it altogether.
I am writing to warn you about those people who are misleading you. 27 But Christ has blessed you with the Holy Spirit. Now the Spirit stays in you, and you don’t need any teachers. The Spirit is truthful and teaches you everything. So stay one in your heart with Christ, just as the Spirit has taught you to do. (1 John 2:26-27)
We are either in the process of resisting God’s truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.†
† Charles Stanley, How To Listen To God. Thomas Nelson. 2002, p. 19
What happens if I go on sinning?
Count on it! As you do, you will join the rest of us who continue to do so on a daily basis. As John said, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
You may hear other people say, “Be careful of teaching grace in such a way that it encourages others to keep on sinning.”
Paul was afraid of encountering this same fear, which is why he wrote Romans 6:1-14. Like Paul, we encourage you now to offer your bodies as instruments of God’s glory. It is important to understand that those warning you about this gift of grace have created their own list of little laws, their lists of acceptable or not acceptable sins. The problem with this is that God’s standard is the ultimate standard and God’s standard is perfection. “But you must always act like your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:48). None of us, no matter how hard we try, will ever be perfect and we will always sin. This is why salvation must be 100% a complete work of God’s to which we can contribute nothing.
When someone who claims to be a disciple of Christ continues to do things that are not glorifying to God, well-intentioned Christians will correct them with a law or instruction on how they should be living or what God’s Word says about what they are doing. There is only one issue with this and that is it rarely corrects the long-term, under-lying problem, “for the letter (law) kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Our problem which brings us to sin is not always a habit that needs correcting but an identity issue. We need reminding of our true identity, our new identity in Christ and what it cost for us to have that identity. Without a deep understanding of that cost and our lives without Christ no instructions on how to live will ever be lasting.
We see an example of Paul doing this with a church full of “those sanctified in Christ Jesus” who are living in ways that do not glorify God (1 Corinthians). The whole church of Corinth was affected as a result of these individuals. However Paul does not begin the letter of Corinthians dealing with these issues but by first reminding them of the gospel. The gospel is that while we were distanced from God because of our sin, God chased us and brought us near through Christ’s sacrifice (Ephesians 2:11). If he pointed out where they were failing without reminding them of who they are, more rebellion could occur. The best way to help our brothers and sisters live in a way that shows a heart of gratitude for God loving us even when we were unlovable is not always giving them a lesson in “How To” first. Sometimes depending on the severity of the sin it is better to start with reminding them who they are first and God’s love for them. Then once they are reminded, they will often admit “Yes, I’m not doing what I should be doing.” Then a better opportunity comes to talk to them about how to make better choices.
Stop just for a minute and picture what Christ must have seen in the garden which caused Him to be shaken to His very core that His sweat became drops of blood. Then, because it glorified God to exhibit love towards us, Jesus marched forward. Pondering that it was our condition in sin that Christ saw, the wrath of God that was aimed at us, this is what kept Christ on the cross with the need to satisfy God’s judgment of sin, which is our failure to live in a way that would please God or reveal God’s character. The emptied tomb should be the chief motivation to “doing all things to God’s glory” (1 Corinthians 10:31) and living a life of as a vessel reflecting His character.
Focusing on this cannot but help increase our heart of gratitude. As this increases so does our desire to focus more on Christ and say “I love You” through obedience to the Father. In doing this, our view, our sight line, begins to create a type of tunnel vision on the majesty of the Father and the awesomeness of Christ. When this occurs, we see a life that reveals less of the effects of sin and more of the changes brought about through the beauty of grace. That is called living to our identity in Christ.
As you choose to make decisions on who you are now in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, rather than who you were before Christ you will find yourself making choices that reflect that new identity. The more of these choices you make the less you will sin. Though sometimes it will still feel like your making more of the wrong choices than the right ones. God understands, has forgiveness waiting when you repent (change your mind) and opens arms wide to reveal His Love.
May we ask God to surround us instead with friends who may speak the truth and encourage us on how to get it right, but more importantly, they are willing to do an emotional fireman’s carry to the One who already got it right, and hold us there until we can imitate Him.
Can I know for sure I have eternal life?
This is a great question, a common one, and yet one that can cause much confusion when answering. The confusion comes from a heart that is really having difficulty grasping the words of Christ when He said “It is finished” (John 19:30). In a world where the sentiment exists that there is no such thing as a free ride, it is indeed hard to grasp that the grace (favor) God gives each of us, to come and accept Christ as our Saviour is freely given, requiring nothing more from us. When every day we must work to achieve, we must meet someone’s expectations of us or some of the burdens we often bear. Even if those expectations are to be a good wife, husband, child, or parent. Not to mention the expectations that our employers, customers, teachers, friends or just society in general places on us. Now comes news that there is something that is totally different than everything else that we have been taught, lived by or believed.
That is the beauty of the gospel of grace. It is new news, not old news or old news packaged in a new wrapping. It really is new news, that is contrary to the news our hearts have come to believe. In fact our hearts have been so conditioned by the way this world thinks that they are indeed grace-averse. Robert Capon articulates brilliantly the prayer of the grace-averse heart:
Lord, please restore to us the comfort of merit and demerit. Show us that there is at least something we can do. Tell us that at the end of the day there will at least be one redeeming card of our very own. Lord, if it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with a few shreds of self-respect upon which we can congratulate ourselves. But whatever you do, do not preach grace. Give us something to do, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.
That is why the concept of grace being a free gift (Something we do not deserve) is so foreign to us. We desperately want something to hold onto, to claim some ownership of, to know that we met some standard that we could claim some form of redeeming quality about ourselves. We want to know that we could live in such a way that would gain God’s pleasure or favor. The truth though is that we cannot. Paul said, in Romans 3:23, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” He also said, in Galatians 2:16, “But we know that God accepts only those who have faith in Jesus Christ. No one can please God by simply obeying the Law. So, we put our faith in Christ Jesus, and God accepted us because of our faith.”
In other words even if we could perform perfectly the things God has told us to do, it would still not be enough because keeping the laws of God will never enable us to have a right standing before God. Truth is we could never do it perfectly and as a result could never satisfy the need that God has for His justice to be met. God demands justice for our sin. Just as when someone commits a crime
