The Error of Self Examination
Self Examination-or inward focus is useless, since “our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). We must learn to walk in the light (1 John 1:7) and judge ourselves according to His light of revelation to us about ourselves.
The world often interprets those who look inwardly at themselves as somehow demonstrating great wisdom or understanding regarding spiritual growth. However, just the opposite is true. Anything which is rooted in “self” has sin at the roots of it’s foundation. Self Pity, Self Righteousness, Self Awareness, Self Actualization and Self Fulfillment by definition places “self” at the center of focus. Our Christian walk must have Christ as the center of our focus.
Christ is Either a Madman or God
Until recently people have had 2 choices regarding Jesus and their beliefs about Him. Either they believed that He was The Christ and God Incarnate or that He wasn’t. There is now a 3rd option of belief by some, that Jesus indeed was a man who lived on this earth in history, but that He was simply a “good” man-a religious figure who set a great example for how we should live our lives. This version of Jesus is often referred to as “The historical Jesus.” Many in the world today who do not want to acknowledge Jesus as “The Christ” love to talk about Him in human terms and while acknowledging that He lived; they do so in a way which completely nullifies His existence as God in human form. They are more than happy to have the world see Christ as simply a very good human being.
However, the facts of Christ’s life do not support Him being a good human being. The facts point to the truth that He was God Incarnate! Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed Himself to be “One with God.” The next few verses are direct quotes from Him regarding His Godhood. These statements means that Christ is either God in the flesh or a madman who is delusional. He cannot be a good man and be a liar as well. He cannot be a role model and also be blasphemous. Before we can accept Christ as our Savior we have to agree with the fact that He was God in human form not merely a good human being. Let’s review some scripture in which Christ Himself equates Himself to God.
John 4:25-26 “The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ), “When He comes, “He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
John 8:23 “And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.”
John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
John 10:30 “I and My Father are one.”
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and he believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
These can only be interpreted as true or the rantings of a crazed man. Which do you believe today. If you believe His words to be true then you will find it equally plausible that He died and rose from the grave to provide salvation for you and I.
Next Week’s blog: The Resurrection of Christ (True of False)
Living Our Best Life in Christ
Living our best lives as Christians is made possible when we follow or are led by The Holy Spirit. God created mankind to have an intimate relationship with Him through our spirit. “God is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”-John 4:24
The original order of communication and relationship with God was in the following order; His Spirit would speak to us through our spirit-our spirit in turn would inform our minds and our minds instructed our physical bodies to do that which was communicated to us by God. Fallen man (those who do not have Christ in them by faith) do not have The Holy Spirit within to lead them. They are not led nor do they walk in The Spirit. Instead, they are led by their own minds (their soul). That soul is made up of the unsaved person’s own understanding, their own intellect, their own intuition and beliefs (minus God’s). They have created their own humanistic understanding based on such things such as “power in crystals,” “worshipping the universe,” “reincarnation,” “Eastern Meditation (including yoga),” and “Gaia worship,” to name a few of their beliefs. These people are led by their own understanding independent of God and The Holy Spirit.
Many of us as Christians are saved by grace through faith in Christ. However, we still have not entered into a relationship with God and Christ through our spirit. Most believers still are led by their minds and their own understanding (their soul); just as non Christians are. They have not as of yet had their spiritual eyes opened and therefore; although they are saved through Christ-they live ordinary disillusioned lives. This should not be!!! The following verse is the key to living our best life in Christ. We will discuss it’s meaning and power to allow us to Live Our Best Life in Christ in our next blog.
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow (physical body), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
I’m Saved Now What?
Immediately after we are saved we are told by many that we are now to stop sinning and to live a righteous and holy life. That we have the power to stop sinning and if we continue to sin, that it is willful as well as sinful and could indicate that we are not saved. The definition of what is a righteous holy life varies from church to church and from denomination to denomination as well as from religion to religion. In addition there is also the fact that people will come up with their own personal ideas of what God requires of a Christian or what they believe it means to live righteous or holy lives; using their personal belief as the standard for proving to God and others that they are saved.
There is Only One Sin Which Leads to Death
The following verse is confusing to many believers and if a Christian is not led to understand its meaning by looking at the full context of salvation as well as being led by the Holy Spirit-they easily can be misled and begin to live a life of legalism and or self righteousness. The first verse is I John 3:9 “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin; because he is born of God.” We must know that for all practical purposes a person has no ability to sin in God’s eyes because His Son’s seed remains in the person and he has been born again. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” Therefore in as far as God is concerned we are not capable of sinning because our life has been substituted with the life of Christ! Hallelujah
The bible tells us in multiple verses that there is only one SIN which leads to death by a believer and that is the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:22-30, Luke 12:10, and I John 5:16-17). Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit refers to irreverence or speaking against God-essentially rejecting the Holy Spirit and speaking evil of the Holy Spirit. That is considered an apostasy. This believing or non believing person disavows their salvation through Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Christ Has Paid For all of Our Sin(s)Forever
Christ has paid the price for all of our SIN(s). That is what we are told in His word (I John 1:7, Hebrews 10:14 &12, Hebrews 7:25). Our confusion lies in the fact that we feel that we shouldn’t still be sinning if we are saved. We feel that way because we do not understand the difference between SIN and sins. SIN (singular) is the complete rejection of the authority, Lordship, communion and dependence upon God by His creation (mankind) in the Garden of Eden.
This SIN took us from having been made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27) to becoming fallen man with a nature opposed to God and with no spiritual relationship with God. This natural (sinful) man would live his/her life with their own understanding, guidance, beliefs and intellect regarding themselves and the world around them. That SIN nature would be passed down to all of mankind through Adams’s own image as told to us in Genesis 5:3 (notice that after this point, man is no longer created in the image of God), but is now born in the make-up of fallen Adam. We see this phenomenon discussed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:12,15,18,19 and also in Romans 6:1-7.
We see also in these verses that Christ on the cross has re-established us who believe (are Reconciled) and made us righteous (justified) as well as met every requirement of God so as to pay the price for all of our SIN(s) and that these SIN(s) are paid for forever and that we cannot be made to suffer wrath from God based upon these facts and our faith in these facts. The following two verses speak to the eternal salvation that Christ has provided to us.
Psalm 103:11 “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Hebrews 8:12 and Isaiah 45:32 I will remember their sins no more…for my sake.
God in His infinite wisdom has made it so that He cannot even remember our Sin(s) once we have established that we have faith in Him.
So What Are We to Do Then (Keep Sinning?)
Certainly not Paul says “for don’t you know that you have already died to sin?” We must know that we are dead to SIN(s) by faith in the same way that we know that we are saved by faith. If we do the true work of growing in Christ then the reality of our salvation will work itself out in our real life experience until the reality of our power over sin will become evident in our lives. This is what is known as renewal and regeneration.
We are regenerated (our spirit is ignited again to join the Holy Spirit of God) and we are now renewed (have become a new creation). The old sinful creation has been done away with. In our newness we no longer have to earn our salvation. We have our salvation as a free gift from Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). We therefore go forward in our newness. That newness allows us to have communion with our Lord even though we are still in these bodies of sin (Romans 7). As we commune with our Lord these sinful bodies are reckoned to be dead (Romans chapter 6) and the new life of Christ begins to exhibit itself in our earthly bodies until our earthly bodies are transformed either through death or the coming of our Lord (I Corinthians chapter 15).
We spend the rest of our lives “Walking According to the Spirit” (Romans chapter 8) and being in the “Light of Christ” (I John 1:7). AMEN
“Knowing God” (Excerpt)
Why All Religions Don’t Lead to God
....they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately Acts 18:26
The Way of course is Jesus Christ! "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6. The declaration from Jesus is in and of itself an offensive statement as far as many people are concerned in the United States. Most people would prefer to suggest that there are many ways to God. I have heard it said that Jesus is one way, Buddhism another, Hinduism also a way and Mohammed- yet another way. These statements while comforting to some who believe in those tenets, simply are not true. This sort of thinking seems to be more rooted in our society's desire to be inclusive in dealing with people who have different viewpoints, rather than being grounded in truth.
Christians are often told that they are narrow minded, arrogant or worse yet bigots if they do not embrace the notion that all religions lead to God. Of course this strategy used by different folks, is designed to get everyone on board with the idea that we shouldn't offend people who have different beliefs or ideas than our own.
NEWS FLASH! Just because a person thinks that something is true doesn't necessarily mean that it is. Therefore; it is a mistake on many people’s part to believe that just because they feel that all religions lead to God; that it is true. Only Jesus Christ is qualified to re-establish the broken fellowship between God and man. He is the life giving spirit. He alone out of all religious figure heads has died and rose again. He was seen by over 500 people over 40 days after His death and resurrection and the evidence is overwhelming that He is “the way, the truth and the life” and no one can have eternal life without receiving His free gift of life.
Our society has quietly changed the definition of "Tolerance" so as to silence those who may not agree with certain religions or lifestyles. Tolerance simply means that I agree with your right to think, feel or do whatever you want to do (within the laws of these United States). Tolerance does not mean that I have to agree with your thoughts, feelings or beliefs. My disagreement with people of other faiths or lifestyles, does not make me narrow-minded, bigoted, or closed minded. It means that although I accept your right to believe whatever you want to believe; I am not required to believe it or accept it as factual.
The Blood & The Cross
"Much more then having now been justified (made righteous) by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath (hell) through Him."-Romans 5:9
"knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should be no longer slaves of sin."-Romans 6:6
We see in the above verses the workings of the blood and the cross as they pertain to our salvation. Both are of necessity in dealing with our sinful state. The blood of Christ deals with what we have done, covering all of our sins as we are told throughout scripture. Indeed in I John 1:7 we are told that ".....the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin." The cross on the other hand deals with what we are (our sin nature). "The blood dispenses of our sins, while the cross strikes at the root of our capacity for sin."-Watchman Nee (Normal Christian Life).
The dual working aspect of Christ's blood along with His sacrificial death on the cross are the only aspects of salvation by which we should place our hope. All other considerations and doctrines of salvation are secondary to these. The workings of the Blood and the Cross are in fact a mystery and much spiritual revelation and time in the word is required for one to begin to appreciate even the smallest truths associated with this subject.
Unfortunately many churches today choose to preach and teach doctrines which have nothing to do with these most powerful and necessary works of God. Instead they go on endlessly about "giving," tithes and offerings, so called promises and blessings. This is not Kingdom building, it is self building, carnal and self serving. "These things indeed have the appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."-Colossians 2:23.
There is much to be taught and fed to God's body regarding His eternal purpose, His redemptive plan, reconciliation, renewal, regeneration and communion with Him. My prayer is that we would take off our religious shoes and ask God to show us the mystery of His great love and gospel.