"having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Jesus... And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, He has now reconciled in His body through death, to present you holy and blameless, and innocent in His sight, if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel" -Colossians 1:19-23
To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said "Neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more"
Wow, that so sums it up!!!!! God passionately hates our sin, It cost Him His Son. He never approves of sin or takes it lightly, it ALWAYS hurts Him and makes Him vomit. He passionately desires us to be sinless, He wants us to continually bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. He cannot help but HATE sin, because His essence is LOVE and sin is most destructive not only to the person committing it, but also to everyone one else whom He loves.
Now condemnation is about crossing one off, it is give up on them, claiming there is no hope or possibility for change. But God gives us another chance, He is patient, He continues to accept us precisely BECAUSE He wants us to be free from sin, THIS is what drives Him, He wants to see us conformed to the image of His Son. For how can two walk together unless they are agreed? Sin is walking in the opposite direction as God, He wants fellowship with us, Sin ALWAYS hurts and prevents intimacy with Him.
But the primary focus today is "He does not condemn you and He never will, no matter how you live, so feel good about yourself even when you are living in sin and rest in this love and acceptance" But instead it should be "He does not condemn you because He is totally devoted to seeing you transformed and wants to see you zealous for good works" This would be more in harmony with the bible.
The FOCUS MUST be that He wants us kingdom minded, passionate in our pursuit of righteous and consumed with His desires and then in this light we can be comforted that He is in it for the long haul! He is slow to give up on us and he wants the highest for us. E even when we blow it, He will pick us up and dust us off and say "I don't condemn you, now go and sin no more."
Yes this here is the balance, Without this context, grace becomes something that is death to the masses. He resist the proud (Self-centered and independent), but gives grace to the humble. But we have taught grace to the proud and have sealed their condemnation! We have made them feel comfortable in their sin, we have told them "peace" when it is not so. Oh it makes me want to cry, it hurts so much to see what we are doing in our ignorance. Millions are going to say "Lord, Lord" and He will say "I never knew you... Only those who DO the will of my Father. my enter... Depart from my you WORKERS of lawlessness." And yet these people will be shocked, because of our teaching told them of an acceptance and tolerance for their self-centered life that did not exist. They were told it did not matter how they lived, they only had to believe that Jesus died for them.
We are messed over within and it's no easy thing for our corroded heart to be cleansed. Removing the selfishness in our soul requires a long feverish process, it's like trying to remove over a cup worth of salt one small granule at a time that was accidentally mixed in a bowl of flour. It means discipline, diligence, starving for righteousness, pursuing the fear of the Lord, growing in humility, giving sacrificially, laying down our rights and learning what His will is and doing it.
Now this is not easy, who really wants to do all this? “No wonder Jesus said the way is difficult!” This cost of relationship with God just seems to high and everyone wants to do whats right in their own eyes, and no one wants to let go of those little sins that bring pleasure. That is why Legalism has came along. It says "wear certain cloths, wash your hands so many times a day, go to church on Sunday and don't dance" and you will be accepted by God. The pharisees did not want have to deal with the heart, so they made up a list of external rules and by keeping them they felt secure and believed themselves accepted by God. But they were ignorant of God's righteousness and Jesus had nothing but harsh and even condemning words for them.
Now for the most part the church has rightly done away with legalism, but many have only replaced it with something new and now teach a cheap grace that says "you need not worry about your heart or pursue righteousness, for God accepts you no matter what, nothing you do can change this, he sees you through Christ and thus He cannot see your sin." But Jesus had nothing but harsh words against this, along with Paul, Peter and Jude, but few today notices their warnings or bring them up because it does not fit with our understanding of grace. We now have multitudes who believe they are accepted by God and are going to heaven though they continue to pursue their own selfish desires, love their sin and do show evidence of a relationship with God. In our culture the only bad thing is to feel guilty over ones sin, for that is condemnation and God has warm fuzzies for us no matter what.
For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Eph 2:8-10
Grace and Freedom
What I hear coming from the church sounds like a recipe for slavery to self and sin, all being preached in the name of freedom. From the beginning we hear that it's not by works that we are saved and likewise, we cannot keep our salvation by works. It is all by the grace of God, therefore, the only thing we have to worry about is making sure we never feel bad about sin because God sees us in Christ as perfect and therefore can't see our sins.
I've witness so many 'Christians' who live very worldly lives and shrug it off saying "Jesus paid for my sin, I'm trusting in Him to get to heaven." I believe this is a result of common teaching and a misunderstanding of grace. Though it is based on truth, it's not the whole truth, nor is it explained right. Just like vitamins taken out of their natural source do no work the same. The Biblical truths don't communicate the truth taken out of context.
Getting saved is not just acknowledging some new facts, salvation more like entering the marines or getting married. It is a serious matter, a life long commitment. There is a reason Jesus said “The way is narrow and difficult and few enter through it”, Why so hard? Because salvation is about reconciliation, (this reconciliation is the free gift we could never earn for we were so filthy and undesirable that we were not even worthy to be his slaves), and reconciliation is about entering into a relationship with a holy God who created the universe, who owns all things and has a right to your life. God resist the proud and gives grace to the humble. God will not join himself in a relationship with someone who still plans to be their own master and continues to do what's right in their own eyes, insisting to live independently. Most people feel justified looking out for number 1, they say it's my life, they can't let go of their rights, they want to be free to do what they want, when they want. So when God says, “no way! The only way you can be in a relationship with me is if I am the Master and you are the servant” We are like, “you got to be kidding!” let me just pray a sinners prayer and get my 'get into heaven free card' or let me become religious, that would be far easier. But God demands what He does because it's the only way to TRUE liberty and freedom. The 'freedom' we have before we Know Him is an illusion, we are really a slave to every changing want and desire, a slave to our vices and weakness. I've experienced the freedom God gives and it is so wonderful.
“You can be slaves of sin and die, or you can be obedient slaves of God and be acceptable to him. You used to be slaves of sin. But I thank God that with all your heart you obeyed the teaching you received from me. Now you are set free from sin and are slaves who please God... When you were slaves of sin, you didn't have to please God. But what good did you receive from the things you did? All you have to show for them is your shame, and they lead to death. Now you have been set free from sin, and you are God's slaves. This will make you holy and will lead you to eternal life. The wages of sin is death. But God's gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord." -Romans 6:16-23
Jesus said the way is narrow and difficult, but we want to make it wide and easy, why? because we want numbers, we want to be able to say a 1000 people got saved tonight, so we tell the masses that all they have to do is pray a 'sinners prayer' and then they can know for sure they are going to heaven. I don't think God is happy with this to be honest, no not at all.
Some may think I am preaching salvation by works. But let me give this illustration to clear things up a little. Suppose two poor people are given checks for $20,000, and neither deserved it or could have earned it. Do we call it "earning your check" to go a bank, set up an account, wait in line and go to the inconvenience of cashing it?
Yet, in fear of teaching that we get salvation by works, what we've done as a church is told the masses "here is the free check, now don't ever go and cash it for that would be works" So people continue to live in their spiritual poverty with a piece of paper that they think will get them into heaven.
But the only way to receive the gift of eternal life from God is by humility, surrender and making Him Lord, God does not consider these 'works' he considers this more like going to the bank and cashing the check.
