I had an opportunity to fellowship with a dear friend and we had the most amazing conversation …’talked about sooo many things but everything came right back to the center of our existence …God’s grace.
She said something to me that is still ringing loud and clear in my head: She proceeded to tell me about her friend who suggested that he lusted for women and didn’t want to face the “torment” of giving his life to the Lord and having to struggle with failing God because of his shortcomings.
Sadly, this is the story of so many of us, perhaps we don’t struggle with sexual sin, nevertheless, there is a struggle (fear) of some kind; for those who are born-again, there’s often a struggle to meet a standard of Christian living and for those who don’t know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, there’s a lack of hope for God’s redeeming love in their lives because of lifestyle, failed relationships, or unbelief.
But friends, there’s good news.!! This life is about a journey and when we make the decision to live for Christ, it gives us freedom to fulfill the plan that God has for our lives. He never intended for us to live in bondage to sin….He.wants.us.to.be.free in Him!!
So, I’ve been lead to write this Blog as encouragement to the masses. I believe, based on the scripture, there are 4 major principles we must understand:
1. THE FALL OF MAN
2. GOD’S PLAN OF REDEMPTION
3. GRACE AND FAITH
4. THE JOURNEY
I’ll run through these and provide scriptures so that you can do more in-depth study for more clarity and understanding.
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THE FALL OF MAN
Let’s begin with Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. This simple scripture validates God’s power and existence. If we read further down to Genesis 1:26-2:17, we understand God’s plan for man, to rule and reign over the earth. If we check out Genesis 2:18, we recognize the creation of Adam’s help-meet, or fit :
(Side Note: Adam had 1 woman to choose from, Eve. ‘Illustrates God’s perfect fitting of male and female. Therefore, we don’t have to guess who our mate is going to be, God has already set it up …our focus, until that appointed time of marriage, should be on the things of God (Instructions for Singles: I Corinthians 7:32).
Chapter 3:1-7 illustrates the Fall of Man. It’s important to understand that because of Adam’s disobedience (not Eve, God gave the instructions to the HEAD of the home, Adam), all of humanity would be sentenced to die because of sin: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Sin separated Adam from God, but THANK GOD FOR JESUS!! …The redemption plan was in order and Jesus was on the way (Genesis 3:15).
(Side Note: Interestingly enough, God loved Adam so much, He never told him what he'd done and how his actions had messed up all of humanity. GOD LOVES US. HE NEVER WANTS TO CONDEMN US!!).
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GOD’S PLAN OF REDEMPTION
Luke 1:16 – 38 illustrates God’s plan to send Himself (Spirit) in the form of a man (flesh) to take the wages of sin (death) for us and redeem us back to fellowship with Him. “And behold, though shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a song, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Song of the Highest” (Luke 1:31-32). If you read further you’ll read how the virgin birth takes place. Jesus’ ultimate assignment, was to preach and teach the Word of His Father (God), take our place to die on the cross, and give us an opportunity to LIVE and accept Him in fellowship with His Father.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (continuously believes) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!!
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LAW, GRACE , and FAITH
Grace has been defined as “God’s unmerited favor” …In other words, it’s something freely given that we don’t deserve. The challenge is believing (faith) and understanding God’s grace for our lives. GRACE saved us from the wages of sin!!
Simply put, the LAW (before Jesus) was a set of rules given by Moses to expose sin. As a matter of fact, before Jesus came, if you broke one law, you were killed!! This was to show us that we, in our own self-righteousness could not fulfill or comply with the law: I Corinthians 15:56 “..and the strength of sin is the law.” This is why it was so important for Jesus to come, to fulfill the law for us!!! …and because He died on the cross to fulfill the law, we now have an opportunity to bypass death, and be reconciled back with the Father. Take a moment to read the 4 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to understand Jesus’ love for us, His life and His work on the Cross.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). The application to faith is to believe!!
How then, are you saved? By grace through faith!! Not works!!...but by grace!! ;) How encouraging is that?? ;) Ephesians 2:8-9 illustrates how we are saved from death and redeemed back to God. There’s nothing that we can EVERRR do to earn salvation. Our job is accept God’s grace and mercy for our lives and believe by faith that we are saved!!
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THE JOURNEY
So then, when we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we don’t do so as perfect people!!...we do so with the faith to believe that God has forgiven us and now we can have eternal life through Him.
Ephesians 2:13 tells us that the moment we are born-again, our Spirit is sealed. This means that it can no longer be contaminated. God is a Spirit so the only thing we can be seen by is through our Spirit. He doesn’t see the color of our skin nor our stature…He doesn’t look at our sexual act, yet He sees the lust in our heart. Nor does He focus on how angry we get with someone, He sees the hatred in our heart. So this heart (Spirit) is the major issue. THIS SPIRIT, is what has to be changed. When we get born –again, God puts His Spirit on the inside of us…this is what He sees ;) Again I ask, how encouraging is that??? =)
So then, how often to do we beat ourselves up when we mess up? As my Pastor put it, God’s grace doesn’t give us the license to sin but when we begin to study the Word and renew our minds (Romans 12:1-2), we shouldn’t want to sin because of our love for the Father...the living Word (John 6:63) on the inside of us will compel to live Holy and righteous. But as a believer, IF we sin, we should repent and keep it moving, continuously walking in the grace of God ;)
Since we are a 3-part being: Spirit, Flesh (Body) and Soul (mind, will, and emotions), our struggle isn’t with our Spirit!!...it’s getting our Body and Soul (the way we think, what we want to do, how we feel) to line up with our Spirit. Friends, that’s the journey. He never intended for us to put pressure on ourselves to live completely free from sin. As long as we have a body, we’ll always have issues with sin. Paul said it best in Romans 7:18-25. He made it clear that he is always fighting His flesh.
But friends, there’s a good news. This life is about a journey and when we make the decision to live for Christ, it gives us freedom to fulfill the plan that God has for His life. If you are a born-again and struggle with perfection and not letting God down, be free today! God loves you and His grace has freed you from ALL condemnation!! (Romans 8:1-2). If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, please visit http://the-word-ministry.com/plan-of-salvation to understand the plan of Salvation and live in complete liberty today!! “..if you confess with your moth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heath that God has raise Him from the dead, you shall be saved!...for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
I love you and please share with a friend. God is not mad at anyone…God loves us!! …He sent Jesus to give us an opportunity to live!!
-Dwan
Pursuing Truth,
D.
“Everything that I am, is because of Jesus Christ. All that I ever do, I do it only to bring Him glory.”
