Resurrection
Empowerment
The greatest thing that keeps people from understanding and
accepting God’s grace (His Divine Influence in our hearts) is the mentality of “What I Do I Will Become”. This idea has infiltrated the church in so
many ways. It has been called the “Law
of Moses”; Laws which govern the church; or even more recently, “Spiritual
Principles”.
The Good News is that we don’t have to live by spiritual
principles but we can live by the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said He came to fulfill the law and so we no longer
live under a set of “do’s and don’ts”. We simply identify ourselves with Christ
and the finished work of the cross, realizing that He has redeemed us from
destruction or from eternal damnation. The word “redeem” means to “buy us back”.
When Adam sinned, man became separated from God. As the bible says in Romans
5:15, by one man’s offense sin entered the world, so too by one man’s obedience
(Jesus’ sacrifice) many were made righteous.
What empowers us to live a godly life is not accomplished by
us exercising our will to modify our behaviors. If that had been so, man could
have accomplished this by simply being obedient to the Ten Commandments and Jesus wouldn't have had to shed His blood for us.
No, God
did not give us the Ten Commandment to make us live holy but to show us our inability
to achieve righteousness through our human effort, yet churches today seem to
emphasize the need to live by “spiritual principles”. The Ten Commandments were called "The Law Of Moses". The bible tells us that Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. (Matt 5:17) We must acknowledge the need for a
Savior, Jesus Christ to satisfy or complete the law on our behalf.
Through faith in Christ, as we accept Him to be our Lord,
the One who we believe in, rely upon and trust in, leaning our entire
personality on Him, then and only then are we empowered to see ourselves as
righteous in God’s eyes, enabling us to be influenced more and more
each day by His will and His Presence. He becomes greater in us which in turn
will diminish our focus on our humanity in exchange for His Divinity. Don’t get
caught in the trap of “doing the do’s” or avoiding the “don’t's”. This is the
basis for “self-righteousness” and we know that the bible says our
righteousness is as filthy rags. Walk in the power of knowing that God loves you beyond
your wildest dreams and He has exchanged your sin for Jesus’ righteousness!
Let the Resurrection of our Lord empower you to walk in the righteousness purchased for you by Jesus Christ. Happy Easter!
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