Our sins are washed by his sacrifice, but it is his life that gives us righteousness and peace. "Churchianity" misses this point entirely, effectively placing us back under the weight of our own self-efforts to bring forth the life of God. Yet the law was meant to slay us and utterly demolish all self confidence in order that we would depend entirely on the Fountain of Life who springs eternal in those who are poor in spirit and believe on Him. Will- power cannot eradicate the sin that stems from the human heart; it can only, at best, curtail sinful behaviors, thus cleaning the "outside of the cup" while the inside is full of sin (Matt 23:25). Only by the transformational power of the Holy Spirit who imparts the very life and nature of Christ can we walk in heart righteousness. "For in that day , I will write my laws on their hearts, and they will be my people, and I will be there God. (Jer 31:33). This is a ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we must not touch the "glory of the ark" with our human efforts.
In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul calls this beautiful, powerful ministry of the Spirit the "ministry of righteousness," and by it we are transformed (metamorphoo in the greek) 2 Cor 3:17-18). We are all in a metamorphosis that will one day culminate in becoming just like Jesus is beauty, holiness and character. Wow! Is this not what each of us longs for, to be free of our temper, selfishness, ego, and to be perfected in love? Inwardly we all groan for this nature. Jesus was the branch, planted in the earth and given this Spirit, and we are the offshoot of this same spirit that is growing in us and through us until the whole earth is filled with His glory! (Isaiah 11).
We are saved by this hope and expectation. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifleth himself even as He is pure.” (I John 3:2,3). No man can engineer this metamorphosis. It is a work of the Spirit of God as we pursue him with all of our hearts.
Man's religion is always along natural lines. Religion rests confident in self-efforts that "have an appearance of religion in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Col 2: 23) For we are complete "In him," meaning that we are complete by sharing in his imputed righteousness (he took our sin and we assume his righteous standing (2 Cor 5:21), and we are being made complete by his dynamic life through a relationship with him. We are saved through faith from our birth into the kingdom to our maturity across our lifespan. Jesus said that the "flesh accomplishes nothing, but my words are spirit and they are life."
Religion always lack true faith and trusts more in what is seen and what is under our own control (i.e. follow a set of rules believed to make one "good enough" for God). Many churches subtly condone this approach to Christianity simply by failing to point to the cross, thus watering down and corrupting what Christ has already done for us. The other error that is common is to water down true holiness by suggesting it doesn't matter anymore. Sin is misery and death. Why would we want to cure cancer so that we can continue to suffer with it? No, the cancer was ripped out of the human heart when Christ died on the cross, and we were given new hearts-the heart and nature of Christ-when we accepted his sacrifice.
Paul says that in Christ, our sin nature was cut away from our hearts! This is such profoundly wonderful news (col :11-14). He had to do it because we could not do it on our own. And because God loves us more than we can imagine, He sent Christ to do it. "His own arm accomplished salvation." We are asked to believe on his work, and we do this even as we are still experiencing failure and weakness in ourselves. But we confess it and then we look entirely to God to do in us what only He can do, and what He already did in Christ. Paul says to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. How many believers consider themselves dead to sin? Perhaps this is why we are often so weak and fail to experience victory? For just as we inherited the first Adam's selfish heart, in the exact same way, we inherit Christ's nature by faith! (Romans 5:12-17). By faith (because we cannot see it), we know that we have been given a new, righteous nature in Christ. We can no longer think of ourselves as "sinners" but as new creations although we still sin and fall short of his grace, we begin to expect to see his nature living in us. This is how we are being saved, or sanctified, by his life.
In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul calls this beautiful, powerful ministry of the Spirit the "ministry of righteousness," and by it we are transformed (metamorphoo in the greek) 2 Cor 3:17-18). We are all in a metamorphosis that will one day culminate in becoming just like Jesus is beauty, holiness and character. Wow! Is this not what each of us longs for, to be free of our temper, selfishness, ego, and to be perfected in love? Inwardly we all groan for this nature. Jesus was the branch, planted in the earth and given this Spirit, and we are the offshoot of this same spirit that is growing in us and through us until the whole earth is filled with His glory! (Isaiah 11).
We are saved by this hope and expectation. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifleth himself even as He is pure.” (I John 3:2,3). No man can engineer this metamorphosis. It is a work of the Spirit of God as we pursue him with all of our hearts.
Man's religion is always along natural lines. Religion rests confident in self-efforts that "have an appearance of religion in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Col 2: 23) For we are complete "In him," meaning that we are complete by sharing in his imputed righteousness (he took our sin and we assume his righteous standing (2 Cor 5:21), and we are being made complete by his dynamic life through a relationship with him. We are saved through faith from our birth into the kingdom to our maturity across our lifespan. Jesus said that the "flesh accomplishes nothing, but my words are spirit and they are life."
Religion always lack true faith and trusts more in what is seen and what is under our own control (i.e. follow a set of rules believed to make one "good enough" for God). Many churches subtly condone this approach to Christianity simply by failing to point to the cross, thus watering down and corrupting what Christ has already done for us. The other error that is common is to water down true holiness by suggesting it doesn't matter anymore. Sin is misery and death. Why would we want to cure cancer so that we can continue to suffer with it? No, the cancer was ripped out of the human heart when Christ died on the cross, and we were given new hearts-the heart and nature of Christ-when we accepted his sacrifice.
Paul says that in Christ, our sin nature was cut away from our hearts! This is such profoundly wonderful news (col :11-14). He had to do it because we could not do it on our own. And because God loves us more than we can imagine, He sent Christ to do it. "His own arm accomplished salvation." We are asked to believe on his work, and we do this even as we are still experiencing failure and weakness in ourselves. But we confess it and then we look entirely to God to do in us what only He can do, and what He already did in Christ. Paul says to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. How many believers consider themselves dead to sin? Perhaps this is why we are often so weak and fail to experience victory? For just as we inherited the first Adam's selfish heart, in the exact same way, we inherit Christ's nature by faith! (Romans 5:12-17). By faith (because we cannot see it), we know that we have been given a new, righteous nature in Christ. We can no longer think of ourselves as "sinners" but as new creations although we still sin and fall short of his grace, we begin to expect to see his nature living in us. This is how we are being saved, or sanctified, by his life.
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