Grace

[RobinD69]

There are many out there today who adhere to a false grace.They believe that by just claiming the finished work of Christ on the cross they are free from any accountability in whatever they do.It is true that if they truly accepted the Lord and His finished work that all their sins are covered by the blood of Christ.But what if all they did was claim something and deny what it means.Christ died for our sins,all we have to do is confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts,only God knows our hearts.But what about our witness or the fruit Christ speaks of.Do we stay in our sins and just expect Gods grace to cover us?This is the crux,many just give God lip service and expect Him to justify our sins we dont want to condem.If you are an alcoholic and you accept Christ,will you automatically stop drinking?It has happened,but not always.The same goes for other sins.If we accept Christ into our hearts,sometimes He takes certain sin away and other times He allows sactification to be a work in progress.This does not mean that we should just give up trying to change ourselves,because now we have the power of Christ to back us up.Christ wants us to grow in His grace,not just take it for granted.This is why He gave us the Bible through His prophets and apostles.This book is not to condem us,even in the Old Testiment,the laws and rules set forth are not for condemnation they are for our freedom.The Bible is a guide book for the narrow path of Christ,this is a straight path,but our paths,even as Christians,are very crooked.We must understand that in order to walk this narrow path or to get back on it when we stray,is to humble ourselves and admit we have done wrong and Christ is faithful to forgive us.Many who abuse grace,deny the Bible while claiming grace.Can this work,I am sure it doesnt.Christ says to one of the Churches in Revelations"I wish you were hot or cold,but you are lukewarm and I spit you out".What is lukewarm?Conforming to this world is lukewarm,Claiming Gods grace and justifying sin.Do we still sin as Christian?Ofcourse,we are still in this world but we are commanded not to be of this world.Paul had a thorn in His side,some think it was a personal sin,others thought it was a pain in the butt disciple,either way God said"My grace is sufficient for thee".Was this God condoning sin?I dont believe so.I believe God was teaching patience to Paul and He was also telling Him that whatever was ailing him kept him humbled and caused him to continuously return to the Lord.Now see the reason I call it false grace to claim the finished works of Christ but go one justifying sins and denying the Bible?He wants us to grow in Him and if we choose a shortcut then we have no part of Christ,we have only given lip service and have no fruit.Paul writes alot about grace and one thing that catches me is where Paul says we grow in grace.If we grow in grace then this must mean we need some kind of guidance and what better guidance that the Bible and being led through the Bible pby the Holy Sirit.

 

[lastsecman]

People think that Satan is an easy enemy and that he probably disappeared already...The Bible tells us to be careful because we are still in the middle of a war with the most cunning being.Therefore we are to always arm ourselves like a soldier in the midst of a battle.

 

[Nova]

I think the emphasis on teaching "Get saved, so you can avoid Hell" has led to a misunderstanding of the Christian walk. Sure, avoiding Hell is a consequence of our salvation. But the goal of the Christian walk is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Which is a daily struggle. Not a once & done event.It takes work, discipline & self examinimation to grow in God, as we are led by the Spirit. And we (humans) are basically lazy about doing things that are difficult or painful. So we let the other influences in our lives drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit.

 

[RobinD69]

Amen Nova,we all struggle to live as Christ,and we all let the world control us too much.