So often we find our selves in the Spiritual life struggling against sin or the pulls of the flesh, or the pressures from the world. Many attempts to over come their habits and will find themselves falling back into the pattern of behavior which are not good. They feel bound in chains and unable to move forward.
Often new believers will lunch into the spiritual life and initially make many changes and strides in the Christian life, and may have some success at the new life for a time only to find themselves defaulting to patterns of behavior that they lived prior to coming to faith in Christ.
These patterns of thought and behavior shackle so many believers and imprison them . These believers, in their desire to be rid of these issues, may exert more effort or attempt to show more will power only to find success elusive.
Doing More Good
Some will reason that they need to “do more good” and they attempt to handle this situation by following a code of "good works" thinking that doing good is the answer.
Some will Look to the Ten Commandments as the patter or guide for our lives only to fall short , and in fact, we find that the more effort we expend and will power we put forth, we only to fail again, feeling even more frustrated and chained to our problems and patterns of behavior.
Attempts are made to adopt a life style which will help us control the pulls which hound us to control the" flesh" do not work even though they seem good but in the end we do not solve the problem nor break the chains which we are bound in.
"Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence"Cols:2:20-23.
Crucify the Flesh
Many see the need to crucify the evil works of the flesh ,but some do not see the need to crucify the "good" works of the flesh.
Even the "good" works of the flesh needs to be crucified, as "good" as these works might be , if the originate out of the "flesh" than these works are just are not "good" enough.
Remember that at the beginning our first parents chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is the way of relying on the "flesh" not on God for every provision of salvation and life to be given by and through his grace.
The Tree of Good and Evil produces "good and evil" and what is more "good" is listed first, so this tells us that the "flesh" can produce a "flesh" originated "good", but this "good" falls short . The Tree of Life was literally to chose grace and dependence on God. Gen:3
Many attempt to keep the Law supposing that keeping the Ten Commandments or some form of code will result in the level of freedom that we want, only to find themselves failing . But why is this so?
When we look to the Law or any performance based "religion" we can fall into "Legalism".
A Legalist can have only one of two reactions. A legalist will ether over estimate their performance which will then manifest in self righteousness or they will underestimate their performance which then manifest as self condemnation. A legalist can never be at rest, there is always something the need to do, or to do better.
Problems Gain Strength
It seems the more that we try to do "good" the harder it becomes, we cry out for divine help. We know that we believe in Jesus, we know that we have been forgiven of all our sins, yet we struggle against the chains that bind us seemly to no avail .
Sincere Christians struggle with the "fruit of the flesh" being manifested in our lives. At times we can feel overwhelmed and held captive. We can be frustrated and riddled with guilt at our failures.
It seems the more that we attempt to break the chains of the flesh the greater the pull that the flesh has over us we find our lives producing the fruit of the flesh. Gal: 5:19-23
St. Paul gives our very state a voice in his Epistle to Christians at Rome two thousand years ago, and to we believers throughout the ages as we have dealt with the issue of try to do good only to fail.
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Rm:7:14-20
St. Paul shared all of our struggle with attempting to deal with sin through the Law. He found that he was unable to keep the Law, knowing that it is "good" yet still falling short, as do we all.
Sin is Empowered
What is it that we all fall short and fail when we attempt to break the chains of sin that can bind us through keeping the Law, or any humanly devised code, or performance based "religion"? It seems that the greater we struggle and try to keep the Law the worse our state becomes, it is as if , the worse it gets, the worse it gets.
Where does sin's power come from? St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Christians in Corinth.
"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law"."1Crth:15:56
St. Paul is telling us that very the power of sin is the Law itself. At first ,this seems a contradiction, the Holy Law of God which in Romans St. Paul tells us is good , he now tells us is the very power of the chains which hold us. This means what it says that the Law gives sin power.
That where the Law is present, or any performance based "religion", sin has power. The more Law the more power to your sin.
Where performance and a preoccupation with rules and works are found you will find Christians struggling for the freedom that the Bible speaks of.
Law Brings Failure
We can feel that can not move forward because we are in chains in which we are bound , these and will stifle the Spiritual life.
As glorious as the Law, was and is, St. Paul however calls the whole Covenant, which the Ten Commandments were the center piece of, the "Ministry of Death" written of Stone Tablets . 2Crth:3:7-9
"Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was,"(7)
The Covenant with its' Law was called the "Ministry of Death " because , that is what is the result of attempting to keep it, we can not do keep it, we all fall short, we have no power in our own selves to keep it.
When the Law was given and the Covenant ratified it was marked by death as if to emphasize what would result. On that day, which was the Feast of First Fruits, under the Old Covenant three thousand died .Ex:32:27-28
"He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.'" So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day".Ex:32:27-28
When we are under a performance based "religion" then death will result, that was what the Old Covenant was.
Old Covenant was not just a set of Law and Sacraments , but rather was and is a Mind set . The belief that the way to God is performance. Whatever Law that is resorted to, if we take hold of any "code" then we are under this Old Covenant mind set, and we will find failure.
St. Paul confronted this is his own life and ministry, and with a view of the experience the people of Israel, and all humanity by extension. St. Paul cries out the question which we all ask.
"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me." Rm:7:22-23
The Solution
St. Paul ask for us what the solution is for all, for we all share this same condition none of us is "good" enough, the flesh can not produce any fruit which is "good" enough to save us.
"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" (24)
The Apostle then answer the great question for us.
"Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (25)
St. Paul again, provides the same solution for us and the admonition that our Christian lives is not futile all because of Jesus.
"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."1Crth:15:57-58
Jesus and his work upon the cross and his glorious resurrection is the answer to
his is why Christians anguish under the bondage never being able to fully experience freedom and maturity in the their spiritual life when they are under a law or performance based "religiosity" .
Where performance and a preoccupation with rules and works are found you will find Christians struggling for the freedom that the Bible speaks of.
The Cross
At the cross God, through his Holy Son Jesus, brought the means to know true freedom . At the cross we find God providing everything needed for the salvation of humanity and freedom upon faith in the work of Jesus Christ.
When this message about Jesus and his death upon the cross was preached on the Day of Pentecost centuries after the Law was given, what God has done through Jesus, and the New Covenant was then inaugurated then three thousand then came to believe.Acts:2:38-41
"Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."Acts:2:41
At the cross God himself and took away the sin and the instrument of the Law that empowered sin in the lives of humanity. The veil of the Temple was rent and out poured the rivers of God's grace upon us.
Do Not Forget
St.Peter wrote that when we Christians forget that we are forgiven, it hinders our Spiritual maturity. 2Ptr:1:59
At the cross God, through Jesus Christ, has simultaneously forgiven our sin, and not just forgiving what we have done or thought, but has forgiven us of who and what we are, that is , God has forgiven that we are flesh and the nature which we all possess and God dismantled the Law that condemns of us.
St.Paul the tells us that Law is abolished. Eph:2:23-16
- St.Paul tells us that we are dead to the Law, that it is no power over us.Rm:7:4
- We are under Grace so sin will not Rule us.Rm:6:14
- God has qualified us not we ourselves. Col:1:12
Jesus, by coming in the incarnation as one of us, that is, sharing our flesh and dieing in the flesh, by doing this, even the flesh , and all that it produces, the terrible sin and the inadequacy of the "good", both of which are a barrier between humanity and our God, are then dealt with and and forgiven. The way to God is opened and God's loving grace pours out without limit to us.
"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;"1Ptr:3:18
And again in Hebrews.
"Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh"Heb:10:19
The Righteousness of Grace
There has been, for two thousand years, a tension within the Church between grace and law. Some Christians fear that grace is permission to sin. St.Paul addressed this very concern.
"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"Rm:6:1-2
St.Paul also in his pastoral Epistle to St. Titus tells us that God' grace rather leads us to live according to the righteousness which our Father desires.
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,"Titus:2:12
Far condoning and granting leave to sin, God's grace leads us to live godly lives.
Yet many Christian’s struggle to perform that is adhere to a standard that they can not keep, therefore failure becomes their experience as the struggle to break the chains that are made even stronger by a performance based "religiosity" 'the can only hope to fail under this approach to God.
Yet God has done all that is needed through Jesus, we can experience this when we accept that God has considered us crucified with Christ. Rm: 6:6
And Not Just the “bad” of the Self but the “good” as well, remember the flesh can do good, so if we attempt to crucify the bad but allow the good to live then it will be only a matter of time for the bad to arise again, and we are in bondage again .
The whole self must die, both the good and the bad, and Christ alone must live.
This is all through faith in Jesus; it is the righteousness of faith.
It must come by and through Jesus Christ and the Cross that frees us and breaks every Chain which binds us to slavery, all through our Lord Jesus and his death and resurrection, that our chains are broken and we are made forever free.
Benediction: May we each and all have through our Lord Jesus every chain were with we are bound broken all through the power of his cross, today, tomorrow and forevermore.Amen.
Rev.Todd Crouch, Pastor The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion 2101 Old National Pike, Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301 www.gcfountainoflife.org
The Fountain of Life is heard on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com
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