An Exhortation to Holiness
“We are
not saved through works of law, but by grace through faith,” and
“faith works through love.” “It is faith alone that saves, but
faith that saves is not alone.” “Faith without works (of faith) is
dead.” Neither works of law nor dead faith can save us, therefore
works of faith born of God’s love for us and respectively and
responsively our love returned to Him through walking in obedience
to the leadings of His Holy Spirit are essential for our complete
salvation to be realized. This incorporates our justification,
sanctification, and glorification in Him. “We love Him because He
first loved us,” and made us innocent of our past transgressions.
He is presently working in us to will and to do of His own good
pleasure resulting in our sanctification unto Him and our
separation from our willful and habitual sins. If this is what we
are pursuing and pressing towards when He returns, we will be
glorified (raptured) even as He is glorified.
Concerning Christian believers, at this time, during this present
dispensation of grace, there must be corresponding actions
accompanying our faith in Christ for saving faith in Christ to be
validated. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for
it is God who is working in you, both to will and to do of His own
good pleasure.” Our transformation (sanctification) comes through
the mercies of God allowing us time and unction to present our
bodies living sacrifices holy and acceptable unto Him. This is to
be accomplished through the renewing of our minds to the will of
God, not by our conformity to the world. We are to “put off the old
man who is corrupt according to the sinful nature and put on the
new man who is created in righteousness and true holiness according
to the new nature.” This new nature has been imputed to us and is
imparted to us through faith in Christ’s accomplished work on the
cross and His Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in our hearts.
We cannot help but live in the fear of God’s righteous judgments
and punishments against unrighteous behavior when we allow
ourselves to live outside of obedience to His will. Those who live
outside of God’s will shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, only
those who do the will of God shall inherit His kingdom. And again,
God’s will is that we present our bodies pure and holy and renew
our minds through hearing His word and doing His will instead of
conforming ourselves to the world. This is how we are to prove what
is His good, acceptable, and perfect will, which is our separation
from sin through our consecration unto Him resulting in an
appropriation of His sanctifying grace that has already been
provided for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection
from the dead.
Therefore we must, “Come out from among them and be ye separate and
touch not the unclean thing; and I will be your God and you will be
my people, and I will walk in the midst of you,’ says the
Lord.”
“It is for freedom that Christ has made us free.” Christ has made
us free from sin,
not free to
sin! Why, then, do we sin? Because “sin is pleasurable for a
season,” but we must realize that, “the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our
Lord.” Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, “If you continue
in my words, then are you my disciples indeed, and you will know
the truth and the truth will make you free. He that sins is a slave
to sin and a slave does not abide in the house forever; but a son
abides forever, therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be
free indeed.” He also said, “If you would be my disciples indeed,
you must deny your self, take up your own cross daily and follow
Me. For he that seeks to gain his life will lose it, but he that
loses his life for my sake will gain eternal life. And what does it
profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his eternal
soul?”
“In the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof.” If we love the pleasures of sin
more than God, we have left our first love, and we must repent, or
our names will be blotted out of the Book of Life.
In other words we have a choice to make, to continue in Christ on
the narrow path leading to holiness and eternal life, or to
continue in the pleasures of our highhanded and persistent sins
that will lead us down the rocky road to death and the broad
slippery path to Hell.
It would do us all well to contemplate and meditate the following
two scriptures. “It is for freedom that Christ has made us free,”
and, “Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men.”
The gospel of the kingdom of God is good news for those who
believe, but it is bad news for those who refuse to believe and
thereby continue in and/or return to their former sins instead of
continuing in Him. Question: Is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob a freedom fighter or a terrorist? Answer, for those of us who
continue in Him, He is a freedom fighter, but for those of us who
continue in the pleasures of our un-confessed and un-forsaken sins,
He is a terror, indeed! We must not allow ourselves or anyone else
to convince us otherwise, for if we do so, we do it at our own
peril.
There are far too many of us professing Christians who are bound by
strongholds of our own making, and curses of our fathers’ making.
This is the result of us and/or our fathers persistently yielding
to the Tempter’s voice and following his lead instead of yielding
to the voice of God and following the leading of His Holy Spirit
through whom we now have the opportunity and ability to become
practicing Christians and thereby freed up from entangling
sins.
I will leave you with a few more scriptures to meditate on. May God
grant us a revelation of these truths and a change of heart and
soul leading us to a life changing experience of freedom from our
sins and an abundant experience of liberty in Him. May this happen
as we cry out in faith to our faithful Savior and Lord, “Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me!” May it also happen as we
exercise our authority in Christ and “tread on the scorpions and
serpents” (demonic powers) that have tempted us and imprisoned us
through our rebellious yielding to them.
“There is no temptation that has overtaken us that is not common to
man. But God will not allow us to be tempted beyond that which we
are able to bear, but will with the temptation, make a way to
escape.” 1 Cor. 10:12-13) I might point out that trusting God’s
promises and obeying His commandments is the way of escape because,
according to the words of Jesus, “I am the Way.”
“The weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We
demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against
the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it
obedient to Christ.”(2 Cor. 10:4-5) We are told to put on God’s
whole armor and take up His weapons that incorporate truth,
righteousness, faith, salvation, the preparation of the gospel of
peace, and the Word of God in order to stand against the wiles of
the devil and having done all to stand.
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you, that I
have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now
choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you
may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to
Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in
the land he swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
(Deut. 30:19-20)
“From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing
after the other.” (John 1:16)
“Jesus became a curse so that we might be delivered from the curse
of the Law; For it is written, cursed is every man that hangs on a
tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.”
Gal. 3:13
In closing let me exhort you with a final word from the Holy
Scriptures. More often than not, in overcoming demonic strongholds
and curses in our lives, it is important - no, it is essential that
we seek the assistance of a faithful prayer partner or partners; a
confessor and a confidante who will keep our confessions to
themselves and stand with us (not for us) in faith. It must be
someone who we know is spiritually mature and therefore can be
depended on and fully trusted in, not to condemn us for our sins or
self-righteously judge us un-righteously. We must know that they
will daily lay down their lives for us through their prayers and
intercessions before our faithful God, as we humble ourselves and
pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways. Christ ever
lives to make intercession for the saints, and we are called to
join ourselves with Him in His intercession for each other.
“Confess your faults, (sins) one to another, and pray for one
another that you may be healed.” James 5:16
“Verily I say unto you, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven: and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on
earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done
for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”
Matthew 18: 18-20
“This then is the message that we have heard of Him and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness
(unacknowledged and hidden sins), we lie and do not the truth. But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us
from all sin. If we say we have no sin, (by failing to confess our
sins to Him and to each other) we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is
not in us. My little children, these things I write unto you, that
you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate from the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins; and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.”
1 John 1:5-10 and 1 John 2: 1-2.
