Book 3 of Musings Release From the Bondages of Sin

Release from the bondages of sin comes as we obey Christ's commandments and strive to please Him with our behaviour.

All such effort must be conducted through the Holy Spirit.

All of us were born with a sinful nature. There is no evidence that Adam and Eve were created with a sinful nature. The sinful nature began to be created when Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord, and was passed down to us..

There are three main branches of sin, and I have mentioned them many times in my writings. They are a willingness to look to the world instead of to God for survival and security; the lusts and passions that live in our flesh; and our self-will.

None of these three is permitted in the Kingdom of God.

Looking to the world instead of to God for survival and security is not permitted in the Kingdom of God.

None of the lusts and passions that dwell in our flesh is permitted in the Kingdom of God.

Our self-will and self-determination are not permitted in the Kingdom of God.

How, then, do we enter the Kingdom of God?

We enter the Kingdom of God by looking to God for survival and security.

We enter the Kingdom of God by not yielding to the lusts and passions of our flesh and soul.

We enter the Kingdom of God by living in God's will instead of our own will.

Now I want to describe to you the difference between religion and the Divine salvation. It is a subtle point, so you will have to think hard about it.

Religion rewards us when we turn aside from what the religion deems as wrong or wicked. The reward often is presented as life in Paradise when we die.

Salvation rewards us when we strive to keep Christ's commandments and to please Him with our behavior. The reward is deliverance from worldliness, lust, and self-seeking. The things we desire come to us as a result of the deliverance.

Now, think about the difference until it is clear in your mind.

Because we Christians are religious people we would think God would reward us for overcoming worldliness, or lust, or self-will. The religious person thinks of our being rewarded because of our effort to live righteously.

Let me digress for a moment, and then I will return to this subtle point.

In much Christian teaching today we assume we never will be able to keep God's commandments. Therefore we believe we will go to our reward in Heaven because we make a profession of faith in Christ, since there is little we can do about our sinful nature.

Now, back to our main point.

I have said deliverance from sin is the reward for striving to keep Christ's commandments and to please Him with our behavior. We would picture our being rewarded for turning away from worldliness, lust and self-will. However, it is deliverance from worldliness, lust, and self-will that itself is the reward.

We can, by our self-will, go quite a way in overcoming worldliness, lust, and self-will. And God expects us to do what we can. However, this is not salvation or the Kingdom of God.

Salvation and the Kingdom of God remove worldliness from us; they remove lust from us; and they remove self-will from us. We do what we can, we are faithful in the least, and then the greater takes over. The greater is Christ and is eternal.

The efforts we make are "what to do until the doctor comes," so to speak.

Now, what do we do about our trust in the world for survival and security?

We read our Bible every day. We pray every day. We fellowship with the most fervent Christians we can find on a regular basis.

There are things we can do, like avoiding the world entertainment systems, using the media sparingly, doing what we can to make certain making a living in the world is not consuming our strength and time until we are unable to spend time with the Lord.

When the pressures of the world pile up on us, we are to pray that God will give us the time and strength we need to serve Him.

If we are determined to find our survival and security in the Lord, God will reward us by delivering us from the love of money and from trust in material wealth. In this way we enter the Kingdom of God.

As we follow the Holy Spirit He brings us into situations that bring forth the lust, violence, pride, murder, thievery, witchcraft, lying, in us. As these are identified we are to confess them as sin and renounce them with all the force and diligence we can muster. Every time they show their filthy heads we are to denounce and renounce them. Then the Lord rewards us by removing them from us, one at a time. In this way we enter the Kingdom of God.

Our worst problem is our self-will, our desire to retain our individuality separate from God's will. Only much suffering can accomplish this. Our part is to remain patiently in the prison in which we are placed. God's part is to baptize us with enough fire to burn out of us our self-will, self-love, self-centeredness, personal ambition. God brings us into His Kingdom in which His will is done in the earth as it is in Heaven.

When we stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ we will be judged according to what we have done, whether it has been good or bad. The Lord can't very well condemn us because we have been born with a sinful nature. We did not ask to be born with a sinful nature. In fact, we may despise our sinful nature.

What the Lord wants to know is, "What did you do about it? When you had the opportunity, did you respond to Me? Did you let Me deliver you? Did you cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He sought to free you from sin? Did you pray, read your Bible, fellowship with the saints?"

If we have not practiced these things, then we have not applied ourselves as we should have. As a result, we will have done many bad things. These bad things may become creatures that stand next to us in the Day of Judgment.

However, if we have taken advantage of every opportunity to serve the Lord, have followed the Holy Spirit, have read our Bible, prayed, and fellowshiped with fervent saints as we had opportunity, then we will be regarded as a faithful servant. The bad we have done will be forgiven, and the Lord will remove from us what remains of the sinful nature. This is our reward for doing what we could to obey Christ's commandments.

In addition, if we have made substantial progress in putting on the new Nature of Christ during our lifetime, we may have had opportunity to perform many useful works in the Kingdom of God. We shall be rewarded for these.

So our reward is tripled. We are rewarded by having the sinful nature removed from us, by having Christ formed in us, and for whatever useful works we have accomplished in the work of the Kingdom of God.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)