Something To Think About..

Something To Think About

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end [the result is] everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)

To employ trusting in Jesus as the only aspect of the victorious Christian life, not following the Spirit's guidance in using the additional means God has provided for overcoming the world, our fleshly lusts, and our self-centeredness, will lead to confusion, passivity, despair, and finally, spiritual destruction—a complete loss of inheritance.

Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament Scriptures advocates a trust in God apart from the daily, active, diligent, intense, single-minded seeking of God's will in every area of personality and behavior.

Everlasting life is the result of holiness. We become holy as we obey the teaching of the Apostles.

It is of God that we address Jesus as Lord. It also is of God that we do what Jesus says. It is vain to call Jesus, Lord and then not do what He says.

Jesus will not obey the commandments for us although He certainly stands ready to assist us as we come to Him for help. We must obey God in all that the Apostles have stated. When we obey the Word, God sets us free from sin. When we do not obey the Word we are not set free from sin. The result of slavery to sin is spiritual death.

Perhaps the reader is weighing the two alternatives. Should I rest in Jesus and wait for Him to live the Christian life in me or should I obey the numerous commandments in the Gospels and the Epistles, praying always to God to help me overcome the love of the world, the love of sin, and the love of my self-will?

Must I overcome or did Jesus do all the overcoming for me?

If you are making this choice now, we suggest you reread the New Testament and discover for yourself whether it teaches that Jesus will do it all for you and in you or whether you must make the effort to meditate continually in the written Word, being careful to do all it commands.

The majority of the passages of Paul's epistles speaks of the absolute necessity of righteous, holy, and obedient conduct if one is to inherit the Kingdom of God. Pick one of Paul's epistles at random. See for yourself how much of it is devoted to righteous, holy, and obedient behavior. Observe if Paul presents such works as desirable only but not essential to our entrance into the Kingdom of God.

The context of the third chapter of Philippians has to do with the true works of the saint.

Paul disowns the "dead works" of Judaism as "loss for Christ."

Paul refers to all other "things" that were gain to him as "dung."

However, Paul associates certain works with "the righteousness which is of God by faith."

Let us examine those "works," for they are the true works that bring us to the first resurrection from the dead.

Gaining the excellency of the knowledge of Christ his Lord.

Suffering the loss of all things.

Counting all things but dung.

Winning Christ (and this toward the end of his life—perhaps six years before his martyrdom!).

Being found in Christ.

Gaining the knowledge of the power of Christ's resurrection.

Gaining the knowledge of the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.

Being conformed to the death of Christ.

Forgetting the things that are behind.

Reaching forth to the things that are before.

Pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.

These works constitute the true Christian walk.

Continued. Something To Think About.. 2