Your Way Of Life
The greatest tragedy in the body of Christ is the teaching that causes people to continue trying to be right with God by doing the right things; Oh, what a mistake! Living underneath the weight of our own righteousness to procure right standing with God is devastating and produces guilt, shame, fear, and failure. Both Jesus and Apostle Paul’s harshest words were directed at those promoting living by the law of Moses. Consider these scathing words from the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul.
Gal 5:3-5 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.
We all want to live right, but how we accomplish a Christlike life should be carefully scrutinized through the lens of the new covenant we have in Christ. Our efforts to be right with God by our works empower a sinful life because it is a work of the flesh. Consider these words from the Apostle Paul.
1 Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin, but the power of sin is the law.
Do you see that? The power behind sin is the law. But the law is not only the fuel for sin; it causes sin to increase.
Romans 5:20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
As you can see, the law produces an ever-increasing life of compromise, but the new covenant of love accessed by faith produces ever-increasing Christ-likeness.
Heb 10:14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Phil 1:6 Being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Phil 2:13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure.
Everything that is ours within the kingdom of God is accessed by faith. The working of God within us to bring about Christ-likeness can only happen when we believe that we are everything God says we are. The Scripture declares that because of the blood of Jesus, we are completely righteous and perfect in God’s sight. (Heb 10:14)
God’s life-changing work within you is made possible when you relinquish your ability to be right with God and fully rest in the truth that you are already right with him through the sacrifice of Jesus. Being right with God outside of childlike faith is impossible! Right living is a byproduct of right believing, not the result of trying to do what’s right. When we simply believe that we are who God says we are, our lifestyle begins to line up with what we believe, and this is how you please God!
Heb 11:6 And without faith, it is impossible to please God, for those who come to him must believe that he is and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
What truly pleases the heart of God is childlike faith! What glorious freedom is found when we let go and completely trust God!
As I pray over your life today, I am asking God to cause this revelation of God’s grace to overcome you and forever transform you. May the reality of letting go of your effort to be right with God and receiving who God says you already are become…
Your Way Of Life