April 23, 2017 5:53 AM CEST
My conversation with my friend (Part2)
First part must be read.
As we continued in our conversation, he explained how he had struggled in the flesh to overcome this sinful habit. The amount of effort sometimes accompanied with fasting yet to no avail. By now he had started getting promoted in his church and opportunities to minister were given to him. His dilemma was if he told anyone what was really going on, he felt it might result in shame and a loss of his social standing among christians.
He seemed trapped in church systems and its structures, he was rewarded for external service and loyalty to the organization but this didn't translate into the life of Christ being made manifest in him. He wondered and then began to earnestly pray for revelation from God.
He knew certainly that there had to be more to the gift of eternal life. There was that witness within him that there was more to this. He understood he had peace with God through the justification that came by the blood of Christ. He understood that eternal life wasn't the length of life but it's quality. He wouldn't buy a product said to be of the highest quality and if tested in real life it's performance fell short of the needs he had.
He understood he now had access into the presence of God and that access wasn't based on good conduct but solely by the blood. His problem was this, shouldn't this access translate into real transformation?. If by one man Adam sin entered into the world and that resulted into sinful behavior in man easily evident to all, shouldn't the righteousness he had been gifted with in Christ transform his entire being also? These were questions he needed answers to.
There was something else he mentioned about the power of a true witness. He remembered a dear brother in his campus fellowship told him how he got born again. A few days before he had attended their fellowship, he was in an exam hall and everyone was cheating except this one guy.
Six days after that exam he was invited to this fellowship and lo! it was the guy who didn't participate in the cheating that was preaching. He asked the person beside him who he was and she said he is the president of our fellowship. This opened him up to listen deeply and when the altar call was made he walked down the aisle to give his life to Christ. What will have been the impression on him if the preacher was cheating with them.
Our conduct matters.
Mind you there were other born again christians cheating in the hall. They also had the righteousness of God as a gift in them.
He understood that he wasn't saved by his own works but he was saved unto good works. His salvation should result in good works. Did Paul not say in
Ephesians 2:8-11
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them"
He remembered what Christ said while He was on the earth
Matthew 5:16
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"
Someone may say "that's the gospel, before Christ died", well hear the authority Paul gave the words of Christ when in 1 Timothy 6:1-3 he referred to the doctrine which is according to godliness lest the name of God and His doctrine be blasphemed.
"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed......If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings"
He knew better conduct did not bring better access to the Father, access was on the basis of the blood alone and no one could improve on that but he knew the role Jesus had given good works. Did James not say show me your faith without works and I by my works will show you my faith.
God led him to books written decades ago about grace and life in Christ. He saw his experience wasn't just confined to him alone, this is the pathway every believer has tread.
One of the authors wrote (name omitted) "If I am to outwardly be like Him and not just a faith thing, then God in His grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize it the sooner I will be delivered from another form of bondage. Throw down every endeavor and say, I cannot do it, the more I try the farther I get from His likeness. What shall I do? Ah the HolySpirit says, you cannot do it; just withdraw; come out of it.
You have been in the arena, you have been endeavoring, you have failed in your effort, come out and sit down, and as you sit there behold Him, look at Him. Don't attempt to be like Him, just be occupied with Him. Forget about trying to be like Him. Instead of that filling your mind and heart let Him fill it just behold Him. When you read the Word, make it a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord"
He began to realize he had approached the Bible like he was reading some academic thing. The same way he read his Chemistry books. He was a Bible scholar but his life fell short of things he taught. He started to understand in practical terms "beholding as in a glass ..... transformed even by the Spirit"
Then he read from another these words "The trouble of the believer who knows Christ as his justification is not sin as to its guilt but sin as a principle still at work in their lives. In other words, it is not from sin as a load or an offense that he seeks to be freed-for he sees that God has completely acquitted him from the charge and penalty of sin-but it is from the power at work.
To know God's way of deliverance he must apprehend the truth contained in the sixth chapter of Romans.There we see what God has done, not with our sins-that question the apostle dealt with in preceding chapters-but with the old man"
He came to understand how God will translate the divine into man's human nature. This is the grace the Spirit applies in our lives. The direct application of this GRACE we will look at next.
This post was edited by Pastor Dunamis Okunowo at April 23, 2017 5:55 AM CEST
My conversation with my friend (Part2)