Saturday, January 17, 2009

If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

Enjoy The Righteousness Of Christ.

Our standing as Christians is founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We say it, we hear it, and nodding affirmatively we agree that it is true. Yet, all too often we fail to grasp the implications of this fact.

All too often our actions and our attitudes, our feelings, our hopes and fears are motivated by something quite different. Instead of looking to Christ we look to ourselves. We imagine that if we could better overcome temptation we would be happier, if we could subdue our sin we would find more peace. We suspect that our interest in God’s love is hindered by our lack of faith and wonder if our conviction for sin has been deeply enough felt.

So we become pre-occupied with ourselves and measuring the successes and failures of what we do as Christians, instead of being pre-occupied with Christ, the foundation that never fails. We build our hope upon our reputations, until our reputations take a dive. We draw comfort from our Christian service then stumble upon the suspicion that much of it is self-promoting. We are encouraged by numbers and size until we glimpse how fickle are the little kingdoms we have built.

It is Christ that justifies, it is Jesus who makes peace in our soul. Our happiness and our assurance will never be complete if we base it upon anything we do in this world. When we look to ourselves to any degree we are looking away from the Lord. Our failures cannot breach our union with Christ any more than our successes can improve it. What I do, what I feel and what I say does not alter the Father’s free grace to me, the Son’s finished work for me, or the Spirit’s providential care of me.

Too many Christians are joyful or depressed in measure to how well or poorly they feel they have performed their Christian duties. Too many preachers use these feelings to badger and manipulate their flock. Christians who are required to scale the bar of sanctified behaviour are always watching the bar. They never lift their eyes from their own works, never enjoy the liberating peace of looking away to Christ.

Christ is the peace-maker of our souls; our happiness in this world, and in the next, depends upon Christ alone. Robert Hawker puts it nicely, "Beloved, if you will fetch your peace from anything in the world but Christ, you will fetch it from where it is not. None but Christ! none but Christ! While your own acts proclaim nothing but war, Christ alone and His blood proclaim nothing but peace."

God grant us freedom to enjoy the righteousness of Christ.

by Peter L Meney

3 comments:

Glenda, saved by grace said...

I hear what your saying (or what Peter Meney is saying) but is there conviction by the holy spirit, for sin?
How do you experience conviction for sin, and when (if) you are convicted, how do you deal with it?
I totally agree that we should rest in Christ and that nothing we can do or say can thwart God, I really do, but how about sin. Should we repent? the bible says we should, but would that be working. I'm confused , but I really am resting in Christ.
This was a good article.
Your other sister!

Carol said...

I think we feel sorry for our sin. I wish I never sinned, but I know I always will on this earth, so I just don’t worry about it (too much) anymore. I just do what I want to do.

My heart is evil and desperately wicked. Even my best deeds are as filthy rags. Only the Lord can change me, and if he lives in me, he will begin to change me, but he does it, not me. Anything I perceive as good that I do, I begin to puff up and be proud of it. What good is that? It may look good to others, but what’s going on inside of me is evil. Grrrr. That is frustrating, so I just quit worrying about it. As I said, I just do what I want to do.

If I’m one of his, I will want to do right things, without even thinking about it. If I’m not, I won’t. Simple as that.

I so pray I’m one of his. Beyond that, it’s up to him. I know I love the gospel. He put that love in my heart. What a wonderful blessing from God.

Just do whatever you want to do! If you’re one of his, he will keep you reigned in. He will teach you and mold you into what he wants.
Stop worrying about it. Stop preaching to others about what they better stop doing or better start doing to be a better christian. (Not you personally, anybody that is doing that).

Just let it all go, and REST in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, and yes we are to repent. I believe to repent is to have a change of mind. To change our mind about God. But then that repentance is a gift from God also.

Did you get a chance to listen to that sermon by Don Fortner? I loved what he said about Genesis 23:30

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. OUR SINS!

Love ya!

Glenda, saved by grace said...

I did listen to it , but I didn't understand it. It was really hard for me, maybe I'm trying to get ahead of myself...