Galations 5: 16-17 NKJV
I was brought up to believe that the God who loved me was constanttly on the lookout for those who would slip and fall into sin. Once this happened, God would react accordingly. More often than not, I was taught, this would include Gods instant judgement which could include withholding blessings or opportunities as well as bringing discomfort in my life. All of this was done, I was told, because my Lord was totally displeased with my behavior, and so He reacted to my behavior. I accepted this as fact, who was I to question God or His motives? Never mind the fact that this God whom I served loved me enough to send His very Son into the world in order that I might be saved {John 3: 16-17}. The teaching that sin ran contrary to God was the rule of the day. Of course, I was simply a sinner saved by Gods grace, so God spent ALOT of time bringing me back into line. Following this thinking, my God became to me less of a loving Lord to one of anger, revenge and reaction to our sin which we would inevitably fall into. For as a sinner saved by grace, how could I not spend my life in that vicious cycle of sin and revenge. My action and Gods reaction.
For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. LLikewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 7-11 NKJV
One thing that opened my eyes to this flawed teaching was the voices of pulpit pounders telling those assembled that we were simply sinners saved by grace. How could this be? How could a God who loved me, who gave His only Son, provide for my salvation and yet still dole out His judgement on me day after day? If indeed I was saved, then something inside of me continued to bring out behaviors in me that ran contrary to what God desired. Action and reaction. It is in Galations 5 that we see the apostle Paul bring this to our attention. If Paul knew of this struggle, then perhaps it had been around for awhile? For as Paul claimed, our Spirit lusts against our flesh and in turn our flesh lusts against our spirit. Action and reaction. But what is our flesh? This inner part of our very being that so often looks to fulfill its own desires? Can we control it? Well, obviously if we were fearfully and wonderfully made, then God must have had a reason for giving us this flesh in the first place. And if this flesh of mine is reactionary, responding to influences, then could it not respond to Godly influence as well? Action and reaction. Our flesh, that part of us which not only represents our earthly vessels we refer to as our bodies, also contains our emotions as well. It also must be understood that it is our flesh that is that part of us that is mostly influenced by the outside, fallen world that surrounds us. So, if that part of us which responds to outside influence desires something, it seems logical that it would do whatever it could to obtain it, even if it went contrary to what our Lord desired. Action and reaction. Now, I still have misgivings about that teaching which claims that we are yet sinners saved by grace. For if God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, why would He do so only to punish us? We can also see in Romans 6 that we who are alive in Jesus are now dead to sin! If we are dead to sin, we are in Christ and not in sin! Seems logical enough. And yet I am still Gods creation flesh and all, reactioanry.
No comments:
Post a Comment