Our Moral High Ground

26If anyone eamong you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1: 26 - 27 NKJV

I heard some radio pulpit pounder this week bemoaning the fact that many christians still lacked the moral aptitude to be a christian in todays society.  Of course, I turned the radio off upon hearing his comments.  What would make a so called man of the cloth suddenly speak out against the children of God?  Simple, our moral high ground.  We've all seen it, in others more likely than ourselves.  Make no mistake, many of us have taken this high moral road at one time or another.  Whenever we dictate good behavior in others while not engaging in it ourselves we are advocating that moral high ground.  When we are placing unrealistic expectations of conduct on others we are taking the moral high ground.  Here is why I think that this tactic is a false expectation.  We are all Gods creation, created in His own image.  However, along with this also comes those human behaviors and tendencies which we all turn to every now and then.  Make no mistake, our heavenly Father also blessed us upon our creation with all that we are, our own human emotions and behaviors included.  Knowing this, how is it that we can place perfect expectations on imperfect behaviors?  Make no mistake about it, sooner or later we will all fall into misbehavior.  Does that make us bad people?  When we behave badly does that somehow nullify our own salvation or our own standing with our Lord?  Not at all.  See, Jesus handled all of that at the cross.  Tell me what sins that Christ somehow missed when He shed His blood for us.  Why did Jesus need to die to redeem us?  Well, because we were not perfect and we needed the sacrafice He freely gave.  It is Christ Himself who became sin on our behalf {2 Corinthians 5:21}.  Jesus took that bullet that we would no longer carry that punishment for our own sins (misbehaviors).  Sin has now been put to death and we no longer dwell in it {Romans 6:6}.

6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.7For he who has died has been bfreed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV

One of the phrases a good friend of mine uses when we refer to sin is that "we're dead to that."  You know, he's right.  The apostle Paul assured us in Romans 6 that not only did Jesus put sin to death oncce and for all, but that we were put to death on that cross with Him.  That is, our old sin nature died with Him.  Too many of us get caught up in the centuries old institutional church thinking that our Lords forgiveness is conditional, that we need to continually seek His grace and forgiveness.  My friends, we ALREADY have these.  Once Jesus put sin to death once and for all, we were no longer slaves to those sins which enslaved us for so long {Romans 6:6}.  So, if we are dead to sin, can we still continue to sin?  If a slave has been freed is he still a slave?  If a sinful person has been put to death does he still continue to sin?  Get the picture?  I spoke of the moral high ground, but what I should have mentioned is that we no longer have a need to hold others accoutable for something they are no longer alive to.  For when that preacher spoke of christians continuing to live in the sins of the world he obviously had not read Pauls thoughts in Romans 6.  So, what is left if we who have known Jesus are now dead to sin?  Well, as Paul claims, we are alive to Christ Jesus our Lord {Romans 6:11}.  Not only are we alive to Christ, it is Jesus Himself who lives through us today {Galations 2:20}.  The old has been done away with, replaced by the new.  This is what Paul meant when he claimed that we are new creations in Christ Jesus {2 Corinthians 5:17}.  Others might talk of that moral high ground I need to take to contradict my sinful behavior...but I'm dead to that now.

3and every spirit that does not confess athat Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4: 3 - 6 NKJV

~Scott~