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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Sowing What You Want To Reap, #6
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
You know, our common sense should warn us that today's teaching of lawless grace is not of God. How could it be? God's purpose for man has always been that man will practice righteousness, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. To present a "grace" that forgives people without changing them is to go outside our normal understanding of God's holy Nature. All covenants of God have as their purpose the promoting of righteous behavior among earth's peoples.
God cannot be mocked. We are going to reap what we sow. Every idle word a person speaks will be brought up in the day of judgment.
"But," we protest, "when we accept Christ as our Savior our idle words are forgiven to be remembered against us no more."
This is true, but only under the scriptural conditions.
The scriptural conditions are that we walk each day in the light of God's will, growing each day in the ability to discern between good and evil, and in the willingness and strength to embrace the good and reject the evil. This is what it means to "grow in Christ.'
Each day we are being conformed to His image. Each day we are gaining victory over our sinful nature. Each day we are choosing to do God's will with increasing determination.
Galatians 6:7,8 speaks of sowing to please the Spirit of God. There are only two ways in which a person can live. One is in the sinful nature. The other is in the Spirit of God.
When we begin our Christian discipleship we are almost all sinful nature and very little of the Spirit of God. Each day should see us with less of the sinful nature and more of the Spirit of God. Our goal is to be so filled with the Spirit of God that every thought, every word, every action, every breath we take is filled with the Spirit of God. This is the sublime goal of the new covenant. This is "that which is perfect."
You know, our goal is not merely to go to Heaven, to Paradise. To go to Heaven, to Paradise, is not the same as living in the fullness of the Spirit of God. Heaven is a place. Living in the fullness of the Spirit is a condition of our personality. We can be in Heaven and void of the Spirit of God. We can be on the earth and living in the fullness of the Spirit of God. Heaven and being filled with the Spirit of God are not at all the same thing.
We see, then, that the current understanding that the Christian salvation is a ticket to eternal residence in Paradise falls far short of the program outlined in the New Testament. The Christian salvation is one of total change, of a new creation in which all the old sinful nature has passed away and every aspect of our personality has been made new in the Spirit of God.
To be continued.