Saints and not sinners!

(Deuteronomy 4:33) “Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?”

Pay careful attention to the small still voice of God…

It is another early start, just on 3 am as I eagerly await to hear the voice of God, I look forward to my Saviour’s instruction as God the Holy Spirit reveals never-ending truths about the shekinah glory of the One and only, my great King, the Lord Jesus Christ, which in turn energizers me in the inner-man, equipping me to walk victoriously before a Holy and righteous God. As I think on this, these words come to mind; “beautiful, beautiful Jesus is beautiful and Jesus makes beautiful the things of my life.”

God the Holy Spirit does it gently causing my eyes to see, but as soon as my self-reflection begins to overshadow the glory of my gracious King, I then begin to miss the mark and I lose sight of the greatness of our glorious King. My problems begin to overshadow His achievements and this then in itself is sin. It is not about what we can achieve but rather what Christ has already achieved by dying on that cruel Roman Cross, praise His name!

It is crucial that we come to terms with this truth, less of self and more of Christ and that also includes pity-parties! Our attention must shift at all times to the victories of Christ. Of course the Apostle James gives us very wise council; he teaches “faith without works is dead”. And yet we look to beat ourselves up all the time because we do not resemble similar fruits of those who have already run the race and kept the faith. I would suggest, it is because of this very reason; we forget to focus on what Christ has done and we look at what we haven’t achieved on His behalf. I know this to be true, as I often give unbelief too much time of day. These treacherous times of reasoning’s leave me downtrodden, but not quite broken; there is a time and a place for these emotions, but far too much time is given to them. I know this to be true, as it has played large part in my life.

We often cry our God reigns! We all believe that He is Sovereign, but how often do we always hear, “if only”! That type of reason does not exist in our great Saviour’s rational, it is foreign to Him. It cost Him his life to set us free from the bondage of sin and death, and I am not talking about the “do’s and don’ts” of our daily struggles. Should I or shouldn’t I drink this coke or eat this chocolate etc., is such a fickle understanding and it will leave us unstable in every area of our lives. When we reason like this we package our Saviour into box, forgive us Lord! He never ever thought on failure as an option. He came to do the will of His Father and He accomplished every jot and tittle to perfection. He has now set us free, huh some may sigh!

We are no longer sinners but saints (I speak to those who have His Spirit). The question we may still ask; but don’t we still sin? Yes! But not when we apprehend that Christ has already paid the price for all our sins, past, present and future. If this was not true then we would need to be judged for our sin and then the work of the cross would be incomplete, which it is not! He hung on that cruel splintered cross and cried. “It is finished!”

As I sit typing, these words continue to escape my lips, “I love you Father, I love you Lord Jesus.” Over and over again, I do not tire ether saying them or hearing these wonderful words, which is true and now very real. But when I think on the “woe is me” person in my life, I miss the essence of Christianity, which is; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Do you see that there is no law against the fruit of the Spirit, how could there ever be? Christ has paid the price for sin, once and for all! He has removed the bondage that the law of God once had over mankind. This is a fact, but will you dare to believe it? Believe it we must, or round and round the merry-go-round we go. 

It is all about the victory of Christ and not whether we make the grade or not in that sense. It was not because Caleb and Joshua had big biceps that they brought back a good report when they spied out the Promised Land. It had nothing to do with their abilities but everything to do with God’s promise. We too must articulate as they reasoned, if not we will cower away from the smallest of challenges. We will always be clutching for the lip of some ditch instead of gazing across the plains from a mountain top.

Why are we reminded to have communion as often as possible, for this exact reason; that we are to jog our memory about our Lord’s death and what it cost Him to set us free from the bondage of sin and death. Less of self and more of Christ and it will be well with our souls. Here is a biblical fact that the Apostle John uses leading into the book of Revelation about this great Man, God and our King; “and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” (Revelation 1:5): - The Apostle Paul makes this statement; “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)   

Whatever the yoke, even if it would appear to be good in itself, if misappropriated outside of the finished work of the cross, all it will achieve is bondage and a annoyance to slavery once again. Circumcision is not sin in itself, but when we use that type of mentality to look for justification we do sin and therefore if we look to circumcision for justification it is sin. I trust my point has been made and clearly understood.

Therefore I will conclude with this question; are you a sinner or a saint? Both I hear some say. Both! How could we be both the old man and the new, I am taught that the old man is dead; “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:6-11)

If we now are dead to sin and alive to God, I will once again ask the same question; are we sinners or saints? Saints indeed! There is only one proviso; if we have been born again and if we have His spirit then we are indeed children of God and we then must align ourselves with the teachings from the Holy Scriptures.

It is a marvellous triumph that Christ achieved on our behalf; let us never forget what it cost Him to lay down His life so that we could go free! All hail King Jesus!

Signing off

Tyrone