Studied...

To understand someone or something it must be studied well to uncover the debts of their substance; what makes something or someone tick. A Swiss clock pulsates with precision as it keeps time, it has been put together with such accuracy and Swiss Watchmakers are renowned for their exactitude in this field. Their workmanship has stood the test of time. Most of us can relate to that reality as we have heard, witnessed and even possibly handled one of these exquisite products. However many individuals will never be privy to the privilege of owning such a masterpiece. It is beyond their financial means. Only the rich are able to wear and own a genuine Rolex. Nevertheless we all have some ability in understanding quality when carefully examining it in contradiction of a fake replica which looks to trick someone into believing a lie.

Religion is no different, many cults pretend that they have the answer to life and what they propagate is nothing but lies and some may even believe that they have the truth while others understand the errors associated with their practices, whilst others are simply deceived; they believe that what they have is the truth when in fact it is no more than a sneaky trick which has been orchestrated by the powers of darkness. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the only true God and He alone has the capabilities of saving those lost to sin. There are many replicas’ that claim to be God but are in fact deceitful lies and traps that keep us from finding true liberation. No different to a vaccine; religion with all its trappings is filled with false ideals that move us further from God and deeper into our sin. We need the true serum to avoid the disease of deception, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ and every other claim to save us from our sin is hocus-pocus and outside of Christ all will eventually face the drum roll of God’s judgement. In Christ alone and through Christ alone will we find escape!

Why the Lord Jesus Christ? Because the Lord Jesus humbled himself to the point of death, he died on a cruel Roman cross to pay the price humans couldn’t, and he lived a righteous life without ever breaking one of God’s commandments and therefore He is the only one with the power to forgive. Because God is righteous (blameless to sin) He could not accept any other sacrifice for man’s sin that would have enabled Him to forgive us for our sin. But now it has been made possible to find forgiveness in and through the one who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father commissioned his son to lay down his heavenly authority and to live as a man; God became a man and lived in subjection to the laws of the flesh without ever committing a single sin. Just imagine the immense pressure he faced daily. The prince of the power of the air, Satan and all his followers looking to trip him up and get him to fail, he didn’t! Praise His name! No other individual has ever lived out their lifetime not breaking the commandments that God gave to Moses and this is why the bible is very clear on how we are to find God. One Saviour achieved that act and no one else has come close; salvation comes from God and not from man’s attempts to be better.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:4-9)  

With that clearly understood and for those who have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for their own sin. An honest acceptance of our own depravity and a need to be saved from ourselves will leave us truly grateful and indebted to our God. But there is another deception that looks to creep up on the saved after salvation and we must put on the full armour of God to defend against such presumption, God help us in this area of our lives.

The more we “do” in what I will call “dead works” (an act that seems positive but in fact is dead and takes us further from God) looking for justification before God; our own attempt to find favour from God and to be accepted by Him. False religious cults propagate such a message and these types of acts only make us more proud as self-righteousness sets in moving us in the opposite direction of the way, the truth and the life. The bible is very clear that God gives grace to the humble and He resists the proud. If I do anything in order to find favour from men, if I give to those in need and make a big show of it, what will that do for my ego? It will make me self-righteous if flaunted. Pride is a wicked enemy and he must be kept at bay at all costs.

Let me leave you with this encouragement…

(Romans 8:37) “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Take your sins to Christ’s cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration-you want to overcome an angry temper, how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way? It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, “Lord, I trust thee to deliver me from it.” This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell him, “Lord, I have trusted thee, and thy name is Jesus, for thou dost save thy people from their sins; Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!” Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears-the whole of them put together-are worth nothing apart from him. “None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;” or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane. (Charles Spurgeon)

Signing off

Tyrone