Beloved, it's my pleasure to have come all this way with you in my attempt to reveal to you what God did through Jesus Christ to set you free from sin and death. I pray that God who gives understanding will enlighten you more through his word to appreciate his deeds for you. Amen!
Today's topic poses a very vital question saying: Shall We Continue to Sin that Grace May Abound? That is to say, should we because our entire life sins has been blotted, purged or forgiven continue to sin? The answer is emphatically NO! Whoever has been born again by believing that Jesus through his baptism took away his sins, through his death and burial paid the price for those sins achieving forgiveness over them and through his resurrection has made him alive, new Man and righteous has this testimony in his heart that it's not a guarantee for people to continue sinning. Those that think it's a license to continue sinning are those who have not received the remission of there sins. They are those who have willingly refused to accept the truth about the great work of salvation probably because of the teachings they have received since their childhood by way of religion. These people can never experience the blessings that comes with salvation. Peace of the heart is far away from them because of the burden of sin in their hearts. This is why they keep battling in themselves saying its a license to continue sinning. They are simply being puffed up by their own fleshly thinking.
Rom: 6: 1-4 Paul wrote " what shall we say then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God's grace will increase? Certainly not! We have died to sin. How then can we go on living in it? For surely you know that when you were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, you were baptized into union with his death. By our baptism then, we were buried with him and shared his death in order that just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the father, so also we might live a new life"
When Paul asked this question, he realized that there were people who say that since Christ has dealt with our sins and have achieved FORGIVENESS of all of them, let us then continue sinning. In attempt to correct these lying spirits that build up such thoughts in the hearts of unbelievers, he went on to ask that question. He tells us that it's not right, for as long as we have been baptized in union with Christ, we have shared his death . He said we have died to sin so how can we go on living in it? Now, how is it that we have died to sin? When Jesus died, it was your sins and my sins as well as that of the whole world that hung there. Remember, everything Jesus did, he did in your place. Christ nailed sin to the cross. Col 2:-14" you were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins, he cancelled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross." so when Christ was crucified, our sins were crucified. Before God, sin is a dead thing. It doesn't exist anymore in his sight. The scripture says that he cancelled the unfavorable record of our debts(sin) and did away with it completely nailing it to the cross. God is no longer angry with any sinner but only want the sinner to repent and accept Christ finished work and that is all. Love does not keep record of wrongs and God has loved us that he gave his son to us that we may believe and have life.
When you believe the baptism( taking away of your sins) of Jesus in your heart , then it means that his own death on the cross was the death of your debt; the death of those sins of yours. Those were the sins he nailed there on the cross. It was the sinful you that died on the cross and when he was buried and resurrected it was a passage to a new life and that is the new life you and I that believes in him has. That is a new life of righteous deeds no longer of sin. When Paul said being baptized into union with Christ, he was talking of your faith in his baptism and death. That faith in him put you in the position where everything Jesus did with his baptism, death, burial and resurrection was done in your name. Paul saying we have died with Christ, doesn't mean that you have died physically because you are still alive. So he was saying that through your faith in Jesus who carried your sins and died for them was your sinful self that died. It's a matter of faith in his finished acts. Jesus was the ransom for sin. So he died to your sins. Yours is to claim and take possession of what Jesus has done like you were the one that has gone through those processes. It's a matter of faith not of sight. His resurrection is now your being brought forth to a new life. This new life is what born again entails. It means that you have passed from death to life. Remember, what brings death is sin and now by your faith in Jesus who carried those sins of yours and nailed them on the cross you have died to sin. Sin is no longer a factor before you and God because sin is a dead thing. Christ have reconciled you back to God, a relationship broken by Adam and Eve.
2 Corinthians 5: 18-19" all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." Beloved, sin is no longer a factor before you and God. Everything Paul tried to explain here is only achieved by your act of faith or believe. It's your acceptance of Jesus baptism, death and resurrection that gets you born again. It's called born again because after you died and resurrected through your faith in Jesus who died and resurrected, you are being translated into another kind of life. You have been born into a new life of righteousness , a life different from your former way of sinful life. At such, you don't have to continue living in sin which is your former life before you accepted Jesus. You now have an obligation to live a holy and righteous life.
Rom:6: 12-14 says " sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies so that you obey the desires of your natural self. Nor must you surrender any part of yourself to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. Sin must not be your master for you do not live under law but grace"
Paul is now saying that now that you have passed from death to life(from sin to righteousness), you must live according to the newness of this life. This life is a call to holy living, a life of good deeds, devoid of every evil. You must not allow yourself to be used for any wicked purpose but for a good course. This is now where your good deeds counts because your accepting Christ is an obligation for you to live a life associated with the life of he that saved you. 2 Corinth: 5:21" Christ was without sin, but for our sake, God made him share our sin in order that in union with him, we might share the righteousnes of God." The reason Jesus had to suffer for the offence he didn't commit was for you and I to become the righteousness of God. It was for you to be righteous before God. So believing in Jesus makes you automatically a righteous man and your refusal, keeps you in the place of sinners. So you see that righteousnes does not come through our efforts. It's something we receive as a gift from God when we believe in his son. So if you are not born again, everything you do to please God is useless and after being born again, good deeds becomes an obligation to you and there is no second choice for such obligation. That is to say you must live a righteous life. But let me remind you here again that even after being born again, and you now life a righteous life full of good deeds, that good life is not what will save you because you have already been saved by the acts of Christ. Get it deep inside your heart. Your salvation is of Christ not of your deeds. The deeds that saved you is the deed of him carrying your sins, dieing for them and resurrecting having achieved FORGIVENESS over those sins. So your living a righteous life is only but a way of life inherent in the new life you have received. For example. You are a Nigerian and later nationalized as a German, you must have to pattern your life according to the Germans by way of language, Food, dressing etc. for you to be identified with them. No form of Nigerian way of life ought to be seen in you. You are different from a Nigerian who went to Germany on vacation. He/she can decide to incorporate some Ways of Germans to his own Nigerian identity. But you that is now a pure German ought to be German in all things because your identity is now German not Nigerian. This is how it is with anybody that receives Jesus. When you become born again by receiving Jesus, you gain a certificate of being a citizen of another kingdom- the kingdom of heaven. You have changed your identity from being a citizen of this earthly world to that of heaven.
Col:1:13-14" who hath delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins."
Ephesians 2:19" Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the house hold of God."
So, as a citizen of heaven and a member of the house hold of God(saints), you must conform to their way of life of righteousness full of good deeds. This is what Paul mean when he says " now that you have died and resurrected with Christ, you must now walk in newness of this new life. Before you get born again, your life is always reflecting the earthly kingdom were you belong. A life controlled by envy, jealousy, backbiting, anger, greed, evil passion, fornication, adultery, malice etc but when you get born again translated into another kingdom- the kingdom of God, you have to drop your former earthly kingdom way of life to adopting the new kingdom way of life of love, joy peace, forgiveness,etc. This is why Paul said sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies to obey it's desires .
Therefore, telling you of your salvation in Christ Jesus imploring you to receive/accept the undeserved grace of the forgiveness of sins- a hindrance to your becoming a son to God is not a guarantee for you to continue living in sin rather, a license to a holy and righteous living. This is a vast topic so I will take you on the second part of this topic in my next publication. SEE YOU SOON! LOVE YOU DEEPLY
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