by: Caleb Osborne
What could be a scary thought for some? How bout' thisThe thought that as a Christian you can do whatever you want......scary?
Consider this Bible verse:
"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify."
1 Corinthians 10:23
All things are lawful for me? That flies in the face of traditional thinking about Christian morals, rights and wrongsDoesn't it?
You see as Christians we are no longer slaves to the law. In amazing mercy, Jesus was the sacrifice that allowed us to be forgiven of our sins by no work of our own. So that we were no longer subject to trying to live up to God's perfect standards (the laws) And we were given the Christ's life in exchange for our own by the grace of God.
So we are truly free to do whatever we want, because the law no longer applies to us. Woo hoo! Now that's freedom! It's so sad to see so many people that see the Christian life as a life that is summed up by a comment such as:
"If you're a good Christian, everything is a sin"
This is the definitely one of the most incorrect yet universally accepted doctrines of the secular, and sadly, Christian world. I guess this verse was skimmed over.
Before you get crazy and start to plan your debaucherous plight through every forbidden pleasure imaginable, pay attention to the rest of the verse. When you read the rest you start to get a handle on why this isn't so scary after all. "but not all things are helpful...but not all things edify."
You have the freedom to do whatever you want. But what will keep you from doing the things that aren't "helpful" and don't "edify"? Well, remember when I said that you received the life of Christ in exchange for your own at salvation?
Christ's life is the key. You won't have to worry about what is right or wrong. You don't need laws to tell you. Your identity is a righteous one, so your natural nature is to glorify God and to do the things that please him!
You have a little thing called a conscience that lets you know when you're messing up. And God is able to keep you from stumbling. A personal relationship with God will keep you from sin.
Galatians 5:16 says, "Walk in the Spirit and [then] you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Don't get it twisted and try to Not fulfill the lust of the flesh to walk in the spirit.
For some reason, probably due to their engrained behavior orientated nature, most people read this verse as "if you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh then you'll be walking in the spirit." or at least that's how most people put it to use.
Most Christians see their Christian walk as one where they try to reach the righteousness of God by trying to make their behavior fall in line first. Relying on our power to bring us to the spiritual place we want to be at is a mistake and most often leads to failure.
Tis' a shame I say. If this were a math equation you would have an order of operations that must be followed to get to the correct answer. The order of operations isn't behaving like a Christian to walk in the spirit. It is walking in the spirit, then you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Your behavior will fall in line when you are "walking in the spirit." Because the object of your concern will be your righteous father. You are allowing him to express his life through you and he knows no other way than to do it righteously and avoiding "the lusts of the flesh" or sin.
That's one of the keys to being successful in most anything in life. Your Focus. Look around for my other article, "your Focus determines your reality", to find out more about how your focus is Crucial to the success of any endeavor.
I hope this article has challenged you to look at the object of your faith Jesus and opened up communication with him over this "scary thought", I look forward to hearing from you!
© Caleb Osborne - All Rights reserved
http://www.ChristThroughMe.com
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