FREE WILL or LEGALISM
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Are we FREE in Jesus or are we bound by the Law? Is the Law still efficacious
for today? Christians argue over this issue. What IS free will? What IS
legalism?
When you gave your life to Jesus, you exchanged your sin and death for His
FREEDOM AND LIFE. Because He gave you ALL, He asks you to give Him your all.
Yet, we encounter so many tests |
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along the way—failures, frustrations, condemnation. We beat ourselves up
with internal chastising; sometimes others lay that very same spirit upon us. We
wrestle with legalism.
Legalism comes from a heart that is stuck—a heart belief that walking with
God begins with exteriors. Legalism is many times birthed from a person’s
insecurity toward intimacy with God and a security in behavior. BUT YOUR
BEHAVIOR is NEVER good enough. That’s WHY Jesus came and saved you and me.
Legalism is often expressed with harshness toward another—here’s what YOU need
to do; eat this, DON’T eat that. Go HERE, DON’T go there, wear THIS, DON’T wear
THAT. Cold, harsh, brittle—the legalistic person has exchanged one miserable
lifestyle for another. The problem is this person has too much “religion” to
enjoy sin but not enough “walk with God” to enjoy HIM.
Jesus is not looking for Christian behaviorists but for Christians who LOVE HIM
in word and deed. We DON’T throw away the beauty of grace for the fools’ gold of
behaviorism. One isn’t saved because one glitters correctly. One DOES right
because one is SAVED RIGHT. One continues to grow in doing right because of a
heart changed by grace. Real change comes from the INSIDE out.
Ephes. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God.
Romans 3:20-23 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in
His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness
of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, 22even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all
and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God,
1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Christians err by not walking in the balance between the two extremes. The Bible
tells us that we are saved by GRACE and that grace EMPOWERS us to OBEY; we are
empowered to choose to cooperate with Jesus in growth and holiness. It’s not
legalism to grow because you love Jesus. Grace is given; the choice to change to
become more like Jesus is our response.
Romans 8:29 (NKJV) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to
the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
Is the Law efficacious for today? Indeed, today, as grace-oriented Christians
who love Jesus and have new hearts, we find willingness and a desire to obey Him
out of love rather than joyless duty. We are NOT saved by struggling to keep the
Law legalistically—we are unable to do so. But God’s Word IS efficacious because
it is written on our hearts and minds by His Spirit.
Hebrews 8:10-12 (NKJV) For this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and
write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people. 11None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying,
'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest
of them. 12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Let’s hear the end of the matter:
Because I have received His GRACE, I exercise my free will to SURRENDER my free
will; because I am saved by grace, I CHOOSE to be conformed to the image of
Jesus. Saved by grace, empowered to obey.
Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
You choose—will it be Free Will or Legalism?
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REDEMPTIVE DISASTERS
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Earthquakes, famines, disasters, tsunamis—natural disasters were prophesied by
Jesus as a mark of the end times. Are we at the end of time? Are bad events
indicative of a judging hand of God?
To the latter, the Bible tells us the rain falls on the just and the unjust. The
judging hand of God is not ours to wield; strident declarers of judgment need
pause long enough to consider if they
are really “worthy” to stand. We live only by the mercy of a loving God.
The tsunami in Southeast Asia has now claimed over 200,000 lives. The tally will
climb with spreading disease birthed from unclean conditions, unsafe drinking
water, from possible malaria outbreaks due to mosquito populations borne in the
acres of standing stagnant water throughout the region. Lives were lost,
families and friends torn apart; homes and businesses destroyed, and chaos has
reigned supreme. Multitudes of children were made orphans in a heartbeat of
time. They now bear their own name--“the tsunami generation.”
Of one issue we may be forthright and certain. It is right, appropriate,
and of paramount importance that Christian people everywhere join in with, and
in fact, lead the actions of help, charity, rebuilding, feeding, clothing,
sheltering, medically treating, and demonstrating to millions God’s love.
Christians must help proffer tangible assistance in this heart wrenching hour.
As Christians, let our hearts break with a compassionate spirit of concern; let
us bring solution, hope, help and light in a grief stricken part of the earth.
Let us visibly demonstrate Jesus by doing “unto others what we would have them
do unto us.”
“For God so loved the world that He gave…” That is our call and commission.
Give. Give responsibly to organizations that tangibly help the victims of such
disaster. Give from the overflow of your own blessings; give even from the
neediness of your own life, and you will discover a joy unspeakable in the time
of giving.
A nation cannot be great unless its people are good. Let us be both.
When we are, we are like God in this earth. Then we can help turn a tragic time
of heartbreak into a Redemptive Disaster. |
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