"Your life is transformed to the degree that your mind is renewed. Cornel's book goes a long way to removing the hindrances to that renewal."
-Curry R. Blake, John G. Lake Ministries
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1. “The Law is only a weak and useless shadow. Grace is the reality of the good things.”
Please read ‘When NOT Watching Porn Is A Sin’ before reading this article!
Just like in the previous article, you can also substitute the heading with “When prophesying is a sin,” “When worshipping is a sin,” ”When casting out demons is a sin,” or even “When doing good is a sin.”
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” – Mat 7:21-23
You can never do enough good to be justified before God. That is why He sent Jesus. It’s not about doing your best so God can do the rest. Argh! I puke on that! God did His best so you can enjoy the rest! Your best efforts are like dirty menstrual rags. Not very clean… (Isa 64:6). When you think you have to pray for the sick, plant churches, worship, pray, fast, read the Bible or whatever else you think you HAVE to do to be justified before God, each one of those actions becomes a self-righteous sin. The folk in Matt 7:22 above did all the right things, and probably abstained from doing all the wrong things too, yet Jesus said He didn’t know them. Why? They were attempting to gain access to Jesus by their self-righteous efforts. Knowing Jesus is very different from just blindly obeying commands and trying to not break any rules. Christianity is not a holier-than-thou behaviour modification programme.
“…how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” – Hbr 9:14
Read this verse carefully: “…dead works to serve the living God.” This is not referring to sin. Sin never serves God. This is talking about doing good things. You need to have your conscience cleansed from trying to serve God with your own self-righteous efforts. God doesn’t want your good works. He wants you. And when you give yourself to Him He turns you into His good work. You become a good work, His workmanship, instead of just endlessly trying to do good works. You are the righteousness of God in Christ! Righteousness is the degree to which somebody can do good. You are the degree to which Christ can do good. You are His good work! You are His good pleasure. You are His offspring! He didn’t bring you OUT OF SLAVERY so you can be His slave!
” For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…” - Phlp 3:3-9
We worship in Spirit, not through human effort (flesh). Paul, who had reason to boast in his efforts since he was blameless according to the law and the most zealous Hebrew out there, counts his own righteousness gained through effort as rubbish. The original Greek actually doesn’t say rubbish. It says, “dung, poo-poo, animal excrement.” I trust you get the point.
The Bible refers to your own efforts to do good for justification as used menstrual rags and animal excrement. I wouldn’t place my trust in those things for my eternal redemption, but hey, that’s me. So if you are starting to feel burned out and frustrated because you are trying to live up to an enormous expectation and unattainable goal placed on you by either your “church” or it’s “leadership,” then please take a break and have a Kit-Kat. Jesus already paid your bill, so just enjoy your meal. Don’t fall for the original temptation of trying to be like God through your own effort, realize you have been re-created in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24). The substance of your existence is made up of righteousness and holiness! (And no, not yours, Jesus’!)
On that note I will end it here. I will qualify what I have said a bit more in future posts.
Yours in Grace,
Cornel
Yes, you read right, but before you get too upset, you can substitute ‘watching porn’ with any other sinful act. When not gossiping is a sin. When not stealing is a sin. When not lying is a sin. When not coveting is a sin. When not sinning is a sin. That probably didn’t help you much in regards to not getting upset but please note I am not going to advocating watching porn, stealing, coveting, living in sin or anything like that. Quite the opposite actually!
This article is actually not even about watching porn. It is simply about getting the full perspective on self-righteousness. What is self-righteousness? It is the degree of right standing and justification people try to earn before God based on their own performance and ability to do good and refrain from doing bad. It’s basically saying you can make it yourself, you don’t need Jesus’ righteousness. It is unbelief in the finished work of the cross in action. It’s saying Christ’s perfect work needs your help to improve it.
Most people think self-righteousness is only about them doing good, the holier-than-thou attitude, but it is also about their effort to NOT DO THE BAD. The law has two sides: One side instructs in what to do, while the other side instructs in what not to do. Thou Shall vs. Thou Shall Not. When you live self-righteously, it means you are trying to obey all the Thou Shall Commands AS WELL AS not breaking any Thou Shall Not rules. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but when you’re living under the law, the very action of trying to not break the rules becomes a sin. Why? Because the law is not of faith (Gal 3:12) and whatever is not of faith is sin. (Rom 14:23) So, to put it bluntly, if you believe your ability to stop watching porn will justify you before God, your very effort of abstaining becomes your unjustification, it becomes a sin. Your own best efforts are like filthy rags. (Isa 64:6) Jesus is the only one who justifies us before God.
Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Jesus is the end of the LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Jesus is the end of trying in your own effort to do good and not do bad in order to gain righteousness and relate to God. You are saved (brought back into relationship with God) by grace through faith and it is not of your own works. (Eph 2:8-9) It’s got nothing to do with the amount of good things you do, nor does it have anything to with your ability to not do bad things.
Trying to qualify yourself for something you were disqualified from by birth is useless. You were born in sin. No amount of self-effort to stop sinful actions can remove sin from you. Only Christ can remove that. The law is a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ system. That is part of its purpose. (Rom 3:20, 1 Cor 15:56). The law is the very thing that gives life to sin. (Rom 7:8-9). That is why Jesus ended the law, to cut off sin’s life at the source. Faith in Him puts an end to your effort and you can enter into His rest with Him.
So what is my motivation to stop a sin I am struggling with if I am saved and thus no longer under law, under the commandment to not do something? Well, my answer is LOVE! Love lives in me, through me and love gives me life. Sin only destroys life and in Christ we have been called to preserve life. (Matt 5:13) You will only preserve something you love. When you find something of great value which you love, you do everything you can to preserve it. Imagine a man who bought a classic car. He polishes it, washes it, and takes really good care of it because he loves this car. Can you imagine this man taking a sledgehammer and knocking dents into his prized car, making it worthless? No, it would the most unnatural thing for him to do. Sin is the opposite expression of love, and when we are motivated by love, sin becomes the most unnatural thing for us to do.
My wife and our marriage is one of my great loves. I love my wife and do everything I can to preserve both her and our relationship. Will a porn addiction preserve the life of our marriage? No. Will anger and fits of rage preserve us? No. Will any sin ever preserve anything? Never. The sting of sin is death. Sin will kill the things you hold most dear. Decide what it is you love, what it is you value, and decide if you want it preserved or not.
Gal 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but THROUGH LOVE SERVE ONE ANOTHER.
The first step to living out this love, is to realize you are loved regardless of your shortcomings (Rom 5:8). Christ’s sole constant motivation was His love for us and His desire to preserve us. As a result He lived a sinless life. When you live for love and the preservation of what you love, sin is the most unnatural thing to do. Live to love and love as Christ loved you, and sin will have no hold over you.
In the next article I am going to swing the pendulum all the way to the other side and look at ‘When praying for the sick is a sin.’
Yours in love!
Cornel
- Do Christians Still Have A Sinful Nature? – Ryan Rufus (Book Review) February 22, 2012
- Incomplete Vs. Complete Forgiveness November 25, 2011
- 20 Rob Rufus Quotes On Law vs. Grace November 23, 2011
- When Kids Pray… November 20, 2011
- Why Does God Love You? November 17, 2011
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