BEING HELD CAPTIVE
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
We've started out this week speaking to you more about the individual responsibility toward witness in Christ, and we have used examples like that of Paul and his single-mindedness of heart to do the work that God had called him to do.
There is an important point that we need to make as we study the need for these individual efforts in our lives, and that is that even though the Holy Spirit compels us to do these certain things in Christ we at one time were living under a much greater curse; and that is the curse of the law. I want to point out some of what the Holy Spirit is given me through reading in Galatians 3:2-5 where it says I would like to learn just one thing from you; did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the spirit are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you because you observed the law, or because you believe what you have heard? "
You see for many of us we tend to base our faith on what we listen to every week from a source that we never take the time to discern. It isn't that we cannot trust the words of our pastor or of those who teach us, but it often becomes a moot point unless we take the time to read the words, and meditate for ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit as to what is really being said. Jesus referred many times to the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law with the scribes and Pharisees. Paul takes that concept a little closer to home for us when he makes this statement in Galatians 3: 10-11 "all who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written; curse it is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, the righteous will live by faith."
That's one of the reasons that the law was fulfilled through the life of Christ. It was not fulfilled to abolish the law, but to complete the law. The new covenant was established with us through Christ for the purpose of placing the spirit of the law in the forefront of our relationship with God. Trying to be right with God, or justified by our own effort does not work. Good intentions such as I'll do it better next time or I'll never do that again, usually end up in failure. Paul simply points out that by trusting God, believing in his provision for our sins, and living each day in his power we can break the cycle of failure. The Holy Spirit gives Christians great power to live for God. Some Christians however want more than this, they want to live in a state of perpetual excitement because the tedium of everyday living leads them to conclude that something is wrong spiritually. Often the Holy Spirit's greatest work is teaching us to persist to keep on doing what is right even when it no longer seems interesting or exciting. What we need today is individual Christians is a restatement of that good news which is what they needed in the first church; the total control of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is a gift of persistence. I can tell you without any doubt that if your lamp seems ordinary you may need the spirit to stir you up because every day offers a challenge to live for Christ. In some ways that challenge gets more difficult every day, and in other ways I feel more able to let go of this world and to cling to Christ because of that challenge. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We've started out this week speaking to you more about the individual responsibility toward witness in Christ, and we have used examples like that of Paul and his single-mindedness of heart to do the work that God had called him to do.
There is an important point that we need to make as we study the need for these individual efforts in our lives, and that is that even though the Holy Spirit compels us to do these certain things in Christ we at one time were living under a much greater curse; and that is the curse of the law. I want to point out some of what the Holy Spirit is given me through reading in Galatians 3:2-5 where it says I would like to learn just one thing from you; did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the spirit are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you because you observed the law, or because you believe what you have heard? "
You see for many of us we tend to base our faith on what we listen to every week from a source that we never take the time to discern. It isn't that we cannot trust the words of our pastor or of those who teach us, but it often becomes a moot point unless we take the time to read the words, and meditate for ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit as to what is really being said. Jesus referred many times to the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law with the scribes and Pharisees. Paul takes that concept a little closer to home for us when he makes this statement in Galatians 3: 10-11 "all who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written; curse it is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, the righteous will live by faith."
That's one of the reasons that the law was fulfilled through the life of Christ. It was not fulfilled to abolish the law, but to complete the law. The new covenant was established with us through Christ for the purpose of placing the spirit of the law in the forefront of our relationship with God. Trying to be right with God, or justified by our own effort does not work. Good intentions such as I'll do it better next time or I'll never do that again, usually end up in failure. Paul simply points out that by trusting God, believing in his provision for our sins, and living each day in his power we can break the cycle of failure. The Holy Spirit gives Christians great power to live for God. Some Christians however want more than this, they want to live in a state of perpetual excitement because the tedium of everyday living leads them to conclude that something is wrong spiritually. Often the Holy Spirit's greatest work is teaching us to persist to keep on doing what is right even when it no longer seems interesting or exciting. What we need today is individual Christians is a restatement of that good news which is what they needed in the first church; the total control of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is a gift of persistence. I can tell you without any doubt that if your lamp seems ordinary you may need the spirit to stir you up because every day offers a challenge to live for Christ. In some ways that challenge gets more difficult every day, and in other ways I feel more able to let go of this world and to cling to Christ because of that challenge. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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