Rise part 3
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen" (Jude 1:24-25). I never hear this concept preached EVER. God can KEEP us from falling? What? All I ever hear about is how we are doomed to fall--because it's our "human nature"--and then grace can sweep our mistakes under the rug and keep an otherwise angry God off our backs. That's not the Gospel (good news) though. That's not the face of the Father that Jesus showed us. Jesus showed us that it is absolutely possible for a "human being" to resist temptation. And then James told us HOW to resist. "Submit yourselves therfore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). We resist by submitting. He keeps us from falling by teaching us how to rise! The biggest struggle you will ever have in your life is trying to be somebody you're not. Because it's impossible. You were made to be who you are. The trick is finding out who you REALLY are. Because there's only one place--one WAY--that you can find out who you really are. You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. So if you want to find your life you have to find it... in Him. It's that true identity, that inner man, that hidden man of the heart, that is deep down inside you. And you have to get past all of the surface stuff to find it. You have to look in the mirror with an UNVEILED face--with the demands and condemnation and stone of the Law of Moses rolled away--in order to SEE the glory and BE the glory. Remember yesterday we saw that you don't rise to GET the glory. You rise because the glory HAS risen upon you. It's not about changing. It's about seeing the change that took place on the cross. We were MADE in God's image, but it wasn't until Jesus finished the work that we were CONFORMED to His image. It wasn't until He showed us who HE really is--and by implication who WE really are--that we could begin to BE who we really are. It wasn't until Jesus broke the yoke of slavery--sin and death--that we could take HIS yoke upon us. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We couldn't do anything BUT fall. Then the cross happened. And we were brought out of death and into life. The love that God always had for us was suddenly accessible TO us. We didn't have to strive for it anymore--and stumble and fall in the attempt. We could begin to rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father. We could stop trying to earn a gift--if you have to earn it it's wages, and the wages of sin is death--and could begin to simply receive it and release it. Let me say it like this: Grace means I can do whatever I want... but I no longer want to do all that stuff that I thought I wanted to do when I was looking for love in all the wrong places! Grace doesn't cover sin. Grace annhiliated sin! Grace is what empowers us. It doesn't just fix things when we fall. It keeps us from falling!