Sleepwalking part 5
Before the cross--dead in our trespasses and sins. Asleep at the wheel, if I can say it that way. The walking dead. Not, "If I sin, I will die." But, in a sense, born into sin. Now, remember, I said BEFORE THE CROSS. Because something happened at the cross that changed EVERYTHING. Jesus came to wake us from sleep. To bring us out of death and into life. HIS life. Abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. Isn't it interesting that when Paul wrote letters to the churches he would address their "sin" (bad behavior, as most people think of it), but instead of condemning them he'd remind them who they really are? That's all we need to do. Awake to righteousness and you WILL sin not. But we think we have to stop sinning in order to wake up. That's backwards. Jesus did the same thing in Revelation, except in Revelation He told the church who they are by telling them who HE is. That's our true identity. That's what we need to wake up to. If you're a "sinner saved by grace" that means you're not a sinner anymore! Sin is unbelief. So by definition a believer cannot sin. If you're born of God His seed remains in you and you CANNOT sin. If you know who you are you'll stop acting like someone you're not. If you know the truth--if you BELIEVE the truth that you are loved--then you'll stop looking for love in all the wrong places. You'll stop trying to earn something that can't be earned. You'll stop falling from grace. And let me just give you the complete verse for that catchphrase. Galatians 5:4, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." The ONLY way to fall from grace is to put yourself back under the Law. To try to justify yourself through your actions instead of through your faith. It's not what YOU do, it's what JESUS did. And what Jesus DOES in you, and through you, and as you. Remember yesterday we saw that one man got all of us into trouble with sin and death (NOT with God), and one Man got us out of trouble. And not just out of trouble, but into life. And not just life but HIS life. We were--and many of us, unfortunately, still are--sleepwalking. Stuck in a rut. Doing the best we can with what we have, but not able to do much because we didn't think we had much. Trying to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. Trying to make ourselves look bigger by making others look smaller. God doesn't want any of that. He doesn't--never has and never will--want what man can produce. All He ever wanted was a Lamb. And that's what He got on the cross. Look, the cross either changed everything or it didn't change anything. And I'm here to tell you it absolutely changed EVERYTHING. From darkness to light. From sleeping to awake. From death to life. That's what happened when Jesus drew us into Himself and died... and then rose again. He literally remade the world in His image. The consuming fire consumed everything but itself. Himself. And that's what's left. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. That's what we have. And all we have to do is let is out. That's how we experience it. We know it and believe it. We receive it and release it. We love others with the love that we are loved with. That's what it's all about. That's why we're here. To love and be loved. To live!