A DOG AND ITS VOMIT!

For the past 7 weeks, our focus has been the assurance of the believer’s salvation – the certainty of our eternal fate, we who cling to the perfect work of Christ. For a lot of people who resist this teaching, their fear is singular: that once people grasp this understanding, it’ll be a licence to sin, knowing that their salvation is sure.  I get asked this question a lot, whether people who profess Christ but live in intentional, unrepentant sin will make it to heaven.  Well here’s what scripture says:

When a believer receives Christ, a seed is planted in him that changes his appetite for sin. Colossians 2:11 says ‘when you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature [like circumcision cuts off flesh]’. It’s not that he never sins in his life; it’s that there is deep discontentment in this new man when he sins, because he recognizes that he may be grieving the love of his life. That in itself restrains him. John writes in 1 John 3:9: ‘People conceived and brought into life by God [people who are born again] don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin.’

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:18:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The spirit of a believer has already been renewed. That leaves his soul [his will, his desires, his mindset, his thoughts, etc.] which inevitably influences his flesh. While God remains the author of this transformation as well, He requires the co-operation of the believer because the soul is under the control of man. What God does is to ‘work in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him’ [Phil 2:13]. Paul explains this to the Ephesians also: ‘we are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago’ [2:10]. The rest of the work depends on the believer who now walks with a deposit of God in him, changing his default settings from one who used to delight in unrighteousness but now craves to please God, even if he struggles to figure out how. Paul tells the believers in Corinth: ‘Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.’ [10:13]

He writes to Titus: ‘…the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age. [2:11-12]

The gospel bears a certain fruit in a person that is obvious to all who knew such a person before he received Christ. Paul was not happy with some of the believers in Corinth. He told them, “I am afraid that when I come I won’t like what I find, and you won’t like my response. [2 Cor 12:20]. Yes, I am afraid that when I come again, God will humble me in your presence. And I will be grieved because many of you have not given up your old sins. You have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure.’‘ They were like dogs, returning to their vomit! So in concluding his letter to them, he tells them:

Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit? [2 Cor. 13:5]

With the understanding of the work of God in the believer, God insists:

‘Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness…They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. [Eph. 4:17-24]

Paul told the Galatians:

For you have been called to live in freedom [from the law], my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. [5:13 & 24]

1 John sounds so harsh when you read it in the light of condemnation. But if you understand the fruit the gospel bears in a believer, it makes all the sense that John says you cannot claim to be in Christ and love sin too. He says ‘no one who abides in Him [who remains united in fellowship with Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin. No one who habitually sins has seen Him or known Him [3:6, AMP]. We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them’ [5:18].

This piece is not meant to discourage you, especially if you genuinely love the Lord but struggle in certain areas. Not at all. It is meant to encourage you rather, to know that the Lord is doing a work in you, no matter how gradual. He came for the sick, and I’m yet to meet a person who waits rather to get better from an illness before approaching a doctor. If you’ll keep running to Him, He’ll fix you one piece at a time till you look back and realise how much of a difference He has made in your life. ‘We were given a hope when we were saved, and we look forward to that hope. And the Spirit  helps us in our weakness. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself.’ Romans 8:26, 31-33

Be encouraged saint! You never stopped being the apple of His eye!

Love,

⭐ RAD ⭐