No Secrets to Keep -- No Shame needed to Keep You in Line!

Do you fear that a forever-clean slate that we receive by the blood of Jesus Christ will only induce license and reprobate conduct?

Let the Scriptures grant you peace:

"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

"I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." (Romans 6: 15-19)

We are now "slaves of righteousness." No matter what we do following our deliverance from death, hell, and the grave, we cannot lose our new standing before God the Father in Christ Jesus!

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6: 23); if we have received Christ, who is our life (cf John 14:6), then there is therefore no desire to go back to a life of sin.

Besides, grace is a gift from God.

All sin is unrighteousness, man's attempt by his own efforts to flee the emptiness of his life and maintain a right standard of conduct, both of which are doomed to failure, and to eternal damnation:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3: 16-18)

Before Christ enters our life by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are dead. We are dead in trespasses (cf Ephesians 2:1); we are doomed to die eternally. Only by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ are we saved, are we able to pass from death to life (cf John 5:24; 1 John 3:14), and not just life, but life, and that more abundantly (cf John 10:10)

If you do not believe on Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins through His death on the Cross, then you are "condemned already", a "dead man walking". John the Baptist was more forceful:

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. " (John 3:36)

No matter what man is trying to achieve, fun for himself or right standing before man and God, anything by his own efforts, through "the flesh", produces nothing but sin and death:

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

"Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

"Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)

Also, because we have received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15), we not only have right standing, we no longer have an innate desire to sin (though our unregenerated flesh will still war against the Spirit within us (cf Romans 7)), and God Himself put His laws into our hearts, and by the Holy Spirit we are able to walk in obedience -- by faith!

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;"

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)

Paul cites Habakkuk 2:4 many times throughout scripture, which reads:

"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."

"The just shall live by faith" -- We live not just by any ordinary, will-forced faith, but Christ's faith in us!

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)

Whether we sin wilfully or accidentally is not the point -- when we live by our own efforts, rather than by the power of the Holy Spirit, we then fall from grace.

If we have received so great a salvation, if we understand indeed that through Christ we have received all things, then there is no reason to sin! Why lie, when the Truth sets you free (cf John 8: 32)? Why steal, when your Father has cattle on a thousand hills? (cf Ps. 50:10) Why commit adultery, when God Himself is Love (1 John 4:16) Why covet, when He who is our helper will never leave us nor forsake us? (Hebrews 13: 5-6)

The point is clear -- sin becomes a fool's errand, especially for a believer, who upon realizing that Christ has accorded to everyone of us by grace through faith unsearchable riches!

The more that we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (cf 2 Peter 3:18), the more that the Holy Spirit moves within us, we are forever servants of righteousness, walking in the Spirit, fulfilling the law.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

"Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."
(Galatians 5: 22-24)

Our flesh has been crucified with Christ! We do not need to worry about keeping our flesh in line!

In fact, we are given a far more glorious mission:

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

But we receive the Kingdom of God as a gift!

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32)

When did we receive it? When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and received the Holy Spirit:

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

"For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men." (Romans 14:17)

Remember: in Christ you are the righteousness of God (cf 2 Corinthians 5:21), and peace and joy are fruit of the Holy Spirit, which He bears in us, which we receive by faith (Galatians 5: 22-23)

Is that all, then, to the Kingdom of God? Hardly!:

"Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." (Matthew 13:52)

So, sin not only has no dominion over the believer:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14)

And as members of the Kingdom of God (or Heaven, for the terms are interchangeable throughout the four gospel writers), we grow in our awareness and practice of the Grace of God that runs through us, around us, all over the world!

No need, no fear, no reason to try to get by, to get it on, or to get it right in our efforts!

No secrets, no shame, and no reason to wonder if you may fall out of line!

Hallelujah for the Lamb of God, for His Finished Work!

Are you ready to receive His grace?!