Christian Living

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AMAZING GRACE

One of the greatest things that ever happened to humanity is the grace of God. It is free. It is abundant. It is accessible. It is not meritorious but there is disaster looming in the horizon. Many have used the platform of grace to dwell in sin. The scripture bemoans this in Romans 6:1: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” God forbid!” The big question is, “Why should we, who have been saved from sin still live in it?” Like grace, God’s love is free but many will slide into hell on the wings of love. That God, in His infinite love, is willing and ready to forgive us does not give us the luxury to live in sin. The big problem here is that many will miss heaven while sitting in the church. Sure, going to church and attending fellowships are great but we must live the life.
When Moses showed up to save the children of Israel from bondage, the devil began to target his life even while he was still in the womb. However, God won. When the Lord Jesus Christ was sent to come and die for our sins, the devil stood at the grave to stop His resurrection but He came forth in power and majesty. Yea, when Jesus was born, the devil wanted to finish Him as a child but God was many steps ahead of him, Satan. When the love of God was preached to the saving of the souls of people, the devil stepped in and told them to continue in sin because God understands - He loves them forever. Now that the floodgate of grace is open, the devil is telling man that he could remain in sin so that grace may abound. The Bible says that you are not ignorant of the devices of the devil. If you were, this should be an eye opener for you. Yea, Truth travels with lie on its tail – the evil one weaves lies around the Truth in order to deceive many.
What the evil one did not tell man is that the wages of sin is death, Romans 6: 23. Yea, he does not tell man that the same God who made heaven also made hell and that hell is expanding by the second. He will not tell man that the wicked shall be turned to hell and all the nations that forget God, Psalm 9: 17. He will not tell man that he will not plant sin and reap righteousness. One thing we should remember is that the only thing that alienates man from God is sin. Therefore, to toy with sin in whatever form or shape will be an expensive mistake – too costly to contemplate. The Lord’s command is, ‘Let all that name the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’ Yea, the devil does not remind man about this.
When the scripture was talking about one of the sins, the one that has held almost half of the world in captivity, it says, “…flee fornication.” It did not say, “Run away form fornication.” Nether did it say, “Walk away form fornication.” It says, “Fly away.” Do not condone it or connive with it. Do not give it a toehold or it will take the whole body. To make matters worse, the media is not helping us in this matter. It paints all kinds of “beautiful” pictures around it to deceive many. As we fly away from fornication, we should also escape form other sins.
I have heard some men and women of God speak in favor of Grace. Sure, nothing beats Gods’ grace but the conclusion of their talk seems to say, “Guys, go ahead with that sin because the grace of God is there for you. It’s right there in the holy book, it’s free, and you can go as many times as you choose to ...” One big problem with this kind of teaching is that it saps the children of God of the will to fight and stand firm for what they believe. When this comes from respected men and women of God, one begins to wonder. It sends the wrong signal to young believers. It is like, “Yield your members to sin for the grace is there for you.” As we said, the grace of God is awesome but not when we sacrifice it on the altar of abuse. Any person that takes it for granted pays a very high price for so doing.
If we think that God did not love the cities of Sodom and Gomorra, we may be making a huge mistake. If we think that God simply chose Noah and showed him mercy, neglecting all the other people of his time, we may be saying that God shows partiality. The truth is that the love and grace of God is equal to all of us but by the decisions and choices we make, we attract or repel it. Yea, it is free but you must go for it one way or another.
Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This means that God’s glory is on all His people but by obeying or disobeying Him, we brighten or reduce the brightness of that glory. Thus, the deeper we sink in sin, the further we drift away form Him and the more His glory in us goes dim. Even as we live in sin, God’s great desire is for us to come back to Him so that He will clean us and empower us to live the life He wants us to live. He waits for each person until the person rejects that grace unto death - until he or she dies. Because there is no repentance in the grave, the person severs his or her relationship with God, eternally.
Man has nothing in himself that can clean the smallest stain of sin. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sins, 1John 1:7 and 9. All you need to do is go to Him for the cleansing. It is free. Thus, Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith. We do not merit it. It is free so we won’t become proud thereby denying God the praises due Him. Yea, grace may be free but it is not cheap. Therefore, do not play with it. You may lose it. Because it is free, you must handle it will extreme care. The reason many people will perish under grace is that they will take it for granted.
People tend to misuse or abuse what they did not pay for, what did not cost them something. That people will perish under grace sounds strange but it is true. That was the undoing of Esau and his birthright. This story can help us grasp the message I am trying to put across.
Some years ago, I was teaching in my hometown. I saw that many of the students were not doing well in mathematics. After investigating as to the cause of the problem, I discovered that they had a very poor background on the subject. I decided to be giving the younger ones free classes every evening. For the first few weeks, only a few students attended. In the same building where I was teaching the evening program, one of my friends Eddy was teaching the senior student. He charged money for the classes and he always had more students than he wanted.
One evening after classes, I explain my dilemma to him. I told him that I do not understand why he who charged money had more students than I who did not charge a dime. He smiled one of his funny smiles and told me that I was making a mistake. He stressed the point that if I wanted more students, I should ask them to pay for it. It did not make sense to me. I told him that everyone needs money but I wanted to do it as my little investment in the lives of the kids. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away. The point I should not forget to make is that both of us are from the same town and were teaching in the same school. I decide to try his idea.
The following day, I told the students that I would be taking some money for the classes. To my greatest surprise, they agreed and started bargaining as to how much each of them would be paying each month. The amount they agreed on was far above what I would have asked for if given the chance to decide but don’t forget that I went out to do it free, on ‘gracia.’ That was only the beginning of the surprise. The following evening, almost all the students were there and many of them came with their money. As I am writing these lines, I have not fully understood it though a picked a few lessons from there. I have not been able to balance the equation.
After the class, Eddy walked up to me and asked what happened. I told him that we agreed on an amount of money each person should be paying every month. He beamed that funny smile again and said, “I told you.” With that, he walked away. My huge lesson from that is that people rarely fully appreciate what does not cost them something. Perhaps, that may be the reason why King David said that He does not give anything to God that did not cost him something. He knew the value of each thing He gave to God. He did not give to fulfill all righteousness. I hope the grace of God does not cost you heaven because many people will lose it on that ground – they may take it for granted because it is free.
To get the full impact of what we are talking about, read Hebrews 12:11-17. I hope it will speak to you as it spoke to me. It says, “… Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble. And by this, many become defiled; Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” For emphasis, read 2Corinthians 6:1.
While some may fall from grace, the scripture encourages us to grow in grace, 2Peter 3:18. Also, read Jude 4-6. (If you could read Jude 1- end, that would be great).
The case of Esau is the case of many professing children of God. He was already in trouble with many other sins. He was not careful as to what to say yes to or what to say no to. He took his birthright for granted perhaps because it was free. Your salvation is free. You did not pay a penny for it. Because Esau’s birthright was free, he thought he could easily swap it for a plate of food. Do not exchange the grace of God for a tiny piece of lie; do not exchange your boy friend or girl friend for your salvation. Before you play with any sin, be informed that it is God’s awesome promises to you that you are playing with. Above all, you are trying to exchange heaven for what does not matter at all. Yea, some believers are in the habit of falling into sin and crying to God for forgiveness. They have done this until it became a habit. To cry to God for forgiveness is okay but when it becomes monotonous, the tears will lose their meaning before God. Do remember that Esau cried bitterly for his birthright unfortunately, he did not get it. That happened to be when something was really, really at stake. The Devil will never tell you what you are about to lose when he is dancing around your mind with his game plans. Therefore, you must be very careful when some thoughts come to romance your mind. Be spiritually intelligent enough to guess who is on the line.
Read about the ten virgins at your convenient. Five were serious with their salvation but five were tossing it around as if it worth nothing. When the Bridegroom showed up, one set was ready and waiting while the other group was not ready. Sure, they knew where they blew it. They went and made amends but it was forever, forever too late. The Bible calls them the foolish virgins, Matthew 25: 1-13. The main point of that parable was for us to watch. We cannot be watching and playing games at the same time. It is a very dangerous gamble.
The scripture says that Christ is coming for a spotless Church - you and me. Yea, the scripture says that God is holy and without holiness, no eye shall see Him. However, what does 1John 1:8 say, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Then, wherein lies your righteousness, your holiness? What happens is that in the multitude of your sins, you must go to God through Jesus Christ for cleansing. When you repent, confess and forsake you sins, you are washed and made clean in the blood of the lamb. At this point, you are not only cleaned from your sins, you are free from the punishment you should have suffered because of them, why because of the price Christ paid for you on the cross - where the holy one died for the unholy and the guiltless for the guilty. By this act, you have the holiness and the righteousness of Christ in you, 1Corinthians 1:30. Indeed, you are sanctified, purified and made one with God. When these and more take effect in you, the Lord sees you as a brand new creature, 2Corinthians 5:17. All these become yours by faith, because you believe in the son of the living God, Jesus Christ - you believe in the work He did on the cross for you and for me. This simple gesture sets Christianity apart from some theories we are fed by way of how to make peace with God. Above all, you are changed from inside out and you know that you have eternal life as you continue to live by the word.
From the time you became a new man or woman, your walk with God begins. Your race to heaven starts. You cannot get to the end of this journey successfully by playing around with sin. Yea, you can stumble in a few places along the way but when a mistake is repeated time without number, it becomes a deliberate act, a premeditated offence. If you are waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ, you cannot afford to live that way. It may prove disastrous.
The real danger in playing hide and seek with sin, for a believer, is that he thinks he is saved without knowing he is lost yet grace has not lost its efficacy. Hear what Jesus himself said in Matthew 7:16-23, “…Not everyone that says to me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that does the will of my father which is in heaven. Many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in your name have cast out devils? And in you name done many wonderful works? And then will I say unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU. DEPART FROM ME YOU WORKERS OF INIQUITY.” Do not forget that these people did great things in the name of the Lord but there was a big but. They nullified all those great deeds by the way their lived. Yea, no man has the power to do miracles. The Lord has. They failed in the only field they were supposed handle – their works. At another place, the Lord told His disciples that their righteousness must exceed that of the unbelievers. The good news is that there is no sin, which people have not overcome through the power in the blood of Jesus Christ - no sin, not one. In this race and in God, you do not get the strength to win until you begin to fight. The truth is that we do not know the power we possess because it Christ that lives through us – if we let Him. Enormous power is available to each of us. See Luke 12:35-40.
It seems to me that the Church is streaming down the route to ‘Phariseeism’ - do what I say, not what I do. This is not what Jesus designed the Church to be. The church is a forced that turns the world upside down by the excellence of their lives. The Lord did not mix words in condemning the Pharisees. He desires that your light should shine so that men and women can see Him through you. This cannot happen by hoping into sin today and hoping out tomorrow and back into the same sin or another the following day. You are an ambassador for the Lord and your actions are not hidden from the unbelievers around you. If the speakers tell you that you are free but deep in you, you know you are in chains, who should you believe? Better believe yourself and go to the Lord who can set you free. His word is clear on this, “If the son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed, Luke 11:35. The scripture sounds a note of warning and caution, “Therefore take head that the light in you is not darkness.”
You that say, do not steal, do you steal? The Lord commands you to allow your light shine so than people will see YOUR GOOD WORKS and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Thus, if the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. There is no way your light can shine when you move one step forward and two steps backward.
We know that the grace of God was poured out unto the great Apostle Paul. It was unto him that the Lord specifically said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness…,” 2Corinthians 12:9. Yea, the promise is also to you but did Paul go and sit back, resting on his oars, no. He knew he was in a race. He knew he was at war. Do not lose yourself on the assumption that the battle is over. Sure, the battle is won but not over. The great Apostle knew it so well. God had given him the assurance that He was there for him in his weakness but hear what Paul said in 1Corinthian 11:24-27, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it… Therefore I run thus; not with uncertainty. THUS, I FIGHT: not as one who beats the air. BUT I DISCIPLINE MY BODY AND BRING IT INTO SUBJECTION, LEST, when I have preached to others, I MYSELF SHOULD BECOME DISQUALIFIED.”
Paul knew full well that many preachers would be disqualified. They will be disqualified not because they did not do the work but because they did it and lived in sin at the same time. Yea, they did the job but their works were works of iniquity – they lost because their works were against the word of the Lord. Yea, by their actions, they became ineligible for the Kingdom. You read it in a few paragraphs above. Paul knew some would fight without strength in their purpose. He did not want to be among them. One sad truth is that among the people of God today, we have more speakers than preacher. When a speaker ends his or her talk, the audience rises with smiles on their faces and exchange handshakes and pleasantries. On the other hand, when a preacher ends the message, the congregation is filled with meditation and some cry as tears flow freely. What is the difference between the two? One says what the people want to hear while the other gives the message God gave to him or her. One appeals to the brain, the other to your spirit-man. One talks you into heaven; the other talks you out of it. When a speaker talks, people can whisper and even exchange kisses in the church but when a preacher speaks, everyone is deep in thought. A point we should not fail to make here is that the Church is not a theater where one could touch, kiss or do whatever appeals to you. It is a house of prayers. I can’t imagine you kissing or doing any odd thing in a board meeting. They may be considered officially delinquent but in the House of God, you went to meet with the Creator of the universe.
I can hear someone thinking, ‘this is an old school but what does the Holy Book say, “Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, AND ASK FOR THE OLD PATH, where the good way is, AND WALK IN IT, then you will find rest for your souls. But they say, ‘WE WILL NOT WALK IN IT.” The good news is that the old book is forever true. One thing is certain; one road leads to life but the other lead to eternal destruction. That you do not believe it does not change a thing. It is up to you to choose where you want to be. The great thing about walking with God is that provisions have been made for everything you may need. Even as you move unto perfection, if you stumble and fall, you have an Advocate with the Father, 1 John 2:1-5. This service is for those who do the will of God not for those who live in sin. If you obey Him but fail somewhere along the way, He pleads on your behalf. If you decide to be a hardcore unrepentant sinner by repenting today and going back to sin tomorrow – in quick successions, that provision is not for you until you repent and decide to walk with Him, to obey Him.
The Apostle Paul called to the people of his time to follow him even as he followed the Lord Jesus Christ. This statement will be hard for many preachers to say but the speakers will tell you it is not realistic. They will try to rationalize it away. The question should be, ‘Why should Paul have the temerity, the audacity, the impetus to make such a mind boggling statement? The reason is that he was living the life. This does not mean that he did not have temptation. No. He had more than his fair share of temptations. It does not mean that he did not have needs. Sure, he had needs as each of us. Yea, he had some great times too but in all, he had one resolution, to live the life he was called to live - to make it past the finish line.
One truth we must embrace is that when you are in tune with God, you know He is there because His presence is always with you. Sometimes in a critical situation, you may ask, “Dad, but where are you?” It may seem as if He is not there but when you allow the clouds that becloud you vision pass, you will not only hear Him, you can feel His presence around you. To some, He comes in that soft still voice; to others He shows His presence like a cold mild breeze from the freezer. In the midst of the storm or in the midst of plenty, you know He is there for you.
When Paul was at the end of the road, he made one striking statement that is hard for some to understand, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness…” 2Timothy 4:7-8. Paul was not in heaven when he said this. He was wearing flesh like you and I. No living soul can say that unless he knows that he has lived the life. You cannot say this by playing hide and seek with sin. If you wait until you get to the gate of heaven to know if you will be allowed in or not, you may never get in. God expects your light to shine. Nothing douses or extinguishes your light but sin. Make no mistake about this; the shining of your light is not for you. No. It is for others to see Jesus in you and come to Him (Song-can the world so God in you).
I was attending a fellowship somewhere. The preacher raised a series of questions. One of then was, ‘Who among you have no sin? Among, between 400-600 people present, only one person raised his hand. The person at the altar peered at him and said, ‘I’ll like to have a word with you later.” Whatever that was supposed to mean, I do not claim to know. That is the stage where we are. Some do not know whether they are free or not while others know that no one is tree. If the later is the case, what are people doing in the house of God? They tell us that all of us are sinner; we cannot run away from our weaknesses - it is like a cat and its tail. What a blindfold!! What does the Lord say? The reason the son of God was made manifest is to destroy all the works of the enemy, and whoever the Son sets free the person is free indeed. If you are a slave to sin, brother, you are not free. Sister, if there is a sin that commands you around, you are not free. Know this here and now. You can be set free through the blood of Jesus Christ. You must accept this by faith but faith needs work to worth its salt. We may have time to talk more about faith and grace but be it known to us that everything we may ever get from God must be by faith - forgiveness of sin, grace, peace, healing and what have you. To learn more about your purification and redemption from sin, see the following place: James 4:7-10 Hebrews 9:13-14, 2timeothy 2:21-23; Titus 2:11-15 and 1 Peter 1:17-25.
After the Lord Jesus Christ completed the work of redemption, He went back to heaven. Besides the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, He gave different gift to people, Ephesians 4:11-15. Verses 12 and thirteen make it clear that the gifts are for the perfecting of the people of God. God’s ultimate goal for man, after the fall, is for us to attain perfection. The perfection cannot come by interpreting the scripture to suit us but by allowing Christ to live through us. God wants His people to operate at a level too high for the ordinary mind to comprehend. When the Apostle Paul said that, ‘it is no longer I that live but Christ lives through me” that was not a mere assertion. The longest sermon ever preached by Christ was the “sermon on the mount.’ The conclusion of that masterpiece is in Matthew 5:48. It states, “….you shall be perfect, just as you Father in heaven is perfect.” If perfection were not feasible, the Lord would not command it. Therefore, God demands perfection form each of us. To do otherwise is to live beneath our level.
Yea, your speakers will tell you to forget perfectionism. The devil uses this to hold them in chains even as they ‘serve the Lord.’ Right from the Garden of Eden, the devil has been fighting to thwart the purposes of God and he uses any instrument that makes himself or herself available, even our great speakers and some preachers. They tell you that you cannot by perfect but God says you can. In 2Corinthians 13:5-14, the scripture says, “… For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. For we are glad, when we are weak and you are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection … Finally, brethren, farewell. BE PERFECT, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you …” Moreover, Philippians 3:15-17 says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded …” In these places and more, the Lord is not talking to people in heaven. He is talking to all of us. If you wait to get to heaven before you become perfect, you may not be there. The problem is not so much in our inability to attain perfection but in our unwillingness to resolve to reach there. Some of us have decided to flow with the world and allow God come behind us. Like Apostle Paul, we refuse to discipline our body or to control our mind.
Sure, the arm of flesh shall fail you. You cannot make it on your own. Depend on your Savior and He will take you safely home. Remember that without holiness you cannot see Him. A complete and TOTAL SURRENDER to the Lord can take you there – it can make you live over sin. The great problem here is that we allow God to take a greater part of our lives while we leave a tiny piece for the devil. This is the blunder of our age. That very, very tiny liven we left for Satan spoils the whole lot. WE must know this truth or we will end up dancing to the tune of the devil. The evil one will do everything to stop us from embracing this all time truth. God needs all part of you. He does not want to share you with anything or anybody. You may be familiar with this phrase, ‘I’m married to Christ.’ No sane man likes to share his wife with anybody and no woman likes to share her husband with anyone. They may be willing to share or even give away anything but when it comes to that one, it becomes a no go area. Yea, the Bible says that God is a jealous God. You are too special to Him. Do not underrate yourself. He loves you more than words can tell. Therefore, do not play around with sin. Thus, if you small finger will cost you heaven, cut it off. That is what God says to you. Do not give the devil chance to rejoice over you. You cannot be holy without being perfect and without holiness; we cannot see Him. It is only in Christ that sinners become saints. It is in Him that we become heirs to the throne. Nothing can take that birthright away from us but sin.
I cannot forget the first few years when we decided to walk with the Lord. We were all young boys and girls (now young men and women). We were bolder than a thousand lions. We were preaching the good news to the poor, the rich and everyone in-between. We were speaking against all manner of sin. Each of us knew, without any doubt that if we died, we were for heaven why because we were living out the word. The faith was there and the works were there. We were living the life. Above all, the Lord was manifesting Himself in various ways - healing the sick, changing lives, delivering the oppressed and so on. One great thing about those days was that in all the awful oppositions we faced, none of us lost his or her life; none of us suffered hunger. It was amazing.
It was only when we became older and we allowed reason and wisdom of men to creep in that we began to slow down. They did dilute our zeal. In deep reflection, sometimes, I begin to think that it happened in a different age yet I am not as old as you may think, not over fifty. The decisions some of us took in those days are the things that have kept us going. The bottom line is that you can live without sin, right here on earth. I am a witness. It all depends on you. The spiritual and physical resources to do it are right there with you. Do not allow any man or woman deceives you. That your pastor refuses to live a holy life, in no way says you cannot. Yea, Judas Iscariot was among the Apostles but he was a thief. Neither all the preaching he heard direct from the Master nor all the miracles he saw as able to save him – because he hardened his heart unto death. Do not forget that at the end of the road, the man stands alone. You will stand before the throne of God to give an account of the life God loaned you. You pastor cannot stand with you. Your priest will stand and answer for himself.
Job’s friends were convinced of two things. Two things they knew and could prove with hundreds of empirical data. First, there is no way a fish could be in water and deny touching water. In other words, they were saying that Job had no power to lay claim to perfection. Job’s friends were echoing the teaching of Satan that no man or woman can be perfect, holy, upright or righteous. The secret power of this teaching is that it gives you an invisible authority to go ahead and live in sin. It drives the power to say no far away from our heart. Secondly, they were saying that whatever happened to Job was because of his sins. This point they could prove with hundreds of examples. On the other hand, they were ignorant of two things. First, they did not know that God had approved Job as perfect man - without grace. Secondly, in all they said, they failed to point a finger at Satan. No mention was made about the real cause of Job’s troubles. You can now see why the world tries to convince you that Satan or the Devil does not exist. All they were saying was that God did everything that happened to Job. Whenever you begin to consider whether the Devil exists or not, you are already his victim.
On Job’s part, he was saying “Listen guys, I don’t really get what you’re saying. I know my walk with God. I know I have lived the life. I know I’m upright before God. God is my witness. I know I’ve lived a holy life before Him. I know … I know …” If it were in the time of Stephen, Job would be lying under a heap of stones, in the next hour. Why, man has bought the lie of the devil that no one can be perfect. Yea, the truth they knew was that no one could live a holy life. The priests and the people were living in sin under this teaching that had come to stay. Job might have added, “I know that if I die, I’ll see God; I’ll go to heaven, yea, I’ll see God face to face….”
His friends might have said, “There he goes again. Going to heaven is not as easy as it sounds. It takes some very serious … Well, nobody is sure. Who told you, you can live in this sin-laden world without committing sin…” Thus, in the book of Job, God was saying that man must stop deceiving himself - that no man born of woman can live without sin. While Job’s friends were speculating, Job was saying what he knew. For all that happened to Job, God may have deeper reasons why He allowed them to happen besides what we may think or feel.
What made Job’s life victorious was that he yielded totally, totally to God. His service and walk with God did not depend on what we can see. They did not depend on his wealth, peace, children or whatever. One verse in the book of Job never fails to shake me to my bones. After he was told that ALL he had was gone, he bowed down and WORSHIPED God. I was waiting to read something like this, “He fell down and wept; he fainted and was taken to the hospital; he did not talk for days; he tore his clothes and began to question God …” For Job to bow down and worship God in the face of what happened to him was far beyond me. How could a man with flesh and blood do that kind of thing? Job could do that because he yielded completely to the will of God. If it only his wealth that was gone, one could manage it but the lives of all his children were also gone. No one was left to give him consolation except his wife who came around with something less than comfort.
In the attempt to croon himself to sleep in the pit of sin, man will hang on the argument that none can be righteous. Listen carefully, if we cannot attain righteousness, it means that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is in vain. We are fast to remember that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God but we refuse to remind ourselves that God is holy and without holiness, no eye shall se him. The serious aspect of it is that we are getting ready to go to heaven and we tend to forget that no person with “wrinkle or spot” will enter it. Nothing wrinkles you and nothing puts spots on you but sin.
The truth about the age of grace is to prove that man can live without sin but the devil wants us to believe the opposite. This is the reason behind the mystery of baptism. In baptism, we come out to show friends and foes that we are dead to sin and alive to Chris - alive to righteousness. If you are dead to sin, it means that you are not supposed to sin anymore, but the problem here is that many people that are still alive to sin are often buried in baptism. That is a disaster and a blunder in Christendom. A look at Romans Chapter six will give us a preview of what it means to baptize a person.
The believers in Jesus Christ were first called Christian at Antioch. They did not get the name from fellow believers but from those that did not believe. These people saw that the lives of the believers were something out of the ordinary. They could not help it but confirm that they were ‘little Christs’ (Christians) - Christ like. They did not say it to please the believers but to confirm the truth that was boiling in them. Left with the unbelievers, they would have called them any bad name imaginable but the lives of the believers left them confounded and dumbfounded. The way you live tells who you are. You may claim to be anything but your life says it all. The bottom line is that those believers were living the life. Their people could see Christ through them. Let no man deceive you. When you are living the life the Lord called you to live, you will know it and the people around you will testify to it. Yea, they may castigate you for some time, but be consistent in Christian living, you are bound to win them for the Lord. What we say tell people about the gospel but how we live does much more than that. The scripture says that the spirit of God bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. If that witness is not present, something is seriously wrong somewhere.
A person sold to fornication cannot rise and fornicate when he is dead. The most beautiful woman on earth cannot arouse him. Thus, the Bible says, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Romans 6:2. The scripture calls you a living sacrifice. What it means is that everything in you belongs to God. Because of this, when you are forced to go one mile, you can follow them one extra mile. Alternatively, when one slaps you on the right cheek, you would allow the person slap you on the left cheek. The best brains in the “churches” will tell you that these are proverbs but you know that there is nothing proverbial about it. There are no hidden meanings to any of the above. For instance, a person you used to wallop when you were an unbeliever began to abuse you when you became a Christian. Perhaps, he challenged you to a duel. All you did was simply smile at him. As if that was not enough, he gave you a kick somewhere. You smiled again and walked away. You are simply living out the word. It takes a totally, truly yielded child of God to obey those words, to be a living sacrifice unto the Lord. You are all out to do what the word says, no plus no minus. When the Lord was being taken to the cross to be crucified, they did many things to Him. But like a lamb led to the slaughter, He opened not His mouth. He was a living sacrifice.
Many “Christians” do not take “any nonsense” from anybody. Give them a hard look; they will give you a hand blow. Give them a slap; they will use a sword on you. We have not so learnt Christ, brethren. Check the spirit in you whether it is really the spirit of Christ. All you did in the few sentence above is because you are relying on the erroneous belief that you are under grace – you can fight him or her and ask for forgiveness later because the grace is there for you. What a deception! If being under grace is a license to sin, the Bible did not say so. This is what God demands from us, “…. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God…” Romans 12:1-2.
The scripture says that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. This is great news. Does this mean that you continue in sin so that grace may abound some more? God forbid. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? What this means is that there is no amount of sin, no matter how big or high we think it is that the grace cannot overlook when we go to God for forgiveness. God’s grace is more than enough to forgive you when you go to Him in repentance. Do not let any person fool you or lead you astray. The power in the blood of Jesus Christ is able to break the power of any sin in your life. But after we are forgiven, the Lord says, ‘Go and sin some more!’ Eh? You know better. HE SAYS, “GO AND SIN NO MORE.” It is an instruction. It is an order. It is a command. It is not a proverb. It does not need an interpreter. Anything to the contrary is disobedience. It does not matter who tells you the opposite. His word says, ‘Go and sin no more, not go and sin some more.’
I know a “professor of mixology.” He used to mix one of the best wines in town. When he first heard the gospel, that the Lord Jesus Christ was ready and willing to save him from his sins, he came to the church. He did not pretend that he was what he was not. He told the pastor his field of specialization. The pastor did not hesitate to tell him that all of us were once slaves to one thing or another. The pastor encouraged him to keep coming to fellowship that God would take care of it if it became a problem. After a few weeks, the young man dropped his kegs and bottles in total surrender to God. When asked why he did that, he said that he could no longer stand the smell of the strong drink. As I am writing these lines, the young man in question is not only a strong Christian; he is a minister of the gospel, a pastor to be precise. Don’t let them ‘misschool’ you. Don’t let them fool you. The power in the blood of Jesus Christ is still as powerful as it was in the day of the Apostle, in changing lives to the glory of God. The power to change lives is the greatest difference between Christianity and any religion or philosophy. God is still at work. He is always there to change any life that needs to be changed. It all depends on each of us. He is ready and waiting. He wants you to come and receive ‘a heart transplant’ that can enable you live to your fullest potential in the world and in the Lord, to His glory.
We made mention of baptism. Let us give it a little exposition, as it is pivotal to this point. Baptism is such a colossal teaching that more than 90% of those that ever went through that ceremony did not understand its mystery. It is a testimony that you are dead while you are alive. You are dead to the desires of the flesh, Galatia 4:19-22. You are dead to all kinds of sin. You are dead to anything that may come to take you away from God...
Think about any person and his or her passions in life. The moment the person dies, he or she is dead to his or her passions. If his great desire was to get money, shake a shipload of unalloyed gold coins in his ears when he is dead. He would not as much as know it is there. King David was a person who had eyes for beautiful women. When he was hanging on the edge of the grave, the most beautiful girl in the land was brought to him. He did not lay a finger on her. Yea, he was not dead at that time but he knew that such things do not matter anymore – to a heaven minded person. It was infinitesimally minute to the case at hand, heaven. He set his eyes on the journey home. He knew that the journey home called for serious issues. Unfortunately, some children of God who claim to be waiting for the rapture are more active in sin than those who never knew baptism. Are we trying to change the word or are we making fools of ourselves?
Let no man deceive you. The power to live the life God called you to live is ready and waiting. Do not let any person tell you that you cannot live a holy life. There is no manner of sin that man has not overcome by the power in the blood of the lamb. Resolve not to fall and by His grace you will not. Herein lies the power of grace. If by any means you slip, the grace will be there for you but do not meddle with sin based on grace, you will lose. Jesus Christ is able to keep you from falling. He is still in the business of changing lives. Do not remain a half-backed Christian or you will lose out for a half believer is an unbeliever.
One day, the Lord was teaching His disciple the principles of the kingdom. Some of them began to leave because they felt it was a hard teaching. Yea, even some of the Apostles were not at ease with the teachings. Jesus asked them if they would also leave. They said no because He had the word of eternal life. The road to heaven may be a joyful one but it is not always easy. Thus, the Lord says, “enter by the narrow gate. Squeeze in; fight to enter. The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.” Christianity does not use force to spread rather; it uses the great lives of the adherents. The Apostle Paul often typifies our journey as a fight. Fight your way through. Fight the good fight of our faith and take hold of eternal life. The weapon of your warfare is not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds ... You do not pull down strongholds sitting at the beach with a cup of wine in hand. You must do battle. Yet your battle is on your knees, in the spirit.
This is the reason Jesus told His disciple not to leave Jerusalem or preach in His name until the Holy Spirit, the Comforter came. When the spirit came on them, they began to change the world, starting form each of them whom the spirit had changed from inside out. We do not have time to go into the argument as to whether the spirit is for us or just for the old disciples. The truth is that if the spirit stopped with the old Christians, the gospel would have ended with them because without the power of the Holy Ghost behind the word, the Gospel is worthless. Well, a look at Acts 2:39 can help us understand this the more. You need the Holy Spirit to do battle in every area of your life especially to overcome sin. You cannot do it on your own and if you do not live above sin, your salvation is in serious jeopardy. It is foolhardy to believe you are going to heaven in a pool of sin. It does not work that way.
Let us restate that we are saved to be free. We are not saved to be enslaved. Salvation is not suffocation. It is freedom in all ramifications. The Apostle Paul painted a good picture of this in his struggle against sin in Romans 7: 24. Yea, by grace are we saved not of works lest any man should boast. Sure, even before we embraced the grace of God, while we were yet in sin, Christ died for us. Paul was saved in his fight against sin through his faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Yea, grace is free. Salvation is for all but they cannot become yours until you go for it in faith. Therefore, grace like every other divine gift lean heavily on faith. We claim the forgiveness of our sins by faith. We claim the promise that Jesus lives in us by faith. We claim healing by faith. Our walk with God is so full of faith that anything we do without faith is not pleasing to God.
However, there is a little twist to faith. James 2:14-26 gives us the life-wire of the almighty faith. The scripture says, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, AND BY WORKS FAITH WAS MADE PERFECT? And the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rehab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? FOR AS THE BODY WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS DEAD, SO FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD ALSO.” Note that the Apostle and Elder James was neither talking to unbelievers nor people under the law. He was talking to blood-bought, spirit-filled men and women under grace.
Faith has no meaning without works. The scripture says that your work go with you. Among everything you have on earth, the only thing that goes with you to the other side of life is your works. Grace plants your feet on the Rock. When you are rooted in the Rock, He expects your light to outshine those of the unbelievers. He expects to see your works. Many times, we read Ephesians 2:8-9 and refuse to or fail to read verse 10. If we end at verse nine, they tend to say, work is not necessary in our race but hear what verse ten says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.” God created us for good works, not for grace. Grace came because man failed. Grace should not come in as the desert and end up as the main food. There is no part of the scripture where we can see sin as good work. It does not qualify as part of good work, no!
If you are charged with smoking cigarette, sure, you have an Advocate with the Father. He comes to plead on your behalf when you repent and promise not to do it again. Note that He does not defend you until you are sorry for what you did. Be it written at the back of your mind that the Lord does not forgive you until you repent, seriously repent. For the smoker we are talking about, Jesus will not stand as your advocate when you have a stick of cigarette between your lips, with three packets in your pocket and a carton at home. If He defends you in that situation, He will deceive you. God is the author of truth. He is ready to save you to the uttermost when you stand out in faith to live the life.
Grace may be free but not cheap because if caused the King of glory His life. Do not receive the grace of God in vain. The grace is free but you are saved to do good works not to live in unfruitful works of darkness. 2Thessalonians 2:16-17 says, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.” Note the reference to grace and work (King James Version). Titus 3:4-8 tells us, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, THAT THOSE WHO HAVE BELIEVED ON GOD SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS. These things are good and profitable to men.” Again, note the reference to grace in verse seven and reference to good works in verse eight (KJV). Read the following places for emphasis: Hebrews 6:1-6; James 2:14-26; Rev. 3, and Rev. 14:13. Your works follow you.
It is the will of God to keep you without spot but do not drop yourself in the gutter of sin. There are decisions you need to take. There are things you must learn to say NO to. Jesus died to present you a spotless bride, Ephesians 5:25-27. He is willing and ready to keep you but not against your will. See 2Peter 3:13-14; 2Corinthians 7:1; and 1Thessalonians 4:7. God has not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness yet, several respected men and woman of God tell you that you cannot be holy. The truth is that some of them are out for their belly, Philippians 3:17-19. By watering down the standards of God, we have thousands of “churches” with millions on their way to hell - right in the “churches.” It seems as if the body of Christ is going the way of the Corinthian Church but we know that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church of the living God. Yea, some dedicated Preachers are out there doing great things for the Lord. Some great brethren are raising His banner high by living the life. More grease to your elbows!
To live out the call of God in your life, you must know who you are in God. If you could read these places and meditate on them that would be great: 1Peter 2:9-12; 1Corinthians 6:15-20; 1Corinthiajns 3:10-18; 2Coriathians 6:14-18.
In a short, short summary, TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN THINGS, says the Almighty God.


GRACE AND THE LAW
Many times, some of us under grace look at the law as if it is worthless. This, to my mind, is a mistake. One thing we should know is that sin cannot go unpunished be it under law or under grace. The only difference is that under grace, the Lord Himself paid the price for our sins. However, under the law, provision was made for the forgiveness of sins. There were sacrifices of different forms and shapes to deal with sin. While the blood sacrifices under the law covered those sins, the blood of the new covenant cleanses and washes the sins away.
In the old order, people took the sacrifices for granted. Their mind-set was “Go ahead and sin, all it will take is one sacrifice or two?” With times, even this abused privilege went down a pole and no one cared about sacrifices for sins. When man failed the law, God took a drastic measure to deal with sin once and for all. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be the last sacrifice for sin. With the sacrifice of His son, He ushered in the era of grace. What man did to the law is what he seems poised to do to grace.
The blood of the Passover lamb was symbolic of the blood of the new covenant. When Moses told the people of Israel to sacrifice the Passover lamb and smear the blood on their doorposts, if Egyptian had used the blood on his or her doorpost, the angel of death would not enter that house whether the person was an Egyptian, an Israelite or anybody from any place. On the other hand, if any Israelite had failed to do as Moses said, he or she would have suffered the same fate with the Egyptians.
In this age and time, the only thing that washes away sin is the blood of the new covenant - the blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross. Neither Science nor technology has any clue as to what we can use to wash away sins. Fortunately, they do not deny the existence of evil as they fight to deny the existence of the devil. But is it not strange to admit there is evil and deny the cause of the evil. It does not follow scientific ‘protocols.’ We know about the law of action and reaction but we want to deny the principle of cause and effect. However, we cannot have ‘effect’ without the cause of the effect. The good news is that almost all great scientists believe there is God. If anyone from any part of the world asks God for the forgiveness of sin based on the shed blood on the cross, the person receives instant forgiveness. He or she becomes holy, clean and blameless before God. This is the Good news. There is nothing you need to do to receive forgiveness of sins. All that is required is for you to be sorry for the wrong things you did. Ask God to forgive you based on the blood of the new covenant. After that, God expects to see you bear fruits worthy of your repentance. From this time, God begins to watch your actions as He did the brethren in Revelation chapters two and three.
When the scripture says that you are no longer under the law, but under grace, we should understand what it means. It means that those under grace live above what the law demands. Thus, the law to them is of little effect because they do more than the law requires. That is the excellence of grace and therein lies the power of the blood of the New Covenant. A thorough study of Mathew 5:18-48 will show you how high grace rises above the law. An example can help us understand it better. The law demands that one should not commit adultery. On the other hand, what is required of those under grace? The requirement is that if you look at a woman lustfully, you are guilty of adultery. Does that make sense? I know it does. Grace is more of the heart. If you can control the churning of your thoughts, you can control your actions. The Law talks about what we see but grace talks about what is inside you. We have been fed the idea that men are optically wired, sexually. How this conflicts with the scripture is right here for all to behold. Those optical activities are the thoughts that are left to run wild. We can see them in diverse activities we carry out. Sure, it’s no longer a man’s problem. It is seen among men and women but women are not so vocal about theirs. The truth is that it is a way the evil one wants to take you hostage.
Another example may not hurt us. The law says, “You shall not kill.” The new covenant grace says you shall not be angry with your brother or sister. This sounds way outside this world. Don’t let any man tell you that you are naturally hot tempered. The only cooling balm on this issue is in Ephesians 4:26 but it does not remove it all. Yea, the power of grace over the law is in Romans 6:14, “….Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace.” Here, grace does not give you the power to live in sin but to have dominion over it. Do not let anyone deceive you. Grace is for dominion over sin not slavery in sin. If you claim to be under grace while you are living in sin, it contradicts the word of God. Therefore, it cannot stand.
I have seen people defend the idea that no one can live without sin. The sad news is that these are confession ‘Christians.’ My question is, “Wherein lies our salvation or is it a myth?” The great problem here is that they pursue their case as if it is a right for them to live in sin. This strategy from the devil has kept many children of God from growing to “their full size” in God. Yea, grace is great but do not allow it degenerate into disgrace. Hear what God tells you in Romans 2:24, “For the name of the Lord is blasphemed, among the gentiles because of you …” When you claim that your sins have been washed away but you still live in them, who is fooling whom? Don’t continue to say you are under grace in the multitude of your sin. It is contradiction in terms. In Luke 3:8-9 the scripture says, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the tree. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” With grace in one hand and sin in the other, you nullity the grace of God poured on you – purchased at a great price. Yea, grace is wonderful but it does not share a common room with sin. Don’t begin to say to yourself, we are children of Abraham. By interpretation, don’t begin to say to yourself, we are under grace for the ax is at the root of any tree that does not bear good fruit – good works. Note that the ax is not at the stems or at the trunk but at the root. It may be uprooted completely. Do not be deceived.
Like the law, the freedom of many has made them free from the Lord. They become little gods unto themselves. See what 1John 2:1- 6 says. If we say we love him but fail to keep his commandment, we are liars. The epistles of John sound like the conclusion of the New Covenant. It emphasizes three points - repentance, forgiveness and living the life. All these and more need some action from the person. Unfortunately, many people have become runaway horses in the cloak of freedom. They become “Slaves” in the freedom Jesus Christ paid a great price to purchase for them. In the same vein, some throw the law away and become the devils prisoners in the guise of grace. The freedom that Christ bought you is great but do not use that freedom as an opportunity to sin, Galatians 5:13
On the premise that the law is no longer relevant, many people who are on their way to heaven have become so “intelligent” that they can explain away what they do that is in stack contrast to the scripture. Some have become so much like the world that there seems to be no difference between a believer and an unbeliever. They have very good “reasons” to do what the unbeliever do. Yea, some do them better than the unbelievers. Unfortunately, no reason can stand up to the word of God. We need to remind ourselves that with the finest “vision meter” of the time, Daniel’s enemies could not find fault with him yet he was not living in the age of grace. He was as ordinary as any of us. Do not make a shipwreck of your faith on the assumption that the law has been nullified. It is the devil’s trick to lure you back into sin. The law was not nullified but fulfilled - in the Lord. No place in the scripture encourages you to break the law – not the smallest part of the law.
There was a very brilliant lawyer. He never lost any case. He was ready to die for his clients. One day, one of his clients was convicted. He could not believe it. He found it too hard to swallow. After the judge read the sentence, the lawyer made one final plea. He asked the judge if he could continue to practice if he served the sentence for his client. Without thinking about it, the judge replied, “It’s on record. You did not commit the crime. Your client did. Therefore, you can continue to practice.” The lawyer went over and took the place of his client. The case made “Genius book of records.”
After serving on behalf of his client, the lawyer came out and started practicing again. In no time, the lawyer was made a judge. During his first case as a judge, many people went, not only to see the great lawyer-made-judge, but also to see how he would adjudicate, in his first case. The first case that came to him was a surprise to everybody that was present. It was the same man for whom he went to prison and over a similar case. When the man learnt that his lawyer-friend was the judge, he was very happy. He went to the same chamber and got a more brilliant lawyer to represent him.
His lawyer did a nice job but the judge came up with a shocker. He reminded the man that he went to prison for him over a similar case. He also reminded him of a tiny clause which says that he got mere prison terms because of the performance of his lawyer. He condemned the man to death. The court was silent for over five minutes. Nobody knew what to say because no one could believe what he or she heard. The judgment divorced all kinds of feeling from everybody present.
Jesus died that we may live. If we expect Him to come and die again so that we can continue to live in sin, we may be in for the greatest surprise of our life – a surprise we may not survive. Listen and listen aloud. In Hebrews 10:26, the Bible says, “…. If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sin.” This statement stands, grace or no grace because grace is no license to sin. See Hebrew 6:4-6, Deut. 17: 12, and 2Peter 2:20-22. He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He did not come to perpetuate it. Yea, He did not come to institutionalize it. After that great sacrifice, there is no other name given among men under heaven where by we may be saved, Acts 4:12. Therefore, handle your salvation with care. Handle your freedom with care. Do not take the grace of God for granted. If you do, you may look for it with tears but it may not be granted.
It is that either you are a child of God or you are not. There is no middle ground. Any disobedience to an iota of the word of God is a step to the valley of death. The only way out is to dust yourself off and go to God for forgiveness and do not return to the sin. Anything to the contrary is a war in futility but do not abuse this privilege. If you continue in sin so that grace may abound some more, you will be utterly disappointed – you will discover that grace is not your shoes or your cell phone, it is not a personal property. Remember that Adam and Eve did not get a second chance though they did not ask for it but Esau asked in tears but he did not go through. Our allegiance must be to the word not to whatever a man or woman says or feels. To grow in the Lord is to walk in His word. The more you read and obey, the faster you grow.


Written by:

By Anianwu Obinna Christian

Some of his manuscripts include,

• Your Hidden Treasure, God’s will for you
• Your family triangle
• Leadership, Essentials for Godly leaders
• The Earth sits on a time bomb
• The music of the mind
• Reflections without mirror. What is your life?
• Children’s book – Animal World Series etc.

A Short Message:

• If anyone can translate books in English into other languages (Korea, Japanese or Chinese, French), or if anyone knows a Christian Institution that can do so, let the person get in touch with me.
• Some Christian Publishers from America that want to publish some of the books are asking for what they call ‘author participation fee.’ If anyone would be kind enough to help by providing the fee or part of it, that would be greatly appreciated - to His glory. One of the publishers has sent the contract via courier service but nothing could be done without the author participation fee. Thanks.

Contact - Email: [email protected]
Anianwu Obinna Christian
c/o Anianwu Ikenna William
3318 Tienmann Avenue
Bronx
NY 10469

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