Christian Life

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The Bible says:

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load." (Gal 6:1-5)

As members of the same body of Christ, it is the duty of every believer to bear the burdens, especially the spiritual burdens of one another. However, we are not usually careful about two snares:

One, the temptation to feel superior and therefore do the good deed condescendingly and often nonchalantly.

Two, forgetting that we have our our filthy burden of sins.

Therefore, we are reminded that we must not only obey the Lord in doing good, but also to do it with grace and gentleness and respect, fully mindful that the object is also a joint-heir of our common heritage in Christ.

Further, while we sympathetically bear the loads (sins, infirmities, etc) of our brethren, we must responsibly continue to be fully aware of our own weaknesses too - and bear the load (repentance, humidity, holiness, etc), not ever imagining that we are yet perfected or superior to others.

Our sense of victory over sin should always be in ourselves alone and not by comparing ourselves with others who happen to be struggling in the area where we seem to have achieved victory. Remember the Pharisee praying in the temple comparing himself with the tax collector. In all these, know that despite your personal "victories", you only stand by grace, not your power.

It is well.

 

I strongly resisted the love of God for 39 years before I eventually got born again. One of the forces that empowered my resistance was my knowledge of the type of godly life Jesus would expect of me, devoid of sexual sins, lying, fraud, occultism, hardness of heart, etc. I loved and enjoyed practising these vices and therefore determinately stayed clear of Christ until He overpowered me by His love one fine day in 1995...

But now, what I see around me makes me wonder what is really going on. Professing Christian wives "grind mills" under strange men while their husbands too, are lulled to the sleep of death on the laps of modern-day Delilahs. Sunday school-attending students are steeped in fornication and examination malpractices including the purchase of both JAMB results and university admissions, paid for by their deacon/deaconess parents. The pastors too, not willing to be left behind in this ugly race, struggle among themselves in patronising divination oracles and fraudulent raising of money. We even have a song which says, "In the presence of God, anything goes!" Christ!!!

Was this this the Christianity I was resisting due to its high demand of holy living? Definitely not! Neither is it the Christianity of the Bible. It is simply the taking of liberty as an opportunity for licence. Oh no, I am not talking about "righteousness" via obeying the law of Moses. Yes indeed, we have liberty and we shall guard it jealously against all those who want to take us back to the bondage of Mt. Sinai. But, this liberty can never be an excuse for a life of sin. Remember, he who sins is of the devil.

But you would ask, "What about falling into sin? Oh, of course. While still physically alive in the flesh, we would fall into sin once in a great while. And, how so very much we hate such occurrences! How deeply repentant we are on such occasions! How very appreciative are we then that we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, so that whenever we fall into such calamity, we are opportuned to confess to God, who is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

LIVING IN SIN IS ALWAYS WRONG
Today, the lives of most of us are often that of living in sin, by which I mean desiring it, planning it, diligently executing the plan and thereafter gleefully boasting about the enjoyment of pleasures of iniquity. This is the practice of sin. With this, can we still claim to be born again when sin so much now has dominion over us contrary to our position in Christ? The word of the Lord is, "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is he who does not love his brother. (1 John 3: 10)

Let us turn a new leaf while it is still "day". Therefore, to every brother and sister, I say, let's clean up the mess.

It may even be that we were really never saved in the first instance. Glory be to God that there is still time to get saved - and there is always enough room at the Cross of Christ for every new penitent sinner who would come back home. Would you now repent of your sins and trust Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to keep you thereafter?

God bless you.

 

(John 13: 3- 10)

This rather popular scripture has been a veritable pillar in teaching about Christian humility and service right from the very beginning of the Church. However, the beautiful text also serves to illustrate the profound doctrine of spiritual salvation and subsequent Christian walk, as we shall now consider:

The experience of spiritual salvation can be likened to a perfect spiritual bath whereby all the moral filthiness of the person is washed away as he/she is admitted into the kingdom of God. This initial bath is once and for all.

If the person commits any (new) sin after the bath, he/she needs only to have the feet washed and the total cleanness is restored. There is no need for a complete "bath" again. The washing of the feet is analogous of the continual forgiveness and cleansing that our Lord Jesus effects in the life of every believer who confesses and repents of any sin he/she may fall into even as a child of God. (1John 1: 9)

The importance of the subsequent continual "washing" is stressed by Jesus Christ Himself as He warned Peter, "If I do not wash you, you have no share in me." We need to remember that this event was AFTER Peter and the others, were already disciples and ministers. Hence, it was not a reference to the initial new-birth "bath" experience.

So today, brother/sister, do you find yourself polluted with the dirt of any easily-besetting sin? Do not despair! Solution has already been provided. Only do not neglect to avail yourself of it. Just wash and be clean.

It is well.

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While the title may appear to give a sense of condemning whoever succumbs to temptation, the posit is not about condemnation but about the need to recognise that the buck of our lives stops with us. We must take full responsibility for our choices regardless of the difficulties that might face us while making those choices. The possibility of certain "grave" temptations may only be a reason for falling - never an excuse. The standard of sin is absolute, once defined, not relative. I have a great number of personal experiences where I succumbed to temptations (I dare say some of them were not even very great temptations yet I fell. lol) but in all these, I could not justify myself on the strength of the gravity of the temptation. I was only grateful that God's mercy was available. So it was of Him who keeps on showing mercy and not of us who have any "case to argue or prove" for failing on the ground that the exam was too tough.

And at any rate, no temptation is ALWAYS and UNIVERSALLY insurmountable. Overcoming a temptation, any temptation at all, is always a possibility as one increases in appropriating the grace of God. Some temptations I fell for some years ago are no longer problematic to me today and some that I am still falling for today are no problem at all for some people higher than me spiritually. I know that soon, I too will overcome them as I grow. This shows that the problem was not the power of the temption to defy us but our own weakness under certain circumstances to resist.

Therefore, while in a status of weakness, we should not excuse ourselves but rather repent and pray as Jesus instructed ("Lead us not into temptation"), for God to make such temptations not to even come our way now, since if we fall, we will not be excused despite our weakness. But we may be pardoned.