This week Michael writes: The Apostle John said in 1 John 1:7, “If you walk in the light as He is in the light, we will have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The cleansing is in walking in the light of Christ. The blood of the lamb cleanses us from the sin of the world. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “the heart is deceitful above all things. Who can understand it?” Our hearts often deceive us into thinking according to the world’s standards. However, the light of Christ dispels the darkness and deception of this world. The world says that we should condemn ourselves when we sin.
Romans 8:1 says, “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. According to 1 John 4, If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Even if our heart condemn us, God does not condemn us if we have been born again of His Spirit. For Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
The heart is the Greek word “kardia”. Biblically speaking, the heart is the heart of our physical being. It is the seat of our soul-life, where our thoughts and emotions reside. Soul life is our biological life. However in our soul, we cannot do what God has called us to do. We need both soul and spirit to do God’s will. The spirit is the nature of God Himself that we received when we were born of God’s spirit, not of corruptible seed that we inherited from Adam, but of incorruptible by the word of God which lives and abides forever. The church is the called-out of God’s people ... those whom God has called to gather together as a body of like-minded born-again Believers. When we assemble together in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, called according to the spirit of God we can fellowship together, worship together, edify and encourage one another as individual fittings within church, the body of Christ.
Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “if you continue in my word then shall you be my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. Jesus Christ came to set the captives free from the bondage of sin and iniquity of this world. As disciplined followers of Jesus Christ, we are witnesses of the Holy Spirit. We manifest God’s nature of mercy, grace, love and compassion in a world of darkness. Jesus said in John 8:36, “if the son has set you free you shall be free indeed”. Not only are we freed from the bondage of sin, but we are freed to do the will of the Lord. How do we use the freedom we have in Christ? The answer is in Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. And Galatians 5:13, “Only use not liberty as an occasion to sin, but in love serve one another.” True freedom is in serving the Lord by serving one another in the church which is the body of Christ.
Let's continue Michael's message on our spiritual life in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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