Questions to Ponder

Have you ever asked this question:  Why do I really need a Savior if after becoming a Christian, I act “for God” as if I now can make myself do what He what I think He requires of me?

So that question invokes more questions:  What does it really mean to be redeemed?  Are we redeemed from just sin?  The Scriptures tell us we are also redeemed from the curse of the law AND to be dead to the law.  Listen to this Scripture:

“Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”  Galatians 3:25

I started learning to put Scripture together with Scripture – Romans with Galatians.  Specifically, Romans 6, 7, 8 with Galatians 2, 3, and 4.  These are powerful and revealing truths from God about His Son for us, to us, in us, and through us.

Paul explains that the power of sin had imprisoned EVERYONE until God’s plan of redemption was finished:  Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating.  He is the only reason we have His LIFE now in us.  We simply just RECEIVED Him and the Truth.

The great deception is that we “try” to fulfill God’s Holy Standard in the Law by our efforts to “climb the ladder” again so to speak.  Consequently we start comparing ourselves or competing, OR the flesh resists God’s Law by running away from it and God too!  But in both cases, we then “feel” we are not close to God.

We can have the “outer look” of being this, doing that but this is not God’s plan for us.  There really is something, SOMEONE God wants to show us.

If  the conscience KNOWS we are not measuring up to God’s standard if we are “trying” to now accomplish perfection, sanctification by OUR EFFORTS, we live or walk distantly of God always “trying” and “hoping” He’s pleased with us.  It’s a dilemma but it is real.

However, the frustration of living and walking this way can also be a great forerunner to a GREAT REVELATION!  I’m telling the truth!

When the Holy Spirit OPENS our eyes and ears to the finished work of Christ but more than this, the Christ Who is LIFE in us, we will see why the Christian, the child of God must have faith only in the Son of God as their means of fruitfulness and works.  “The way in IS the way on.”

The key word is management.  Who has really, really, really managed their lives to perfection?  I mean if we are going to do any comparison we do need to compare with the Right Person:  Jesus Christ.  Instead the comparison goes on with other vessels.  This is where we see flesh in forms of “doing pretty good” seemingly, or “doing pretty bad.”

God does not have a “better answer.”  He has one and only one answer:  Christ in you, the true hope of God’s glory!”  We ALWAYS NEED the Savior as life, HIS goodness, fruit, and ALL that HE Himself is.  He is so HAPPY too, to be our savior all day long in all things, all situations, all relationships, ALL, ALL, ALL.

So God has called us to know the meaning of having not only reckoned ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6) but also dead to the Law (Romans 7 which arouses the power of sin by flesh “trying” to produce a holier standard instead of faith in the Son of God). 

Think about it.  God has ALREADY achieved what He wanted in Christ Jesus.  His Son did it all, paid it all IS “it” ALL.  He’s ALL.  How more glorious could it be than for the ALL in ALL to be living in you and me?

Is this the truth?  If it is, how is God able to convince us individually?  If it is the Truth and God’s way for the child of God, how can we know that we know this life of grace through faith, Christ alone in us, His Spirit’s producing, and the JOY UNSPEAKABLE?

What will first cause us to know we’ve “let go” and allow faith to arise from our hearts in God’s Truth, the Person of Christ in us, instead of flesh’s (human’s) ability to be “something” for God?  And what is the encouragement we need to believe and know, AND follow His Gospel in every way?

How are you going to know that I am really walking this way or that you are?  Or I know that you too are walking by faith and not by sight?  A dear friend and sister said she read the opposite of faith is not doubt (or even fear), it is SIGHT.  The Scriptures say: “We walk by faith, NOT by sight.”  So if you like what you see in me or let’s say you don’t, does that mean I am walking by faith in the Son of God?  Oh ponder this!

Oh What A Savior!  Thank God, we don’t have to just sing it, but can know what HE really means.

Happied Up,

Sue Gaither