Let's begin today with a text from the bible.
' We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as
Righteousness. Under what circumstance was it credited? Was it after he was
circumcised or before? It was not after but before.'
Romans 4 vs 9 and 10
In other words God credited Abraham with righteousness before he did any
'works'. In the same manner, you and I were 'Justified' and forever put in
'Right Standing Before God' before we did any 'works'.
All we had to do was believe Jesus died for us, and accept Him as our
Lord and Saviour.
But the very notion of not have to do any 'works' not only seems absurd
to most of us, but positively irresponsible.
Let's not forget - Jesus says that 'even if we look at another person
lustfully we have committed a sin.'
God's standards are incredibly high. So high in-fact that anyone who
believes that he or she can attain them via 'self effort' is actually the one
who is absurd in his or her thinking.
IT AIN'T POSSIBLE PEOPLE!!
This is why Jesus did all the work for us. So that we can stop worrying
about whether or not we have done enough.
We can never do enough.
And because we know this, and yet refuse to fully accept the gift of
grace, we continuously live in anxiety, fear, condemnation, shame, and
of-course guilt.
Our own self efforts and will-power can only do so much, and can only go
on for certain amounts of time / periods. At some point we inevitably get tired
or have a moment of weakness and fall / fail.
To make matters worse, because we have made it all about 'ME ME ME' we
have become so self conscious, as a result of our constant 'sin consciousness'
that we're rarely able to think about the welfare of others.
In other words we desire piousness at all costs; even at the cost of
love /compassion for others.
Furthermore this constant self effort for piety leads to a ludicrous
degree of hypocrisy, as a result of those very sins we're so desperately trying
to avoid being done in secret.
In order for thorough and permanent change to happen with-in us, the
transformation must begin from the inside (grace), and not from the outside
(our works).
For us to be able to feel for others, as against a constant focus on
'self', the change must come from the inside - Grace.
It is grace that transforms our hearts and mindsets. No matter how much
we try to obey God's commands with our own works and 'self' efforts', all we're
really doing is pushing our naturally selfish desires further down the pit. But
that doesn't mean that those desires have gone. They're just buried beneath the
rubble of 'self effort'. At some point in time, during a moment of weakness
those desires will surface again.
But with grace working from within, those desires stop being so
desirable, and eventually vanish.
Grace has far greater power than our own efforts.
Grace is far more powerful than the law and sin (those two always work
together).
Remember my previous article? - Is The Notion of Pre-Marital Sex
Outdated?'
Of-course it flipping well isn't.
Of-course it's better to wait until you're married.
But despite us knowing this, and doing our utmost to keep to it, many
have failed over and over again.
Our 'self efforts' didn't get us very far.
With grace, and the internal transformation that comes with it, we can
begin to think much less of 'me me me' in terms of 'I must do this and I
mustn't do that', and more of 'what is best for the other person'.
By letting go and allowing Grace to change us from within, we are able
to think less of 'self' and more of the well-being of others.
It is by accepting the unconditional love of God that we are freed of 'self'
and able to love others.
Grace isn't a free pass to do whatever we want to do.
It is a huge 'enabler' to do what God wants us to do.
It enables us to think with common sense. The apostle Paul said that 'Everything
is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.'
In other words, yes, with grace we can all do whatever we want to do,
whenever we want to do it, in the knowledge of God's unconditional love;
however the reality is that because we are sure of God's unconditional love we
actually begin to think less of that particular sin; for through grace it
begins to have less and less power and influence over us- until it eventually
disappears alltogether.
Grace is like an incinerator. It scorches those desires out of
sight.
So by focusing less on 'I must not fornicate/ have sex before marriage',
how about telling yourself the following truth; that no matter what, God has
forgiven you of all sins for all your life, He loves you unconditionally, and
you are perfectly in Right Standing With God at all times because of what Jesus
has already done for you.
By so doing you are removing the onus from what You can do, to what
Christ has already done. Then as grace begins it's wonderful work in you, you
will find that those desires / temptations no longer have any power over you.
The end result?
You are then able to make selfless as well as common sense decisions
with regards to pre-marital sex.
Like -
'Bearing in mind that this person really likes me and I don't
particularly like him /her, is it fair on him / her for us to have sex?'
'What if she gets pregnant? Would that be fair on her/ him? Worse still,
is it fair on the child that may come as a result of our actions?'
'Do we really want to spend the rest of our lives together?'
With Grace God blesses us first, whether we deserve it or not; and by so
doing enables us to naturally do what is good and right through love.
