Is Jesus Enough?

 

“‭Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

(Galatians 5:1, AV)

Paul preached a gospel so radical sometimes I think only he understood it. Here it is: Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  That's it. Immediately Paul faced opposition.  Religious parties said, "this is too easy, you can't possibly mean that trust in Christ  can be the only thing needed". The Galatians freely believed,  but then started to add special days and months. I get it. To the Religious crowd, it is offensive that man has no part to add. But Paul zealously defends their liberty, comparing their adding to the finished work of Christ to a "yoke of bondage".

Non-religious hearers of Paul jumped the opposite way. The Corinthians heard Paul and said "great.  We can be saved, but we don't need to make any changes. Let's party!". Also wrong. He tells the Romans that they died to sin. Will they continue sinning, that grace may abound? That's ridiculous.  The Freedom we have in Christ is no license to sin. 

Everything Paul wrote can be summed up in one verse, Galatians 2:20. Crucified with Him, we no longer live. The life we live in this body we live by the faith of the Son of God.  Conformed now, through to transformation of our minds,  to the image of Christ, we no longer have any desire to fulfill the lust of the flesh, Galatians 5:16. We are completely free. We do only what we want to do. However,  our desire has been changed.  We only want to do what we see Him doing. 

I've not actually met anyone who actually walks in complete freedom. It's a learning curve. 😌 

Each step of the way, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit,  is leading us. Every day His word to us is our daily bread. Let's then keep on hearing and growing "till we all come in the unity of the faith,  and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the fullness of Christ!"

Unity

 "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" I Corinthians 2:2

I see that Francis Chan has a new book on Unity in the church entitled "Until Unity". He was on someone's You Tube channel discussing the book. He acknowledged that this is a tricky subject. On the one hand, we must avoid "foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless" Titus 3:9. On the other hand, we must have "no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" Ephesians 4:11. 

Of course, the very title of his book seems to indicate Chan does not quite see the ground of unity. "Until Unity" implies that unity is something we do NOT have, but must work towards. But Paul writes to the Ephesians, exhorting them to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" Ephesians 4:3. I am not blind. Of course, like Chan, I see that the church, at least in the West, does not experience the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17, the unity by which the world would believe that God sent Him. Far from it. "Woke" churches try to rewrite the Bible, while conservative pastors often try to hit nonbelievers over the head with it. The church seems divided over major theological issues and personalities. Chan is correct to grieve this, and point out the need for unity. Yet we are not called to create unity, but to preserve the unity we already have in the Spirit. 

Somewhere lost in all this is the simple message:All we need is Jesus, keeping His Cross at the centre of all that we do and preach. CS Lewis complained that even though Jesus, on the cross, said "It is finished", the church today always is adding something to Jesus. Perhaps it just does not seem right to us to preach Jesus only, but Lewis is longing for "Mere Christianity". Not "Jesus and", just "Jesus". 

Paul was constantly defending his message of freedom in Christ. The Corinthians heard him all too well, and decided that they would be "free" and traded the grace of God for "licentiousness". Anything goes. Let's have a party. The Galatians, on the other hand, just could not get past Christ alone, and insisted on an external law to govern them. Both churches were guilty of carnal, natural, human reasoning. They were both wrong, albeit from opposite sides of the matter. 

I have a little ditty about unity. "The Christ in me is the same as the Christ in thee - Since He cannot be divided, neither can we". As long as our meetings focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we are preserving the bond of peace. Jesus Christ is Head of His Church. As head of His Church, He has a will for His church. If we set aside our carnal ideas, He will show us His will and He Himself will do it. May this revelation be understood and embraced in these last days.

Freedom from the power of sin

" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John1:9

"for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. " Romans 10:10

"Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working."

I may have read I John 1:9 hundreds of times. but each time my heart was drawn to the forgiveness of sin promised. This is the Verse of the Day on the Bible app today, and this time my heart was drawn to the second promise: He will cleanse me of all unrighteousness. Well, that is quite a promise. What does it mean? 

The key, I believe, is in understanding what "confess" means. Yes, it does mean verbally stating the sin, in the presence of a brother or sister, but it is much deeper than that. For God to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, our hearts must be CONVICTED of sin, and have the same hatred for it that God does. According to 2 Tim 2:25, the hatred of sin and the desire for repentance is a gift of God. Perhaps this is the most precious gift of all, for a repentant heart is one that is ready to enter into the Life of God. 

A dark time is approaching, saints. The world desperately needs saints who will "shine as the brightness of the firmament and turn many to righteousness" (Daniel 12:3). We cannot afford to allow sin to "dwell in our mortal bodies" (Romans 6:2). Let us therefore  "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race marked out for us" (Hebrews12:1). May the Holy Spirit grant us this, saints!