"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20Jesus asks Peter, "Will you really lay down your life for me?" Jesus asks us this question everyday. How do you respond? Do you get at of bed every morning and die to self?
Will you say, "I have been crucified with Christ," or continue to live in the flesh?
To continue to live an unchanged life in Christ is to be without Christ.
We are to strive to live holy lives. In first Peter 1:13-16 believers are call to, "...prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
I have a friend who tells me you can be sinless; the more and more I read, study, trust and believe, the more I believe we can live without sin. We need to stop making excuses and strive to be holy instead of abusing the grace of God. The Lord desires us to live holy and righteously. In Christ, you are no longer a sinner, but a saint.
If you commit your life to Christ, die to self, how can we live out this impossible faith? You can't.
In and through Christ you can and only with Christ in your heart changing and permeating your life is it possible.
What do you choose: Death or Alive in Christ?
There is freedom in Christ, will you accept His grace and follow Him?
2 comments:
Not Only FREEDOM FROM but FREEDOM FOR.
I don't know about living a sinless life. I haven't studied enough to have an opinion on that one one way or another.
What really resonated with me was: To continue to live an unchanged life in Christ is to be without Christ.
According to people who knew me before I was a Christian, I am a different person. Not just 'more of this' or 'less of that', but a new person. Similar personality traits, similar likes and dislikes - but not the person they knew before I accepted Christ.
I've never been the guy who remains the same from month to month or even week to week. I've always had something I was doing to learn more, understand more, become just a bit better than I was, even if it was just one tiny thing.
But those changes were selfish, in a lot of ways - they were about me instead of about others.
I think that is the primary change; the idea that I can let go of things about myself for others.
I don't think many people realize how hard that is for me. My identity - who and what I am, who and what I have made myself - has always been central to my life.
Being willing to sacrifice part or all of that...means that the core of me has changed.
Yet, when I try to think of what the new core of me is, there is nothing there. I am just a shell...but that shell is slowly being filled with something greater.
And I'm okay with that.
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