Oh what freedom we have in Christ!

My thought’s this morning… if they seem scattered welcome to my brain.

Romans 6:14 “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

I’ve been given the privilege to be a leader in a community of 300+ young adults. Often I counsel young adults who struggle with various sins. Pornography and lust, gossip, slander, anger and just about everything you can imagine. They come to me and confess their sin and are filled with shame. I pray with them and counsel them, yet they continue to struggle with the same things. Over and over again they fall deep into sins. Some call it “spiritual warfare” some say, or think God is displeased with them. They submit to the fact that this is just their lot in life; to struggle with sin.

Oh if that were true!! ARGH! This is where I counsel them with truth. “Sin has no dominion over you!” I shout. If they and all of us only knew the glorious riches of His grace we would be utterly astonished. WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE!! Christ. Who forever lives to make intercession for us before the Father. So many young people I interact with in the church, fail to understand that sin is not our lot.

I turn my sights on you the reader. If you struggle with sin, do not resign to your struggles. The grace of Christ not only can sustain you, but will. Gal.2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” See those of us who are born of God through the blood of Christ have not only been forgiven of our sins, but his grace will sustain us so that sin has no dominion over us. What a beautiful thing! Let me throw some more scripture your way:

Jude 24 “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling.”

I Corinthians 1:8 “Who (Jesus) will sustain you to the end, guiltless until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Sin is not your lot, it is not my lot. Sin is the distraction that keeps us from Christ. Christ came to abolish sin because it was the stumbling block that kept us from communion with the trinity. Sin will always tempt us yet in the grace of Christ we can be sustained. Will we ever be sinless in this life? Absolutely not. But when we fall, we get back up and continue to run the race with endurance; His endurance. (Hebrews 12) Why? Because of love. Because of glory.

Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord God with all your heart soul mind and strength.” Sin keeps us from this heart posture. We love Him, rest in his grace, and freedom from sin is what we get! Oh the glorious freedom we have in Christ. He made us alive when we were dead. Our only high command in return is Love. Love him, love our neighbors.

St. Augustine put it this way: “Love God, and do as you please.” If your love for God is great, your appetite for sin will fade.

and this is the “glorious gospel of the happy God.” (Itim. 1:11)

This is how God is glorifeied in our lives, and how our faith increases. When his grace sustains us from doing things we wouldn’t normally do. We glorify Him. When his grace keeps us from temptation our faith in his existence and activity is increased.

Blessed be the name of my God!

Random scattered thoughts ended…