When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened. Knowledge opened the door to great evil in all of God’s creation.
Religion, including most of Christianity has been persuaded that knowledge about God and good deeds is enough to redeem them from the curse, however, they are wrong.
Knowledge of the truth and practicing good deeds is not proof of salvation or holiness because knowledge and practice cannot change the heart.
You need to come to view yourself as utterly dead to God, a complete sinner, a law-breaker, an enemy of God before you can be saved. However, sin blinds people. The mind is darkened by sin. We must come to realize that the sin in our hearts have made us utterly incapable to obeying God, seeing the truth, and even seeking God. You cannot do good, you cannot seek God, you cannot know God, you cannot do anything but worship yourself and Satan apart from God’s love, mercy, and grace which He alone has the power to grant you. He alone can open your eyes, grant you repentance, and faith to believe in the truth. Otherwise, you are a backslider, faithless, following your own emotions, and your mind is as godless as Hitler.
You can pursue so many things in life and hear about how God gave His one and only Son for your sins and be completely dead to it. Religion and fake Christianity will lead and has lead millions to the lifestyle of completely rejecting Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for our sins meanwhile pretending to be godly in man’s eyes. However, in God’s holy and perfect eye’s, we are absolutely worthless in all our thoughts and deeds. Our little Christianity has accomplished nothing at all but fatten us for the slaughter when God’s wrath appears.
“Christ loves me and gave Himself up for me“.
“Christ loves me and gave Himself up for me“.
“Christ loves me and gave Himself up for me“.
Ephesians 5:2.
What does it take to be a genuine Christian? How do you be soundly saved? Well, read Ephesians 3 and Colossians 3. Repent of all your sins, believe that Jesus came to earth, was crucified and rose again. He died for your sins that you may no longer trust in yourself but have faith in Christ. So, it's all about Jesus Christ, not your own good works. It is God's love, mercy, and grace alone that saves us. We don't deserve it but it's a gift from God. God's gift of love must change you, so you must become born again (John 3).
Christ Became The Addict For You on the Cross Upon Which He Died!
For many of us, certain weaknesses and addictions plaque us throughout our entire life. Addicts need only to believe in the gospel to find light in their darkness. For any alchohol, drug, work, or sexual addiction...Christ took upon Himself the full guilt, shame, consequences, and weight of that sin.
Christ became the addict and took your place!
Yes, in love, He stepped in and died as if in your shoes. So that the ressurection power of Christ may eventually set you free from your sin if you continue to believe and endure. You cannot give up.
The Wicked Bear Their Own Guilt and Shame.
Believers Place Their Addictions and Guilt Upon Christ!
There are many people seeking to find freedom from pain and hurt. However, true and lasting freedom can only come through Jesus Christ. What are Sundays really all about. The gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims the freedom from sin that is available only in the blood of the Lamb of God.
God doesn't leave His people when they sin, He has his seal of approval
on them. None of God's children gets snatched away from the Father's
hands. Even if a person may remain in sin for months or years, God is
gracious and will lovingly bring His people out of the darkness of sin
and into the light of His face. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ,
we can have assurance that through Christ, we are never lost even
though we may slip and fall. We are never failures because despite our
fruitlessness, God still blesses us out of His great and infinite love.
Can a believer ever fail God? Yes, a believer can fail. The worst case scenario for any Christian is that they fall into some gross habitual sin that nearly destroys their faith. The believer becomes shipwrecked in their faith. There are countless stories of Christians who have had godly intentions, yet through tempting circumstances, fall into the “bottomless pit” of habitual sin. I still think that these Christians are genuinely regenerated believers, but they have chosen to worship Satan rather than their LORD. Since salvation is based on God’s sovereign election, a believer cannot unlock himself from the covenant of grace, yet they can suffer from the wrong they have done.
When God returns in a blink of an eye, with all His heavenly hosts, where will your confidence lie? Granted, all men are sinners, and we have much to weep over and much to be ashamed over. Who has endured a day without sin except Christ? However, God's children must place all their confidence on Christ's name. We know that Christ will rule one day and on the day of Judgment, those whoose confidence was not on Christ will be "dashed to pieces."
"You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness." (Hebrews 1:9)
Punishing behavior may seem acceptable as long as it is a criminal act, but the government will not stop there! They want to shape and form the masses by controlling what they love and hate...what they think. "Hate thought" laws have already been passed but they are not being enforced (http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=THOUGHT_CRIMES&load=WX07C17). It's a matter of time, if it hasn't happened already, that our very own thoughts can be held against us at the courts.
"a fonte puro pura defluit aqua" from a pure spring pure water flows
You cannot live the righteous life if your heart is not righteous as well. Imputed righteousness must result in imparted righteousness, where the heart is cleansed by fiath and the work of the word. This is a fundamental law of the universe. What you produce reveals who you are. Satan's children produce evil. God's sons produce righteousness.
Someone once said that the end of every thought is God. Every thought, imagination and idea ought to be brought back to God. That is what is meant to make everything obedient to the knowledge of Christ!
Holiness is attribute of God and a command that is often ignored. It should stir in our heart and mind the greatest emotions of aweness and humility towards God and such a desire we should have to persue it with all our life. All earthly passions are vain. Flee the pattern of this world and become holy in mind, heart, conscience, and life all in Christ.
