Freedom to Die

It is amazing how faithful the Spirit of God is in His ministry of interpretation, conviction, and teaching.  About 8 hours after writing the rough draft of what you will read below, I was studying the same passage again and it hit me at a whole different angle.  In short Romans 14 and 15 in context is a call for us to bear with the weakness of less mature believers and build them up where they are at, instead of being intolerant of the weakness and expecting them to be in the same place we are spiritually.  (This is not implying there is some line separating the weak and the strong, for they are relative terms.  For each one of us there are weaker brothers/sisters and there are stronger brothers/sisters.)  This truth hit me straight between the eyes and deeply convicted me, for there are specific situations in my life where I have been called to grace and selflessness but am currently living in intolerance and condemnation.  This is the aim of the author, and the way (I believe) these chapters should be properly understood.  The direction I am going below is not the aim of the author in this passage, but a truth that is mentioned that helped me connect some other things I have been studying.  Below is simply a culmination of it all…

The past couple of weeks have been difficult for me.  I have struggled to spend my full time in the word every day, and when I have I’ve been distracted.  I also haven’t spent as much time as I usually do with brothers encouraging me in the Word, challenging me, and holding me accountable.  As always happens when I am not solid in my daily reading, every day has seemed like a torturous battle between my flesh and the Holy Spirit living inside of me.  Trying to live life as a Christian in your own power (the power of your flesh) is arguably the most miserable and futile way to live.  When you are not empowered by the Spirit through soaking your mind and spirit in God’s word, pouring your heart out to Him in prayer, and spending time with other God-loving believers, you are dead in the water.

I was reading Romans this morning and an awesome truth jumped out at me that connected a lot of other truths I knew, but now make sense in a new way.  This is in the context of ch 14 where Paul is talking about not judging others according to the freedom you have received in Christ pertaining to grey areas, and to not cause a weaker brother/sister to stumble by partaking in those areas of freedom in their sight if they feel differently than you about it.  (A modern day example would be if you feel you have the freedom to drink a small amount of alcohol, and you’re with a brother/sister who feels it would be a sin to do so, you shouldn’t do it in their presence because that would be a stumbling block for them.)  That thought brings us to our current text: Romans 15:1-7…

“We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.  For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written,  'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.'  For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

The part that really hit me is in verse 1:  “and not to please ourselves” which goes back to “have an obligation”.  In short, we do not have an obligation to please ourselves.  Sounds like a silly little thing, but it made a lot of connections for me about what it means to be a slave to Christ and free from sin.  Romans 6:12-23 says “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  What then?  Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As humans, we are all slaves to something.  1 John 3:10 says “by this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”  We are either children of God or children of the devil, there is no other option.  We are all born children of the devil, and the only way we can become children of God is by placing our faith in Christ Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins, to take our punishment for our wrongdoing so that we don’t have to.  The rest of this post will be speaking to those who have done that.  If you are not sure if you have, or if you have not and would like to, please read my previous post “How Good Am I” and/or call me right now at 708-257-9214 so we can walk through that together.

When we were children of the devil and slaves to our sin, we were just that: slaves to our sin.  We did not have a choice but to continue down that same road of wrongdoing.  Now that we have been redeemed we no longer are under obligation to follow our sinful desires.  Our only obligation is to pursue the God who created us and saved us, and who continues to sanctify us day by day.  This is such a freeing truth that we now only sin when we choose to, when we choose to turn away from the God who loves us and go back to wallow in the mud.  When we are pursuing Him, and finding our satisfaction in Him there is no longer that empty hole that we try to fill with other things.  And therein lies the power to overcome temptation.  The reason that I go through seasons of such struggle, and the reason we as believers can be caught in this same cycle of sin and repentance, is that we do not fully understand, or we are choosing not to partake in the satisfaction that God offers.  And this satisfaction is only found in a life of pursuing God.  If there is anything in your life that you pursue more than God, it has taken the place of God in your heart, and is what the Bible refers to as an idol.  Many things can be idols in our lives: drugs, alcohol, money, possessions, lust, relationships, religion, rituals/traditions, fun, food, family, children, spouses… you name it, and it can take the place of God.  Here’s a good test to see what, if any, idols there are in your life.  In what areas do you spend the majority of your money?  Are they on things that serve God, yourself, or something else?  What things do you spend most of your time doing?  Pursuing God, or pursuing something else?  A good way to find what takes first place in your heart is to ask yourself what is the first thing you would do if/when you have free time?  Do you want to spend the extra time reading the Bible or watching tv or doing something else?  Very convicting questions for all of us, but my point is, if we are struggling with the same old sin, year after year, the problem is not that God is not powerful enough or even that we are obligated to please the flesh, the problem is we are not tapping into the source of power, and we are choosing our flesh over God by not pursuing Him the way we would if we really understood the satisfaction that only He can give.  This is where I have been.  But today is the day of change.  I ask that you would take the following challenge with me: if your answers to the questions above are not God-honoring, as mine have not been, identify the idols in your heart and go to war with them.  Drastically decrease the time you spend on those things and replace them with time getting to know God by reading His word.  Our hearts will resist, but it is necessary in cultivating a heart that loves God.  If we discipline ourselves to do this, we will find ourselves craving the goodness of God that He showers on those who pursue Him.  As we become more and more satisfied in His word, we will want nothing more than to spend time with Him.  Every day is a spiritual battle, and we need to start making some drastic decisions and changes, and not just keep wishing things were different.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping to get a different result.  Let’s make the change today!  Please call or email me so that we can do this together (708-257-9214  mdeezyh2@yahoo.com).  God Bless You.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.”  (Psalm 1:1-3)

“Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  (Psalm 73:25-26)