We Serve Christ

Galatians 5:24-25  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

After you die, are you still bound by the laws of the country that you used to live in? Obviously not. You are no longer living, and the laws of a country are there for the people who reside there. But when you are dead you are set free from the laws that would control you. Likewise, if you move to a different country which has different laws than the country you originally came from, you no longer are under the laws of that first country anymore either, are you? In one country it may be against the law to do a certain thing, but in another it may be perfectly legal. It is your current country that you are under the laws of.

Well, when someone becomes a Christian and a believer in the teachings of the Bible, what they are doing is turning away from the control of the sinful nature, and submitting themselves to the control of Jesus. 

Romans 6:1-7  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Why did Jesus die the way that He did? It was so that the world could be saved. It was so that everyone could receive the forgiveness that was otherwise unattainable anywhere else. Through the mercy and grace of Christ, we have been granted forgiveness and liberty from our sins, but in order to be worthy of His precious gift we need to realize that we have been set free from our sins, and no longer serve the sinful nature, but we serve Jesus. 

But just because we have this forgiveness available to us doesn’t mean that it gives us a free opportunity to go and sin wherever we want. There are people who do this though, who misuse and abuse the free gift and another opportunity to do what it right. To them, the Lords forgiveness that He gives doesn’t hold much value to their salvation. They sin, and then they tell themselves, no problem, I can just go and get forgiven again. They treat Christ’s forgiveness as a crutch that they can pull out whenever they feel like it, failing to recognize what Jesus had to do to make that forgiveness available. If someone acts like this they really haven’t crucified the flesh yet, and are still servants of sin.

Would you take a cake from your mother that she prepared specifically for you and leave it sit outside on the sidewalk for the birds to come and eat? Would you take a gift from a friend and immediately destroy it? Then don’t do it to Christ’s gift. Jesus may give it freely, but never abuse it.

Galatians 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

We need to become dead to sin, and no longer submit ourselves under it’s rule. We need to serve Christ now, and not sin. That may have been the way that we used to live in our past before we believed, but now we serve Jesus. Sin is not our master which we heed and obey. We serve Christ, not our sins.

In Christ

Andrew