Excerpt



If there is one essential Christian concept that the Christian hypocrites of today cannot or will not understand, it is this We can either LIVE FOR CHRIST or LIVE FOR OURSELVES but NOT BOTH!

If you already are a Christian, or you feel yourself being drawn to Christ despite the mess and confusion of Christianity today, I have a few questions for you. Where is your hope? Where is it really? Is your hope in a new and improved YOU? or ... Are you humble and crucified, with your hope completely in CHRIST? How you answer, will tell you for whom you are living. The point is we cannot live for Christ, if we are still living with introverted spiritual hopes and expectations. For I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And He died for all, that they should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. (Galatians 2:20) (2Corinthians 5:15)

Living for Christ requires a single-minded desire to glorify ONLY Christ. This requires us to be completely free from all self centered spiritual motives and expectations. Until we have absolutely no hope in ourselves we have absolutely no hope of living for Christ.

Living for Christ means that we must first follow him to the cross! And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. If anyone wishes to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall loose it, but whoever looses his life for My sake shall find it. (Matthew 10:3839) (Matthew 16:2425)

Are you still trying to SAVE your life, by hanging only your sins on the cross? If you're not crucified with Christ, you can't be resurrected. YOU FOOL! That which you sow does not come to life unless it DIES. (1Corinthians 15:36) To live fully for Christ, requires us to hang more than just our sins on his cross. We must hang complete and die completely! Remember, the penalty for our sin is our death, not our transformation! Now those who belong to Christ have CRUCIFIED the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24) It is a trustworthy statement, for if we DIED with Him, we shall also live with Him. (2Timothy 2:11)

Only when we have reckoned ourselves completely dead to any and all hope in ourselves, will we be free to glorify only Christ. He who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (John 7:18) If we claim to be a Christian, we must be extremely careful to glorify only Christ. Whos glory are we really seeking, if were working toward our own independent Christ-like holiness? When our goal in this life is no longer becoming something we can never be, but instead, is simply to proclaim Christ and his free gift of salvation, then and only then, will we be living for Christ.

Remember the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee? Who was justified before God? Here is the difference between the Old Covenant of the Law, that breeds the independent self righteous pride of the Pharisee, verses the New Covenant of grace and mercy, that keeps us on our knees with the dependent repentant humility of the Publican. The Old Covenant is based on ME trying to keep the Law in order to earn God's blessing, while at the same time, fearing God's wrath if I don't. The New Covenant is based on CHRIST fulfilling the Law for me. Under grace and mercy, we're no longer disciplined or rewarded according to how well we keep the Law.

Christ has set us free from the blessing and cursing of the Law. He has set us free that is if we have learned how to repent like the Publican, to repent without regret. (2Corinthians 7:9-10) Regret, implies that I still have faith in my potential to do better next time. But if Gods measuring stick requires ABSOLUTE PERFECTION and nothing less, we need to repent in a completely different way. (James 2:10) To repent without regret, means that I have no hope of ever reaching Gods standard of absolute perfection. To repent like the Publican, is to repent because of what I AM, not just because of what I have done. have mercy on me, THE SINNER!.. (Luke 18:13) This repentance is a continual lifelong repentance that never ceases.

This repentance is not partial and fragmentary like repentance for actual sins, nor is it uncertain like that. It does not debate what is sin or what is not, but lumps everything together and says, We are wholly and altogether sinful. We need not spend our time weighing, distinguishing, differentiating. On this account there is no uncertainty in such repentance, for nothing is left that we might imagine good enough to pay for our sin. One thing is sure, we cannot pin our hope on anything that we are, think, say, or do. And so our repentance cannot be false, uncertain, or partial, for a person who confesses that he is altogether sinful embraces all sins in his confession without omitting or forgetting a single one. Nor can our satisfaction be uncertain, for it consists not of dubious, sinful works which we do, but the sufferings and blood of the innocent Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

(Martin Luther,
Smalcald Articles, on Repentance)

Christ is our holiness! (1Corinthians 1:29-31) When we start to feel righteous and holy within ourselves, we diminish who Christ is, and what he has done. This, the Father cannot tolerate! Christ went through way too much, to not give him the honor of trusting completely in his merit and finished work! Our holiness only resides in Christ!