At His Feet

4/22/2021:

Ephesians 2:1-7
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We're all sinners; that's a given. No matter how good we claim to be, we're still sinners. The only one who is NOT a sinner and never sinned is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God Himself. Because He's spotless, God, the Father, used Christ as the atonement for our transgression. He gave up His Son so we could be adopted and cleansed.

That is God's mercy - His grace towards us sinners. He is rich in mercy that He made a way for us to not only receive salvation but also, sonship with Him. In Christ, we died to our sins and in Christ, we're resurrected.

Yesterday I heard of this thing called, "the American gospel." The concept of this teaching was alarming because it taught that we, sinners, could stand on the same level as God and be gods ourselves. It taught that we can speak things into existence and make our own paths without consequences.

That is wrong and the bible is very clear about that too.

Listen to the words in this scripture: 'But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.'

In Christ Jesus - keywords. We're children of God because of Christ Jesus - He is our Lord and Savior and our God. We can't go above the master and we certainly can't get on His level because we ARE SINNERS. Even we saved believers are still sinners and last I checked, gods are supposed to be perfect.

Only God, three in one, is Perfect.

Can creations mold themselves? Certainly not.

You see, because of God's mercy and grace, He ALLOWS us to come to Him and willingly adopts us into His family. We are His children in Christ and we're given a great inheritance and riches IN Christ. We're seated in the heavenly realms IN Christ and because of CHRIST.

So don't get it twisted people: It's all about Jesus, not us.

The American gospel will do a lot of harm, rather than good because of the things they teach: it's the same thought as the tower of babel: The people thought they could make a tower that could reach into the heavens. They thought they could do it on their own, without God, and what happened? God proved they couldn't by confusing them by giving them all different languages. Because they couldn't understand one another anymore, they scattered and the tower was abandoned.

If people continued going their own way and being their own gods, then each would contradict the other and confusion will insure. People are going to get hurt because they're going to see just how mortal we humans really are.

When we come to Christ, we come under His Lordship and because of that, we can't do anything good apart from him. If we try, then we start living under the law and the law is harder to keep up with, without grace.

We see this in many instances in the bible. In acts, there was these three men who did exorcisms; when they saw the believers casting out demons in Jesus name - they thought they could do the same. So they tried it, not believing in Jesus or even having that relationship with God. You know what happened?

"We know Jesus and we know of Paul -but who are you?" is what the demon said to the men when they tried casting it out. Then the possessed man beat the men up and the men ran away.

Be careful little ears what you hear because some people who claim to teach the truth could just be spitting pretty lies. Jesus has to be the center and the Lord of our lives. He has to be our God, not us be gods. Jesus Christ is the one who paid for our sins, not us. So He's God and Lord of lords and the King of kings.

It's not about us - it's all about Jesus.