October 30, 2020 BE IMITATORS
Ephesians 5:1-4 “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which is not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
1 Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you would follow in His steps.”
Many may take offense with the belief that we can be imitators of God. There is a prevalent view among many believers that even though we are saved and going to heaven, our old sin nature is still alive and well, causing us to sin, even though we do not want to sin. Lest you misunderstand, I am not saying we can reach a state of ‘sinless perfection’ where we never sin. (If and win we sin, we confess it and continue walking according to the Spirit.) I am saying that our salvation is much greater than we may currently understand it to be. For so long we have heard and been exposed to an insufficient presentation and teaching of the gospel which basically says that we must co-habit with our old man, our old sin nature. This belief has been, and is, a major road block to experiencing the overcoming life that Jesus makes available to us. There are numerous scriptures that clearly teach that the power of sin over us has been broken, that we have been given new hearts that are not drawn to sin, that we can walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and that we can be holy as He is holy. Almost all believers agree that we are ‘righteous in Him,’ but fail to see that because He has made us righteous, we are to live righteously. Jesus does not call us to be holy just to frustrate us or to command us do something that is impossible for us to do. All of this revolves around us knowing our true identity as sons and daughters of God-knowing what it means to be made new and what it means to be joined to Him. We tend to read the scripture through the filter of our pre-conceived beliefs and ideas-we use the scriptures to ‘back up’ what we believe. We desperately need to remove the filters and read God’s word with an open mind and spirit, and receive what it says. Without going in to detail, Romans 7 is not Paul’s testimony; when he says that ‘he did the things that he did not want to do,’ he was describing what living in the flesh was like before he discovered the life of Christ in him; he goes on to say that God had delivered him from that bondage to the old sin nature. We cannot be holy or live righteously in our own strength; it is only because He has made us new and given us new hearts that we can do so. Again, I am not saying we never sin, but I am saying we do not have to sin; we sin when we choose to walk according to the flesh-it’s a choice we make. We can say no to temptations and say no to sin. Jesus is our example: He has defeated sin; He has made us new; He has given us the Holy Spirit; now we can live according to the Spirit.
1 John 2:6 “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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