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NASB | Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, |
Subject: Are our hearts HOLY or Wicked? |
Bible Note: Hi, mommapbs! The cleansing is there, the renovation is there... yet if we return to the vomit, like the dogs do, how can we shine in purity? Jesus told the disciples that they were all clean--with the exception of Judas, of course--(John 13:10-11)... yet when the test came for them to stand, they all fled--they feared for their own lives instead of owning the words they recently spoke (dying for their Master: Matthew 26:33-35); none of Christ's loyal disciples remained loyal... true Peter followed at a distance, but eventually he failed again as he repeatedly bold-facedly lied about known the Master... and the other disciple was guiding under the built-in guise of being one of the "crowd!" His familiarity with the place and the people where Jesus was being held and judged remained his cover--which he never broke, not once, in defense of Jesus... It is not enough to claim Jesus (John 15:5-6)... if we do not remain in Him and He in us, when we transgress against God which part of our proclaimed rightousness keeps us from the wages of sin?, or does our transgression only count if we do not claim to have a righteous heart? Paul explained it this way: What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. (Romans 6:15-17) When we obey the flesh (heart, mind, body--pick your choice word) and sin (trangress) against God, which rightous part of us is doing this? If God cannot hold us accountable because we claim to be have a righteous heart, how does God hold others accountable to their transgressions? As long as we stay in Jesus we can do anything, including humbly obeying God's Will, but when we sidestep the Lord and surrender our will to the flesh our "choice," tainted by the desires of the flesh, cannot please God (Romans 8:4-13). Paul called himself the least of the Apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9), not because the others sinned less than he did but because he recognized how he persecuted the Church... he clearly understood that outside of Jesus we are all sinners, wicked trees who cannot produce good fruits (Matthew 7:17-18), so he thanked God that Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:14-25) Consider this, if we are free and clear of unrighteousness, on our own--meaning not abiding in Jesus and Jesus in us, why would we suffer the internal struggle between the desires of the flesh and God's Holy Spirit? If we are new creatures in the Holy Spirit and we are not being lead by unrighteousness, what need do we have of Jesus mediating for us in front of the Father, would our righteousness not keep us from sinning: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 1:8 thru 2:2) As Paul said, we do the wrong that we seek to avoid, and we do not do the good that we yearn to do... thanks God for Jesus! He is our righteousness in God! God Bless! Angel |