If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.(John 15:10)
We live in a world of immorality and rebellion and many times we in the church take grace to the point of allowing all types of behavior. Clearly, Jesus has summed up all the commandments in two. Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus Himself said to keep His commandments, not remove them! We are not saved by keeping His commandments, we are saved by grace through faith. God’s law is in place to protect us from evil. We close the door to the enemy when we stay within God’s parameters. So much heartache and suffering could be avoided if we just listen to God. He has our best interest in His heart. I have walked the hard road of trying to keep God’s commandments out of fear and law and it didn’t work. When we fall in love with Jesus, we realize that there is nothing we could do to separate us from His love. We then want to keep His commandments, which is love for Him. If we love Him we will obey Him.
There is a balance with grace, we can not use it to live the way we want and expect to escape being chastened. The Lord chastens those whom He loves. God is good, but He is God and the fear of the Lord is the foundation for wisdom.
Sin is no longer the issue that separates us from God if we are not continuing to live in it. Jesus took care of the sin issue by bringing us to the starting line of the race of salvation. When He said,”it is finished”, He was saying that He did all that was required to bring us to the place where we would have everything that we needed to obtain eternal life. We still have to run the race and the good news is that He runs with us! What separates us from God is not being in relationship with His Son Jesus. However once we commence a relationship with Jesus, in time we are changed by His Spirit living within us. A life change is evidence that there is His Spirit working within us to conform us into the image of Christ. I always say that you catch the fish first, then clean it. We come to Christ first just as we are, then we are cleansed by Him as time goes by. If we say that we have come to know Jesus, yet it has cost us nothing, then we need to reconsider if we truly know Him. Knowing Jesus costs us our past way of life, it costs us our own desires and ways, it costs us friends and even family. What we give up for Jesus has no comparison to what He gives to us in return. We can never out give God!
Start to ask God to change what needs to be changed in your life to make you look more like Jesus. The Father’s desire is to have many many children that all resemble His Son!
The Teaching Ministry of Michael Cannatello
TMMC
