Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
In order to receive moral deliverance you have to be serious with the Lord. No one can lay hands on you and deliver you until you really and truly want to get rid of the sin. There is ample authority and power in the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver you; He is waiting for you to make up your mind that you are through with the sin.
An ounce of resisting the devil is worth ten thousand gallons of rebuking the devil. You resist the devil and let Jesus do the rebuking.
I am speaking of a real experience, as real and actual as having our sins forgiven; being born again; receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Having sins removed from us is the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, a Jewish feast that follows the feast of Pentecost.
We are in a new day, and we must look to the Lord Jesus carefully, at all times, so we do not miss the day of ou r visitation.
Let's look at some passages of the Book of Hebrews and consider them in the light we have just mentioned.
How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. (Hebrews 2:3)
These Jewish Christians, to whom the book is addressed, had all the experiences and knowledge of the Word that we have today. Yet they are warned and exhorted sternly throughout the text. We understand from this that the writer was not speaking of a sovereign, eternal forgiveness unrelated to our behavior.
And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? (Hebrews 3:17,18)
The above passage would have no application to Christians if under the new covenant we were perpetually forgiven by a D ivine, sovereign, unending grace.
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (Hebrews 6:7,8)
Christian who do not continue to walk with the Lord until the fruit of Christ's character is seen in their behavior are in danger of being cursed and burned-a severe warning indeed and completely at odds with current teaching and preaching.
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation. (Hebrews 6:9)
There must be "things that accompany salvation." A "faith" in Christ that does not produce a transformation of our behavior, from sin to righteousness, is no faith at all. It is a modern form of Gnosticism. The believer who does not bring forth the moral image of Christ in his or her character will be cut from the Vine, from Christ.
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:12)
We have been promised resurrection into eternal life, to be with the Lord forever, and to be part of the new Jerusalem, the city that is coming to the earth. We are heirs of all the Glory of God, provided we press forward each day in faith and patience. We are not to fail to serve God diligently by assuming that since we have "accepted Christ" we are eternally forgiven no matter what we do.
Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. (Hebrews 7:27)
We understand, from the above verse, that Christ will not be sacrificed again and again. He was crucified once and for all time, having obtained an eternal redemption for us.
This does not signi fy that once we receive Him there is no more to be done. Actually, receiving Christ and the Holy Spirit gives us the authority and the power to begin the long, arduous journey toward the rest of God. Small is the gate and difficult the way that leads to eternal life, and few find it. Many start on the way but most do not bring forth fruit to the maturity God desires.
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. (Hebrews 8:7,8)
As we study the Book of Hebrews we find the new covenant consists primarily of our moral transformation as God writes His eternal moral law in our mind and heart. Included in the new covenant is the statement that God will remember our sins no longer. However, God remembers our sins no longer, only und er the condition that we are cooperating with the Holy Spirit in becoming a new righteous creation. It is not at all true that God forgives our wickedness and remembers our sins no longer even though His law is never engraved in our mind and heart.
The principal work of the Christian salvation is not forgiveness but moral transformation-the forming of a new creation as Christ is created in us.
What an area of tremendous confusion this is in Christian thinking!
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14)
Notice in the above verse that our conscience is not cleansed so we may go to Heaven, but so we may serve God.
Notice also that our conscience is not cleansed from guilt but from acts that lead to death. It is acts of sin that lead to spiritual death. (Romans 8:13).
To be continued.
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