I felt the Lord nudging me to write on this bible passage tonight. The Bible says that none of us will be ready for Jesus’ return unless we are clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. First and foremost, this means we must accept Christ’s offer of the forgiveness of sins, and justification by faith in Him, and give our lives to Him.
Once we have given our lives to him we are justified and righteous in God’s sight. We do not need to earn our salvation. As Trish Frazier rightly pointed out in the comments, acts of righteousness do not accomplish our salvation - it was accomplished when Jesus died on the cross and said “it is finished”. When we were immersed in water, we died to ourselves and took on the life of Christ. The Holy Spirit has been poured out on us. Walking in the Spirit is what we are enabled to do by the power given to us through Christ’s resurrection.
But Paul tells us we have to put on the new self, and leave behind our old ways of living.
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.
But this is not the way you came to know Christ. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus— to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another. “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, and do not give the devil a foothold.
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.
Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4: 17-32
I don’t know about you, but for me it’s a constant battle, leaving behind the old me and putting on Christ, one that I sometimes seem to be losing in my daily life, but every time I drop my bundle I turn back to Him and He accepts me back like the prodigal son, and He pours His Spirit out constantly, onto me, through me.
And reading this passage also made me ask myself: if I am part of putting a submission in to the government about the coronavirus response, what do I want to see? Am I looking for vengeance, or not being forgiving, by wanting some sort of just response here?
Am I grieving the Spirit?
No.
Truly, I don’t want vengeance, I don’t want anyone to be put in prison, though I think that is what they deserve for what they have done.
My friend Chris died as the result of the vaccines - in the car a week earlier as I dropped him home after church he had just been boasting to me about how he had already had shot one and two, and was due for the third - I believe he had just had the third shot when he dropped dead, in front of the hospital emergency department.
Chris would not want anyone punished: I am completely certain that he is in heaven with his beloved Jesus, and that he is perfectly happy there, crying out “Praise the Lord!” at the end of every song, and rejoicing to see how many lives he touched with his daily joy in telling people about the Lord, for he would surely know, now, I am sure Jesus would let him know.
He was just over sixty years old and disabled by the stroke he had suffered twenty three years ago - his speech was affected, and one of his arms - but he was as fit as a horse, despite his disability he rode his bike everywhere, which is why he was the fittest person I’ve ever seen. He was well known in Perth; I think in fact that most people in the city had been the recipient of one of his evangelical speeches, at some time in the past twenty years, “Jesus loves you!” he would say, and, “Let me pray for you,” with frequent “Alleluias,” particularly during the liveliest songs at church.
I miss Chris; every time I drive past his house I think of him and there is a sense of loss, which is quite a few times a week, as he lived real close to my place, on the way to the shops.
He was full of the joy of Jesus.
Chris would not want anyone to be put in prison or any judgement made against them, or for them to be hung (God forbid) as some have even suggested, because I believe Chris would say, Jesus already died for their sins. Jesus took the punishment they deserved. Why should they be punished, when Jesus already took that punishment?
That’s why I don’t want jail terms or any kind of harsh judgement.
But I do want apologies.
I want acknowledgement that it was wrong.
I want to see some resignations.
I want a clear admission that it was wrong to coerce an experimental medication, and I want some sense that these people understand what they did and that it was wrong and shameful to have done it.
And the only reason I want to see this is not because I want vengeance, or to humiliate anyone, or to get some satisfaction myself, but because I really don’t want any of this to happen again, or God forbid, for it to get worse next time.
I want to see some accountability so that politicians and doctors in the future will check themselves before they coerce people with experimental medical treatments that they didn’t want, didn’t need and that didn’t work.
I want to see some acknowledgement of the harm so that we all say, never again.
I want to see some repentance from Christian employers in particular who coerced and fired their workers, including schools and hospitals and builders.
And really I want some apologies, fines and restitution particularly from Pfizer because they profited so much, and the rest of those big companies as well; indeed, I would like to see new laws and proper independent regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, regulation that is not rotten to the core with inbuilt nepotism. No one who was employed as a regulator of big pharma companies should ever be able to move over into jobs in that industry, ever again.
It is the doctors, actually, who I feel most sorry for; by which I mean, the ones who are still employed. (Many had to resign.) The Doctors, most of all, were victims of this insanity, because they were fooled and yet most of these people went into the profession wanting to help others.
Pray for the Doctors. When they really start to understand what they have done, I think they will be devastated. To the core.
Pray that when they see they will not despair; that they will turn to Jesus for forgiveness, that they will understand that they need to put on Jesus’ righteousness, and renew their vows in front of God Almighty - to do no harm.
change log
In response to Trish Frazier’s comment I made it clearer that we are saved by Jesus’ righteousness.
You are a much better person than I. I am full of anger for the senseles deaths, the people living in fear still. for all that our government whom we thought was a Constitutional Republic was , has done.
I am angry I didn't wake up earlier. I am angry at the sheep who live in fear.
I am angry I cannot hear God's will, except that these are the end times, and many will suffer, even the true Christians.
And I am angry that I think our country, which started out so full of God, has become the Whore of Babylon.
As a born-again, premillennial, pre-tribulation, surrendered follower of Christ, I agree with you that we must leave vengeance to our Lord and Savior, and he will certainly carry out His wrath in the Tribulation, sooner than most expect. In the Ephesians 4 passage you quote, however, I may vary from you in that I believe (supported by many Scripture examples) that our acts of righteousness are as a result of obedience to Almighty God and our Lord and Savior out of the immense love and gratitude we feel toward Him for our salvation, not as steps toward that salvation. ( Ephesians 2:8-9). When Christ died on the cross, he said, "It is finished."
Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit fills each of us with Christ's power to "sanctify" us in innumerable ways, in addition to allowing us to comprehend and "work out" the Scriptures in ways never possible before our salvation. Hallelujah!
I greatly appreciate your articles and your devotion to our Lord Jesus. We can disagree about the side issues. I look forward to seeing you as we are both on our faces in that spectacular Throne Room!