As the sons and daughters of God, we are called to do one thing– “to fulfill the word of God” (Col. 1: 25). That is our destiny and what we are to do.
God has spoken from the beginning His word about what will transpire on this earth. And it is a mystery to unregenerate natural man. It is also a mystery to babes in Christ whose senses have not been exercised “to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5: 14). What God has spoken and written down for His earthly creation is a “mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations,” but now it is being made known to His elect, the ones He has chosen for the end time happenings (Col. 1: 26).
It is then to His elect that He is revealing this mystery, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v. 27). To get Christ fully formed in His elect–to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus/Yahshua”–that is the work of His called out ones. That is the “word of God” that we are “to fulfill.”
What Hinders the Spiritual Growth to Get to “Christ in You, the Hope of Glory”?
What hinders the new Christian’s growth? In a word–sin. For they are taught by their pastors, preachers and priests that they will never stop sinning. But that is a lie. The apostle Paul urges new Christians to “be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4: 14). The way of growing from a spiritual child to a spiritual adult is not be deceived any longer by cunning and crafty men who teach false doctrines.
Paul already has said in this same chapter that God has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “for the perfecting of the saints”! Perfection of Christians sounds like a stupendous growth in God. You mean it is possible? I mean, to grow up and be just like Christ? Paul believes so. In fact, he says that this perfecting through the teaching of the truth will continue “till we all come…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ!”! (4: 11-13) And we know that this perfection cannot be attained if one is still sinning.
Paul spends most of the rest of the book of Ephesians urging new followers to put away sin out of their lives and “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (4: 24). No more lying, selfish anger, no more stealing, filthy talk, and malice (4: 25-31). In other words–No more sinning. “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words” (5: 5-6). How can a man deceive the new Christian with vain words? By
telling him that he can do all these things and still have an “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Or to put it another way: You can be a Christian in good standing and still sin.
This Is a Hard Saying–Who Can Hear It?
Many reading this will stop and say that I’ve gone too far. That’s fine. “They that have ears to hear, let them hear.” This message is for the few–like I stated in the previous post last time. But this is crucial for those wanting to grow all the way in this thing. It is to you I am writing anyway. All others with God’s help will be what they are meant to be. My job is to teach the truth to the elect so that they can grow. And He has shown me that this concept is what will hinder the elect from growing. This is crucial. Bear with me, and let me explain more fully.
Faith (Belief) Is the Key
Now this growth process inside of a believer is an invisible spiritual happening. It takes belief without seeing first. Faith is believing, having not seen the evidence as yet (Heb. 11: 1). It is believing what God said, not what some man said He said. And this goes for the sin question, too. It is all about believing His word as to how to get rid of sin (and sinning) in our lives.
Sin is deceitful. It is born in deception and it breeds deception. It was born of a lie and it spawns more lies. And its most powerful lie tells new Christians that they can’t escape its clutches. Organized religions keep people in the prison of sin through the lie that they can’t live without sinning–that you are a sinner and will die a sinner. Ironically enough, some preachers pridefully preach this every Sunday! They say that you will always be held captive by sin–that you cannot escape its bondage! In other words, they tell the people that God is not strong enough to break sin’s hold on you. But be not dismayed; God will accept you even though it is impossible to stop sinning against Him, if you just accept Christ.
But wait a minute! I thought “with God all things are possible” (Mark 10: 27). And, “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1: 37). And, “All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9: 23). I mean, even the LORD, Yahweh Himself, answered Sarah’s incredulity about having a baby with this question, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD/YHWH?” (Gen. 18: 14).
And so He is asking every one of us: Which is easier for Me to do? Grant Sarah a child in her old age, despite the “deadness of her womb,” or grant unto you a new heart that does not sin against Me? Which is the “easier miracle” for Him to perform? To God it is all the same. If it is in His will, He makes it happen.
The preachers say that you are in bondage to sin; you can’t escape. But God says “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7). The preachers say, “I sin every day.” But God says, “He that is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because He is born of God” (I John 3: 9). If we are not saved from sin, then what have we been saved from?
You won’t hear the message contained in Romans 6. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Shall we go on sinning, breaking the Ten Commandments, so that His grace can be exercised to its fullest extant? Answer: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” (Romans 6: 1-2). Since the true salvation experience begins at the cross, baptized into His death, how can we continue to sin when sin has died inside of us (6: 3-11)?
Of course, very, very few will be preaching on this come next Sunday morning [or Saturday, for that matter]. Even if they know about this message, very few understand it, and fewer yet believe it, so they stay away from Romans 6 like the plague.
But it is this very message of the death of our old sinful self that opens the door. What door? The door to the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The door to the secret of Christian growth. The door to the overcoming of sin in our lives and growing up to be like Him.
This “hope of glory” is not just a ticket to heaven, which is what the little babe in Christ wants from the Father. No. This “hope of glory” is our hope that Christ would be fully formed in us during these latter days–that the “greater works” that He promised His followers would do–that would be fulfilled in and through us! That we could actually walk like the early apostles and the prophets of old!
That we could be the “called according to His purpose.” That we could actually be those He knew before we were ever born, those who He gave a destiny before we were born “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” And so He pre-destined us, called us, justified us, and soon, oh, so very soon He will glorify us! (Romans 8: 28-31).
And there is nobody that can separate us from Christ’s love for us. And there is nobody who will succeed in stripping away our glorious growth into His manifested sons through lies and deception.
But this vision of full spiritual Christian growth hinges on getting past the deceitfulness of sin. “The counsels of the wicked are deceit” (Prov. 12: 5). Or, in other words, The words of the sinner are deception.
Their unbelief in God’s power to deliver keeps people in bondage to sin and sinning. This is where the deception lies. A Christian cannot grow when they believe that they cannot keep from sinning with God’s help. This is the key that will unlock the door to Spiritual growth.
Through Christ we receive a new heart; the old heart is passed away once and for all. Man says that it is impossible to be rid of sin in your life. But God says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18: 27). Christ’s own words. Hallelu Yah!
[If you find someone that teaches these things, you have found a very precious thing. Hold them near and dear and never let them go.] KWH