Last week we learnt how Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts and knocking. God wants a close and intimate relationship with us but He is not going to force us. I think as Christians, learning to abide is one of those lifelong lessons that will carry us through the hard times.
If we know we are loved and we know just how good our wonderful Saviour is, what stops us from abiding? I think sometimes its because of sin or because we don’t believe that a relationship with God is that simple so we try to win Him over with our works.
Galatians 2:16 says, “we know that no one receives God’s perfect righteousness as a reward for keeping the law, but only by the faith of Jesus, the Messiah! His faithfulness has saved us, and we have received God’s perfect righteousness. Now we know that God accepts no one by the keeping of religious laws!”
What does this mean? It means we cannot get saved or get extra credit with God because of our works. There is no amount of good deeds and following the ten commandments and giving to the poor that one can do that will buy them a spot in heaven.
The word “righteousness” in simple terms means right standing. We do not come to a place of right standing and acceptance by God based on anything we do. If we could, we would not need Jesus. We are made right with God based on what Jesus did! This is good news!! This means there is no sin that should be able to get between you and Jesus. That is, there is no sin that will make the Vinedresser come chop you off from the Vine. Why? Because we have received the atonement for our sins in Jesus Christ.
That means, when Jesus comes knocking on the door of your heart, He is not coming to judge or condemn you. John 3:17-18 says (and this is Jesus speaking), “God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it! So now there is no longer any condemnation for those who believe in him, but the unbeliever already lives under condemnation because they do not believe in the name of the only Son of God.”
As believers, we do not need to accept condemnation. We are never doomed, trapped, stuck or unable to be saved. There is always hope in Jesus Christ.
Does this mean when we are abiding, we can sin and do whatever we like, and it does not matter? Galatians 2:17 says, “If we are those who desire to be righteous through our union with the Anointed One, does that mean our Messiah condones sin even though we acknowledge that we are sinners? How absurd!” The Bible says no to that. Sin separates us from God, repentance brings us back into relationship. It is like getting in an argument with a friend. Are you still friends? 100%. But is it comfortable to be around each other? Not really. So, what do you do? You distance yourself. That’s what we do spiritually when we sin. We feel some type of way and distance ourselves from God.
So what does abiding look like when we sin? It looks like a kid who has been rolling around in the mud who sees their mom come around the corner wearing all white. Does the kid stop to think “Oooh I don’t want to go near mommy because I am dirty”? No, they drop everything and run right to mommy and grab her by the legs waiting to be picked up, mud and all.
That’s how God wants us to be with Him. Instead of distancing ourselves, we just need come to God, repent and ask for forgiveness. We stand back and hide because we feel shame, condemnation and sometimes, downright dirty and messed up. But God says, “I have come to rescue you. To wash the mud off you before it dries up and causes more pain. Run to me and I will lift you up in My arms.” God doesn’t care how dirty we are. He does not wait for us to grab His legs when we run to Him. He sees us running to Him, He runs to us and He scoops us up in His arms.
Abiding is knowing that you can always run to Jesus. You do not need to live life disconnected from the Vine, powerless and defeated by the devil. You can run back to your Father. Jesus blood on the cross paid for all our sins, past, present and future. So when we do sin, we do not need to feel hopeless and condemned, we just be that little muddy kid that runs to mommy to be picked up and cleaned up. Stay connected to Jesus, there’s no need to disconnect because of sin.
Love and blessings,
Melissa Tsingano.
Heavenly Whispers Blog 