“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV)
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, it is not just so that we can have our sins forgiven so that we will now have eternal life with God in heaven, although that is how you will hear many people describe faith in the Lord. But the faith to believe in Jesus is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man. So we don’t get to decide what that faith looks like. God does. His word does. And his word teaches us that faith that is genuine results in us dying with Christ to sin and being raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin (Romans 6:1-23).
For Jesus said that if any of us would come after him that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, in the power of the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands, by the grace of God (Titus 2:11-14), then we have life in him (Luke 9:23-26). For if all we do is give lip service to the Lord, we will not enter into the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus will deny he ever knew us (Matthew 7:21-23).
Therefore, if our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine God-persuaded faith, then we should no longer be living like the ungodly, engaged in all sorts of evil desires. We should no longer have hearts which are hardened against the Lord and against his word, but our hearts’ desire should now be for the Lord, to live for him and to do his will. We should not be like those who give themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity, for that is not the way in which we should have learned Christ, if we were taught the truth that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
For if we were taught that truth that is in Christ Jesus, which is the gospel truth, we should have been taught “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness,” for this is what it means to believe in Christ. For the gospel of Christ teaches us that faith in Christ that is genuine will result in us dying with Christ to sin and us now living to his righteousness in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands.
So, don’t believe the lies that so many are telling today in the name of Jesus, and in the name of his gospel. For if we claim to be in fellowship with God, but we continue in deliberate and habitual sin against him, then we are liars. And if we claim to know God, but we do not obey his commandments (New Covenant), in practice, we are liars. For it is not those who profess faith in Christ who have salvation from sin and eternal life with God, but it is those who listen to the Lord and who follow him in obedience to his ways, who have forsaken their sins to now live holy lives, pleasing to God.
[1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Jn 10:27-30]
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Near the Cross
Hymn lyrics by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869
Music by William H. Doane, 1869
Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.
Near the cross I'll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand
Just beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
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