Following is a link to my last Rest Stop on April 28th:
That Rest Stop describes how the Law is an achieving system that has the sole divine purpose of exposing our utter incapability of ever achieving obedience to God's commands in order to be accepted by Him.
When a person recognizes this utterly sinful condition that condemns him or her to an everlasting separation from God, they have a choice to fall at the foot of the cross and receive Christ as their Savior.
You are no longer under law,
but under grace.
(Romans 6:14)
Christ's record of His perfect achievement of God's holy Law is given to them. A most gracious gift! All they have to do is to receive it by faith.
So, salvation is not only being forgiven of your sins, but also includes being rescued from the realm of law which is an achieving system and transferred with Christ into the realm of grace which is a receiving system.
This is why I wrote in the previous Rest Stop that grace is essentially the Person of Jesus Christ. We know longer have to futilely try to achieve a legal relationship with God, we are free to receive and to respond in a love relationship with God through Christ!
We are now married to Christ as a result of God uniting us with Christ through His death and resurrection!
You have become dead to the law
through the body of Christ,
that you may be married to another --
to Him who was raised from the dead.
(Romans 7:4)
KEY QUESTION
This Rest Stop is a follow-up to my previous Rest Stop and focuses on this key question:
How do we practically live out of this receiving system?
I believe God has a clear and concise answer to this question, and to the following related questions:
How can I do good works
without having a standard to go by?"
How can I know when I'm living
by the Spirit or by the flesh?
How can I know when I am receiving
from Christ who indwells me?
How can I know when Christ is living through me?
The answer is profoundly simple and simply profound!
WRONG ANSWERS
The answer is not: I know when I am receiving from Christ and He is living through me when my behavior is patient, kind, peaceful, etc.
And the answer is not: I know when I am receiving from Christ and He is living through me when other people respond favorably to my patient, kind, peaceful, etc. behavior.
And the answer is not: I know when I am receiving from Christ and He is living through me when I feel patient, kind, peaceful, etc.
These wrong answers put your faith in your behavior, in what others tell you, and in your feelings...but not in Christ Himself. Your behavior, your reputation, and your feelings can become standards for you to achieve.
And this puts you back under bondage of the achieving system!
This distracts you from your relationship with Christ, who is your source, including the source of your very life.
Did you receive the Spirit
by the works of the law,
or by the hearing of faith?
Are you so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit,
are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
(Galatians 3:2-3)
THE ANSWER
The answer is simple: I know when I am receiving from Christ and He is living through me BY FAITH!
The enemy will tempt you to think, "It can't be that simple!!" However, go before your Father prayerfully to have Him reveal this to you through His Word. Oh, this is sooooo vital!!
My dear friend and mentor John Best has well noted the following foundational biblical truths (I have added some emphases in parentheses):
If I've given up on my flesh to try to live the Christian life (by failing miserably under the achieving system of the law), and if I have seen that only Christ can live it through me (through God's revealed truth in His Word), and if I have asked Him to do so (by my faith nurtured in the receiving system of grace), why would He not do it (because He is perfectly faithful)?!
John further notes:
So I should not look to Christ's character to prove that He is living through me, I should only ask, "Am I trusting Him to do so?" If the answer is "Yes," then I am walking by faith and this is what pleases Him.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
(2 Corinthians 5:7)
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
(Hebrews 11:6a)
Another mentor Bill Gillham adds this warning:
Do not ask "How much am I trusting Him?" as if you needed a greater quantity of faith.
Bill's warning is also so helpful to me. For when we seek to have more faith, we are putting our faith in faith, and not in Christ Himself! And the very seeking of more faith puts us back in the achieving system!
CLOSING
