Sin, Morality, and Christ's Life

WHAT DOES "SIN" MEAN?

The term in Greek and Hebrew means "to fall short of the goal, miss the mark, and to fall short of one's destiny."

When God created Adam, He gave Adam his own divine life and very nature. His goal for was for all of mankind to be in complete union with Him and to participate in His Divine Life fully and to enjoy communion with Him.

When Adam sinned he died to the Divine Life and union with God and no obedience to any law could ever restore him to the Divine Life.

The real issue was the loss of the Divine Life not the violation of the law. If sin is only a violation of the law, then morality consists only in obeying the law. Such morality could not contribute to one's salvation, but could only render one completely alienated from Christ.

The essence of sin should also not be understood as a rebellion against God's will in a legalistic sense, nor to fall below a given norm of behavior. To sin means to violate God's will. Sin means to fall short of the destiny (mark, goal) for which man was created. Since the "goal," "destiny" and "mark" for which man was created is full communion with God, to partake of the Divine Nature), sharing in His glory and immortality, then "sin" means to fall short of the destiny of the participation in God. Sin is not the failure to live a moral life

SIN IS MORE THAN BREAKING A LAW OR A MORAL CODE.

Death is not a punishment of God: it is, rather, the result of man's failure to live up to his destiny of participating in God's immortality. Death is the primary manifestation of separation and alienation from God; it is also our principle source of bondage (Heb. 2:15 ) and the driving force behind individual sins. Thus death is the "sin of the world," and as a result of what Adam did, all of mankind is in a bondage to the manner in which the world deals with the question of death, as Paul again says, "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world..." (Gal.4:3). The Apostle expresses this concept of sin when he says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". In Adam everyone has missed the mark and has fallen short of the goal of their destiny, which is to participate in the glory of God. In Adam, all mankind, therefore, became "sinful" and each person became a "sinner". Death is both cause and result of missing the goal of the immortality which results from union with God.

Do not forget it was Adam's and Eve's eating and participating in tree of knowledge of good and evil that was the cause of their death. After that mankind became obsessed with attempting to be moral by doing certain things that they considered to be good and avoiding certain this they considered to be bad. No morality could ever make them alive again.

Morality is not even the real issue. Sin than is not a moral issue at all and really has nothing to morality at all. True Christianity is the embracing, enjoying and participating in Christ’s Life as much as he knows and sees.
The true Christian who is participating in his union with God is not concerned about morality because he knows that it is Christ’s Life alone that makes him fully acceptable to God.

Many religions, including the Christian religion, emphasize the embracing of a moral code with proper behavior to be acceptable to God. In fact they define morality as keeping the law and good proper conduct.

Now the truth is the embracing of any moral code becomes a substitute for the True Life that only comes from Christ. It also becomes a substitute for the transformation of the heart.

Anything that causes us to be arrogant, prideful and lead us to the judging and condemning other people is completely contrary to true Christianity, the Life of Christ.

Now this emphasis on embracing a moral code which seems to be very prevalent teaching in many denominations across America is a complete and utter lie. In fact, it really is hearsay because it offers an alternate way to the life of Christ and an alternative for the transformation of the heart.

This is a false gospel because the embracing of any moral code, law or even good behavior can never produce the life that is required. It has no effect on changing or transforming any person's heart. It is totally imposable for it to even affect the heart in the slightest way.

This moral code often becomes a platform on which many view and judge other people. Any person who is seen deviating from this code is criticized and many times even condemned.

When anyone moralizes any issue whatsoever they actually make any solution totally impossible.

True Christianity is not a moral force that shapes and controls a person life. True Christianity is not following the teachings of Christ. It is not the embracing of any doctrine, creed, law, code or anything seen as virtuous at all. It is the embracing of Christ’s Life and enjoying the union with Him and to participate in His Divine Life fully and to enjoy communion with God.

Morality can never transform your heart or give you life. It is only by embracing Christ’s Life that you experience total acceptance by God.

Any teaching which teaches the embracing of any moral code with proper behavior to be acceptable to God is total hearsay!

My point is that a person can practice and follow the teachings of Christ without ever experiencing His Life.

Gal 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Then I guess you agree with my statement that true Christianity is not following the teachings of Christ. It is not the embracing of any doctrine, creed, law, code or anything seen as virtuous at all. It is the embracing of Christ’s Life and enjoying the union with Him and to participate in His Divine Life fully and to enjoy communion with God.

I posted this before but here it is again.

What Makes Us Christians?

Is it what we believe?
Is it what we do?
Is is what we do not do?
Is it what we think?
Is it our doctrines?
Is it our faith?
Is it our love?
Is it by effort?
Is it our religion?
Is it our morals?
Is it our values?

No to all of this!!!

It is CHRIST"S LIFE ALONE INSIDE US THAT MAKES US CHRISTIANS!!!

He is the Christian in me - I am dead. - I have HIS LIFE

1 John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

There are only two possibilities; you are either "in Adam" or "in Christ". You are either a Christian or you are not. Either you have Christ's Life or you do not. There is no in between when it comes to being a Christian. No person can ever be partly dead and partly alive. You must be one or the other. Dead men do not have Life and living men are not dead.

Christian living is nothing less than His Divine Life being expressed through our mortal bodies. Many Christians struggle because they fail to understand God's method by which they may experience consistent victory. Why can't they live the Christian life? The reason for this is that God never intended for them to live it. Only one Person has ever been able to live the Christ-life and that Person is Christ Jesus Himself.

Every true believer knows that he did nothing to become a Christian. It was God's gift to him. He simply trusted Christ. Yet many believe that they must now do something to become a victorious Christian. So they substitute trying in the place of trusting. Then they wonder why it won't work. The fact is that it will never work! No matter how honest and sincere they may be, how hard they try, or how much they ask for God's help, they will never be able to live the Christian life. Christianity isn't hard for to live, it's completely impossible!

The fundamental characteristic of the Christian's life is that Jesus has given His Life to us and desires to express it through us at every moment. Christian living is not us trying to live it. It is Christ simply being Christ in us and living through us at every moment.

God expects us to fail when we try to obey the law. The fact is that God never intended us to live by the law at all. We were created to be the dwelling place of God. The purpose of the law is to show us our inability to keep it and bring us to Christ. God uses the law to show us that we can not depend our own efforts and strength and to show us our need for Christ. After we see our true need for Christ we then can turn to Him in utter dependency. Otherwise, we would continue to keep trying to please Him.

Don't be disappointed in yourself if you fail. We should never be disappointed since God is not disappointed in us. To be disappointed is to have an unfulfilled expectation. God knows everything about us. He has no expectation of us in our self and neither should we. God is not disappointed in you because His expectation is that you should give up trying to be a good Christian and make abiding in Christ and obeying His inward speaking as your ONLY objective. Christ is the Christian in you - you are not the Christian. You need to abide in Him for your daily living. Christ knows exactly how to be the perfect Son of God. He is working to turn us from self effort to trust Christ within.

Read this quote by Bill Freeman

"Christ is the Christian life.

Col. 3:3-4 "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

The oneness between believers and the practice of the church are both dependent on the centrality of Christ. Christ is the center. Indeed, Christ Himself is the reality of the Christian life and the church life. When Christ is my center, I am free from my self. I am free from self-consciousness. I am free from self-condemnation. I am free from anxiety. I am totally free because I died and my life is now hidden with Christ in God. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

Christ is our joy. Christ is our encouragement. Christ is our faith. Christ is our living. We interact with Him in everything in our lives. We interact only with Christ. Our interaction is not with ourselves—with self-reflection and self-condemnation. Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). He is "all and in all" to us (Col. 3:11). Jesus Christ is the Christian life. We need to look away to Him. Look away from yourself. Look away from your failure. Look away from your bad mood. Look away unto Jesus. Christ is the centrality of everything in our Christian life. He is the Christian life itself in every aspect."

We've always thought that we needed to be delivered from sin, the world, the flesh, etc. But actually, we needed to be "delivered for reliance upon the law and our own efforts," to trust Christ in us.

God wants us to know we're delivered from the demands of the law because Jesus has fulfilled it. We were also redeemed from the curse of the law."

Matthew 5:17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

Galatians 3:13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."

2 Cor. 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.'

Col. 2:14, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."

Heb. 11:5, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."

We all know that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Attempting to keep the law or attempting to live by any moral code can never please God.