A Godly Life
Turn and Trust • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsChristians have leaned on the value of catechism for centuries to summarize their core beliefs. Originally, catechisms and creeds helped those without formal instruction to understand the things of God. Over time these catechisms turn into compliance mechanisms leading many modern believers to overlook their true value. It's time to get back to that and re-explore the catechism of our beliefs. Prepare to be challenged as we undergo the daunting task of declaring what we believe. This section covers the idea of a Godly life. Does a Godly life simply mean not sinning? If that is the case, aren't we all doomed from the start? How, then, do we live a Godly life in a practical sense without simply giving ourselves over to sin? The answer is the pursuit of Christ; a living demonstration of how we turn from the world and pursue God's ways even when we know we are bound to fail.
Notes
Transcript
Catechism
Catechism
Question: How does one live a Godly life?
Response: God commands that His children live holy as He is holy. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, forsaking conformity to the pursuits and passions of this world. This is our stated design, yet the flesh continues to corrupt. As we live and grow in faith, failure is inevitable. In moments of failure, we must remember that Christ has secured the soul through His sovereignty and that our mortal action possesses no veto power over the will of God. For the repentant, moral failure is a reminder of our mortal insufficiency which only magnifies the glory of God. Momentary moral failure should be confessed in the spirit of our repentant state and turned toward opportunities for growth, endurance, and increased resilience against the world. In moments of weakness, we cling to God’s strength to live according to His precepts. In moments of failure, we cling to the cross for confidence of God’s unyielding grace.
Remember From What You’ve Turned
Remember From What You’ve Turned
Our catechism thus far...
To “Be A Christian” = TURNING our intent from the world (repentance) and TRUSTING in God’s sovereignty
Implication -> We desire God’s ways over the worlds or those of our own making.
Nature of Sin = Our inclination to “miss the mark” (chatta), our iniquity and perverse version of truth (avon), and our outright rebellion against others and God (pesha)
Implication -> Because we have TURNED, we actively fight against our rebellion (pesha) and are continually working to purify perversion from our life.… but chatta still wages war for our soul.
Recall Cain...
7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
From the first two weeks, we see that ...
...our identity as Christians means a rejection of the world,
...and with it a rejection of intending ourselves towards sin,
...but sin continues to “crouch at the door” for all of us. Chatta is within our nature and continues to prey on our human weaknesses.
Million Dollar Question: What does a “Godly life” look like if there are elements of sin we can never fully get rid of?
“Be Holy as I am Holy” <— Repeated multiple times in Leviticus; emphasized by both Peter and Paul
16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.
7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.
But this is a HIGH CALLING!!!!
Being holy doesn’t mean lack of struggle....
11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
....Calls back to the chatta sin that laid waiting for Cain.
Recall that even Paul struggled...
Acknowledgement of residual CHATTA in his life...
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Acknowledgment of the solution (grace)...
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
Moral error is not seen in the Scriptures as a failure to meet the qualifications for salvation; it is characterized as a continuation of the war waged against the flesh as seen through the persistence of our inherently sinful natures.
A Godly Life in a Worldly Shell
A Godly Life in a Worldly Shell
If those who seek to live a Godly life are still bound to sin, then how to we live holy as God is holy?
ANSWER: Live a continuous surrender to Christ.
Starts with confession… “clean the soul”
8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Note: Cleanse us from unrighteousness —> MADE RIGHTEOUS
Builds with growth… “reform the body”
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, 3 if you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God—5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Godly Life —> living in a way that needs and depends upon God’s sovereignty over your own.
Acknowledgment that we fail and are helpless to win the war on our own. (Turn)
Being transformed more and more into that which is needed by the victor over sin. (Trust)
Here we introduce you to one of the most powerful images of Christ, and also one of the ones overlooked by so many in their pursuit of spiritual maturity: CHRISTUS VICTOR.
Christus Victor
Christus Victor
Victory over sin —> more than rhetoric.
Breaks the law’s power...
13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
The law necessitated a penalty for sin and the payment was death.
Christ, by being blameless and yet paying a penalty not owed, did something that would make THE LAW ITSELF UNJUST.
Christ’s victory —> Demonstrating SUPERIORITY to the law
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
If we believe in Christ our Victor, who has overcome the world and the law of sin and death, then we would be insane to not turn away from the world and follow it!
11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.
A Godly Life = Being an active participant in God’s victory over sin.
CONSIDER HARD THE MERITS OF YOUR LIFE… Do you live for the final throws of death or for the eternal throws of victory?
You stand on a battlefield with sin awaiting your downfall. Christ IS the victory. By your life, are you living as one clothed in victory or are you still clinging to the familiarity of defeat?
