We have been taught for years that one decision is all we need for salvation. This is not understood by many people. The “one” choice of Salvation is to yield all our decisions. Paul says that YOU are slaves to sin, which leads to death, OR to obedience, which leads to righteousness. Rom 6:16 Here is the same old question again. Who will control our choices as we walk through this life? When we received the right to make our choices, we did not receive the power to make all our choices good ones. This leaves us with only one choice that can save us from ourselves. We must yield our volition to someone who can always make the right decisions for us.
No one wants to be a slave. Unhappily, we have all been born a slave because oddly enough it is the price for our free choices. As seen in the verse above, our eternal choice is to live a life leading to death or a life which leads to righteousness. This is very frustrating to many people. They want to choose a life of fun and parties because a godly life seems to dull to them. However, the righteous life is necessary if we want to live with God. Paul also said that we must know that our old self was crucified with Him. (Rom 6:6) We accept this fact into our life by faith and live every day doing our best to make this truth real.
Church people like to say, “We believe, therefore we will live with God”. Many of these same people do not want to say, “We believe, therefore we have died to this world”. One of these statements is just as true as the other. The scripture says it this way, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him”.( Rom 6:8) These two beliefs do not stand alone; they are part of each other. We must accept them both or the Spirit cannot lead in our new life. Our baptism was a public statement of these very things. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that…we too may live a new life. (Rom 6:4)
The fact that we are dead to sin only applies when we are living in Christ. When we fail to yield our decisions to the Spirit and make our own choices, we are no longer dead to sin. The remedy is to immediately confess our sin and Jesus will forgive us because we are repentant. Remember that the old life is nothing like the new life. Making our own choices is being buried in the old life but yielding to the choices of the Spirit is being resurrected into life. We must learn to say “no” to people around us. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.( Rom 6:12) There will always be temptations but we can beat them by asking the Spirit to show us the righteous way to go.
So many believers are struggling to live for God. The truth is that when we are doing it correctly it is very easy. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. (Gal 5:1) For several reasons the Church will begin to place burdens upon a believer. Some have said that it is necessary to give work to people in order to keep them from wandering back into the world. Instead, we should be teaching people to rely on the Spirit rather than the Church. The Spirit will remind people when they wander. Jesus said that his burden is light. When the Spirit is motivating a person to fulfill a task it is done with joy and gratitude which makes it a light job.
Trusting God is the secret to a successful Christian life. All things work together for good to those who love God. (Rom 8:28) This verse does not apply to the general public that claims to love God. This only applies to those that are walking in the light by yielding their volition to the Spirit. People that give their life to the Savior have placed all their eggs in one basket we might say. We make only the decisions that He gives us. Our Lord does not want us to have a back-up plan. Give everything in our life over to Him no matter how much it hurts to do it. The sooner we get started trusting Jesus with our entire life the sooner we will enjoy the rest of God.
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