Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Danger Of Serving In The Flesh With Our Own Strength

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."


"We are delivered from the law, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" Romans 7:6.

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The Galatians 2:20 verse so familiar to us--many of us have it memorized, but do we grasp the depth of it?

One of the major dangers that as Christians we can easily fall into is depending on our own strength and striving in the flesh rather than depending fully upon Christ.

Anytime we are doing anything out of our own flesh or trying to  "get victory"our own strength, it is not going to bring God glory-and it isn't going to work.. The only way to bring him glory is to depend upon him to do it through us.

Every time that we start serving out of our flesh in our strength it is as if we are putting ourselves back under the law. which we can never fulfill. Christ fulfilled the law, however, just because we are no longer under the law, this does not mean we should just live sinful lives.

We must abandon all self-effort.

Why did we have to be crucified with Christ? Part of the reason is that apart from Him there is nothing good in us.

The solution is not "trying to do better"--the solution is  depending on Him to work in and through us moment by moment. We must walk by Grace through faith.

Andrew Murray put it this way,  "Happy is the Christian who understands that his greatest danger is to fall under the law--to be eager to serve God in the flesh with his own strength. Happy is he when he realises that he is not under the law--which demands and yet is powerless through the flesh--but is under grace where he simply has to receive what has been given. Happy is he when he fully accepts for himself the promise of the Spirit who transfers all that is in Christ to him. Yes, happy is he when he understands what it is to live by faith--to serve, not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit." (The New Life By Andrew Murray-- from chapter 26 "The Life of Faith")

As believers, there is nothing we can do to cause God to accept us more than He already has. We ARE accepted in the beloved.

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