1147 - What Christ's Obedience Brings Us#
1147 - What Christ's Obedience Brings Us
(JP Text Group - Organized by Life Like an Eagle)
Today, the scripture we share is from 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 4-5,
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Our topic is: What Christ's Obedience Brings Us
Let us pray together first:
Loving Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you for your special grace. Today, on such a day, we come to seek you. Renew us through your word, and let us know how to walk. At this moment, you provide us with timely nourishment, supply our needs, and bless every brother and sister who comes before you. We are willing to open our hearts to receive your word, to know you more, and to gain strength. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen!
When it comes to obedience, what do you think of? Many people think of obedience as just listening and doing whatever is asked, regardless of right or wrong! It seems we don't need to have our own thoughts.
Of course, the obedience that God desires is not submission, but rather that He reveals to us what is good, and we willingly obey His word.
Micah 6:8 O man, the Lord has shown you what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
God wants us to know His goodness and to be willing to obey. But people have their own thoughts and may not be willing to live according to God's word, which leads to spiritual warfare. God's thoughts and our thoughts coexist in our hearts. Which one should we listen to?
The scripture we just read says that our weapons of warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. This warfare is invisible to your eyes, yet it truly exists, where? In your heart, in people's thoughts.
Therefore, the devil often influences people's thoughts through their mouths or through certain images. For example, if you read some books or watch some trashy movies, if their foundation is not built on the Bible, they will form a stronghold in your heart, which is what we just read as “strongholds.”
What kind of books you read will influence you. For instance, if you particularly enjoy reading martial arts novels, you might dream at night of becoming that great hero saving the world. Why do such images appear in your thoughts? It is because the books you read have influenced your thoughts and established a stronghold within you. Even if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, can such strongholds be established? Yes, they can. But we can, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, demolish these strongholds. Some worldly habits and customs can also influence us.
Let me give you an example: If your child is frightened by a dog and has a fever, what will you do? Many people would say, let’s call the soul back. Are you also influenced by this thought today? Why do you think we should call the soul back? Because people feel that their soul is left behind, right?
I ask the brothers and sisters, how many souls does a person have? If that soul is left behind, wouldn’t the person be dead? Why call the soul back? Where does this thought come from? You may not know, but it is influenced by that kind of knowledge.
Once such thoughts are formed, they become a stronghold. If Christians do not remove this stronghold, they will also be influenced by this thought. When your child is frightened, you might think, indeed, let’s take the child to that place to pray, let’s call the soul back in the name of Jesus Christ! This is not in accordance with the Bible. Once a person's soul leaves, the person dies. Brothers and sisters, understanding the truth will help you break free from these bindings.
Among those who believe in Jesus, what is the strongest stronghold? Many people today, after believing in Jesus, still believe that disasters are sent by God, that diseases are sent by God to teach us, to refine us, to make us pure gold, to make people obey Him. This is also a kind of stronghold because these thoughts do not align with the Bible.
Therefore, we need to remove such strongholds. In the presence of God, He has the power to break down those strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, because these strongholds will block you from knowing the Lord Jesus.
First, you need to recognize what the correct truth is. One thing we must determine is that God will absolutely not send disasters or diseases to teach us; God will absolutely not take away our health to discipline us. We need to thoroughly “demolish this stronghold in your heart in the name of Jesus Christ.” How can we demolish such high-mindedness and strongholds? By taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Today, if you want to overcome these strongholds, how can you do it? It is by what God says, taking your thoughts captive to obey Jesus Christ. Plant the right seeds in your heart, allowing those seeds to function normally within you, and those erroneous thoughts will naturally not influence you.
Let us share the first point, believing that Christ's obedience is your obedience.
Earlier, we talked about taking every thought captive to obey Christ. If we do not understand the Bible, we might think that today we need to strive through our actions to bind ourselves to fully obey Jesus' words. It seems that this obedience is something we force ourselves to comply with Jesus. If that is the case, people cannot hold on for long because this obedience comes from within you, and it is limited.
Romans 5:19 states, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
The answer is here. It is not my obedience, but the obedience of Jesus Christ. When you believe in His obedience, you are righteous. When you believe in Jesus' obedience, you are justified by faith.
Obedience is not about what we strive to do, but about believing in what Jesus Christ has accomplished for you. Hallelujah! When we have such thoughts and meditate on the work Christ did on the cross, our thoughts return to Christ.
Let me give you an example to help you understand what Christ's obedience is and how to break it down with God.
Many people pray for healing for their bodies. Some receive healing, while others do not. Then someone asks, why do some receive healing while others do not? Is God partial? No, so where is the problem? Is it the same in our church? Some people with serious illnesses are healed after one prayer; some people pray continuously without effect. Where is the problem?
Today, let’s discuss an example, and perhaps you will understand that the problem is not with God's power but with the recipient, who has strongholds in their heart.
For example, there is a person who is sick and comes to our church for us to pray for him. While we are all praying for him, do you know what this person is thinking? When we pray, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the stripes of Jesus, you are to receive His healing, Amen!” he is also saying “Amen.” But what is he thinking in his heart? The doctor showed me the CT report this morning, saying that the tumor is already in the late stage, has spread to the lungs, and to the heart, and there is no hope. The doctor said, you have no hope, go back.
He also thinks, you haven’t attended church for a long time. First, the devil builds a stronghold with such images, saying you are beyond saving. Then the devil says, look, you haven’t attended church for so long, do you think God will listen to your prayer and heal you? These are all strongholds. When he thinks about these things, he cannot receive healing from God. It is because that stronghold in his heart has not been demolished!
We who are praying may not know this. If that stronghold is not removed, healing is hard to manifest. It is that stronghold that blocks him from receiving God's healing. The same goes for you listening to the sermon today. If in your heart you have a resistance, saying, today I just want to see what this young person is talking about, I don’t believe you will say anything worthwhile! If you have such a heart, that is also a stronghold. Therefore, some people can receive grace here, while others cannot, because these people have such strongholds in their hearts. Unless you say, Lord, I am willing to receive your word, I am willing to open my heart, at that moment, that stronghold will be demolished by God's word.
When we receive such healing, we must first demolish that stronghold and obey Jesus Christ. You must believe that you will receive healing, and that your healing is not based on your good behavior, not based on your obedience, not based on the doctor's opinion, but on the word of Jesus Christ. So when you believe this way, because of Jesus Christ's obedience, the stripes He bore for me have brought me healing. This is the truth we should truly receive. Hallelujah! You must think, He has already declared me righteous, Jesus delights in me, and He is willing to heal me.
When a person thinks this way, healing will manifest in their life. So if you have a stronghold in your heart or a voice telling you that you must have good behavior for God to be pleased with you, at that moment, you must believe that it is not based on my performance, but on my belief in Jesus Christ's performance; it is not my obedience, but my belief in Jesus Christ's obedience on the cross. I receive His grace!
So whenever such a voice arises in your heart, saying, look at your own performance, you are not like a Christian at all, look at what you have done! Don’t forget, you have sinned again today. When such a voice appears in your heart, you must demolish that stronghold in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we must enter into the obedience of Jesus Christ with such thoughts, Amen! If you want to rely on your obedience, I suggest you give up because you cannot hold on for long. What we believe in is Jesus Christ, who does not sin and will never fail, Hallelujah! So when your life is filled with the grace of Jesus Christ, you will be victorious in all things!
Romans 6:14 tells us, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
What can sin bring? Death, and what else? Pain, disease, all come from sin. There is nothing good that comes from the consequences of sin; it is meant to destroy human life. But this scripture tells us, For sin shall not have dominion over you, meaning today sin is no longer your master. Who is your master? Jesus Christ is your master. So you may occasionally be overcome by transgressions, and one day you may accidentally be overcome by sin, but who is your master? Jesus Christ is still your master! These are two completely different concepts.
Today I cannot say: when I sin, sin becomes my master; when I confess, Jesus becomes my master again. Are you constantly jumping back and forth between two masters? That is impossible. The Bible clearly tells us that sin shall not have dominion over you; Jesus is already our master, and that will not change.
Many people always have some strongholds. This thought has not turned around; they will say that always talking about grace will lead people to sin more, making sin even more rampant. Brothers and sisters, the Bible has clearly told us that you are under grace, and sin shall not have dominion over you. Why do some people always make assumptions?
Some say, you don’t know, I have someone like that around me. Every time you give him grace, every time you speak kindly to him, he becomes more and more reckless. Just because we have such a person around us, should we give up on preaching grace to him today? Do not judge the majority by the minority.
There was a farmer who raised chickens and refused to deal with all Christians, thinking they were all superficially righteous but hypocritical inside. One day, a preacher went to his farm to buy chickens. The preacher pointed to a skinny, sick, and featherless chicken and said, I want to buy this one. At that moment, the farmer was very confused and said, you see all my good chickens, why do you want this one?
At that time, the preacher said, I want to buy this chicken and tie it to my front door. No matter who passes by my door, I will say, this chicken is from you, and all your chickens are like this! The farmer then said, you don’t need to do this to me. Look, I only have one like this; why do you say all my chickens are like this?
The preacher said, you only see one or two very bad behaviors among those who believe in Jesus, and you deny all who believe in Jesus. Because of one person's bad behavior, you say that all believers are hypocritical. Do you think that is appropriate?
Brothers and sisters, the summer insect cannot speak of ice, and the frog in the well cannot speak of the sea. They only see a part, a very one-sided part. We cannot deny all because of a very small number of people's bad behavior. The grace of Jesus has changed countless lives, as recorded in the Bible.
Many people have this erroneous thought of generalizing from a part, which is actually a stronghold in their hearts. Only when people demolish these strongholds can they freely receive Christ's provision. Otherwise, we always think there is no free lunch in the world. Is it really that simple to believe in Jesus and enter the kingdom of heaven? But in reality, it is that simple; this is the grace of Christ!
When you recognize the love of Jesus Christ, people do not want to leave the Lord Jesus. If a person truly understands the grace of Jesus, they will hate sin and will not deliberately indulge themselves in sin.
Romans 6:16 tells us, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
This scripture has already told us that today if you are a slave to sin, you are dead; if you are a slave to obedience, you become righteous. Do we have to obey God, strive to do good, and work hard to obey Jesus to become righteous?
Brothers and sisters, how many people today can become righteous through their own obedience? Not a single one can be found. What does this statement mean in the original text? The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Chinese translation of “leading to” seems to imply a cause-and-effect relationship, that being a slave to sin leads to death, and being a slave to obedience leads to righteousness. In fact, the original text does not have this cause-and-effect relationship at all.
What does the original text mean? When you are a slave to men and obey your master, you are his slave; when you enter into slavery to sin, it leads to death; when you enter into obedience, it leads to righteousness. Thank God! What is the difference between these two? What is a slave? A slave does not own anything; everything belongs to the master. Secondly, a slave does not have the freedom to leave the master because, in the past, a slave was merely part of the master's property.
Before people believed in Jesus, they were slaves to sin. They had no way to leave because people were always under the control of the devil. So no matter how hard people tried, they could not escape. Jesus Christ came to save us from the bondage of the law and redeemed us. What does this mean? He used an equivalent value to buy us out.
Let’s use a hypothetical example (let's push the time back two thousand years): There is a brother who has a slave he likes. I discuss with him, can you sell me this slave? He says no, I say ten thousand dollars. He says, here you go.
Brothers and sisters, do you understand? You must pay a sufficient price before he can give it to you. Is this a fair transaction? This is called redemption. From then on, this is mine.
Jesus Christ used His life, His sinless blood, and His body to redeem us from the power of the law. Now, whose are you? You belong to Jesus Christ. Can you go back? You cannot go back; you have no right to escape the master's authority. So today, once you are saved, you belong to the righteous slaves!
What does the term “slaves of righteousness” mean in the Bible? No matter how bad your behavior is, you still belong to Christ, unless Christ does not want you. But brothers and sisters, will Jesus not want us? The promise given to us in the Bible is that He will never cast us out; He will never forsake us, Amen!
This is God's promise to us. So we are all slaves of righteousness; sin is no longer your master. You have entered into obedience, into the obedience of Jesus Christ, so you are righteous!
When you believe in Jesus, legalists will say that if you sin, you might lose your salvation. But what do we say under grace? You are now a slave of righteousness; you cannot return to the old life of sin. You now belong to Jesus Christ; you are a child of God, and this identity will not change!
If you think you can become righteous by your own obedience, you are ignoring what Christ did on the cross, trying to establish your own righteousness instead of believing in Jesus Christ. Amen? Because Jesus Christ has already obeyed all the laws for us; He has fulfilled all the requirements of the law, Hallelujah!
The law is righteous and holy. There are no emotions involved; violating the law means bearing the consequences of the law. But the wages of sin is death. The sins we commit, Jesus bore for us, so He died for us. He paid the price of sin. He obeyed all the laws for us, summarizing the law by saying, I have completely fulfilled it. Hallelujah!
Then He said to those who believe in Him, today you all come and enter into the obedience I have completed for you, and then He calls them all righteous. Is it simple, brothers and sisters? This is the obedience Jesus Christ wants to tell us, to receive the work accomplished by Christ.
Share the second point, Christ's obedience allows us to reign in life.
Romans 5:12 states, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Brothers and sisters, sin entered the world through one man. Who is it? Adam. Then it says, when Adam sinned, who died? Adam died. Sin entered the world through one man, and death came through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. The terrifying part is here; because Adam sinned, all his descendants are sinners.
When we ask some people to pray for salvation, asking them to admit they are sinners, they say, I am not a sinner; I have not made any mistakes. It is not because you made a mistake; who made the mistake? Because Adam sinned, today all people in the world are sinners. Is that fair? It is unfair. He made a mistake; why should I bear the same consequences as him? Some say, this is really unfair.
The Bible also tells us, Romans 5:17 states, For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
Where is God's grace? As long as you believe in Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven by God. Grace is greater than the law of the past.
Adam sinned, and all his descendants became sinners; this is indeed true, and no one can change this fact. But God gives His grace; as long as you believe in Jesus Christ, you can be called righteous. The reason is only one: it is not because you perform well, but because of the obedience of Jesus Christ. From then on, we can reign in life. This refers to Jesus Christ reigning in our lives, Hallelujah!
Verse 18 states, Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation;
Is it that Adam committed one sin, and all men were condemned and became sinners?
Even so, through one righteous act, referring to whom? The righteous act of Jesus Christ, He bore stripes for us, suffered punishment for us, was hung on the cross for us, and died for us. This is His one righteous act. Brothers and sisters, how many times is this?
Do not casually use this to pray: Lord, I have sinned again today; hurry up and go to the cross, quickly, I can’t wait to confess! How many times did you nail Jesus? If it is countless times, there is a problem. This clearly tells us that through one righteous act, many will be justified and receive life! Hallelujah!
Two thousand years ago, Jesus, in that one act on the cross, His righteous act, we believe, He paid the full price for our sins. Hallelujah! So remember, it is once. Jesus Christ was nailed once, and we believe in Him, and we are justified, Hallelujah! His actions are completely obedient to God’s actions. Today, God sees us as obedient, Amen?
Verse 19 tells us, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
By one man's sin, we all became sinners; by one man, Jesus, His death gives us life. So today, it is Christ who reigns in your life. Hallelujah!
If today you hear that you have committed some sin, and God does not hear your prayer, he does not understand what this scripture is talking about. If you know you have already been delivered from Adam's old life of sin and death, you should know that today it is our Lord Jesus Christ who reigns in your life. Therefore, what you should discuss is not Adam's life but the life of Jesus Christ.
If in your life, your mouth speaks the words of Jesus Christ every day, and what comes from Him is grace and truth, your life will be filled with God's grace and glory. You believe in the obedience of Jesus Christ, which has become your obedience; His righteousness has been given to you. All this is not obtained by our efforts but by our belief in Him.
Romans 6:17-18,
17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
You were once slaves of sin. When? It was before you believed in Jesus. Now, how is your heart? Now you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. “This form of doctrine” does not refer to a doctrine or a teaching, but to a person, Jesus Christ.
So verse 18 clearly tells us, And having been set free from sin, what does it mean? Today sin is no longer your master; you have been set free from sin. Hallelujah!
Some say, what if I occasionally still sin? That is normal because we still have flesh, but even if you sin, it does not mean you still let sin be your master. For example, let’s illustrate the difference between a pig and a sheep. Is the pig comfortable in the mud? It loves to stay in there. You pull it out, clean it up, and soon it goes back in; it likes that place; it enjoys the filth.
The sheep hates the mud because it is a clean animal; it loves cleanliness. If you forcibly push a sheep into the mud, will it enjoy it like the pig? No, it will be very uncomfortable and will want to escape. This is the difference between the two. We are the sheep that God has cleansed, Amen! We may accidentally fall into or be pushed into the mud, but you wouldn’t say, oh, this is so comfortable!
You would feel very uncomfortable because you do not like that place. Similarly, believers do not like to sin. No one believes in the Lord to sin. When you feel very uncomfortable after sinning, it actually proves one thing: Jesus Christ is your master.
So when you sin, you should immediately think that Jesus Christ has already paid the price for this sin. You should immediately pray to the Lord, saying, Lord, give me strength to overcome this sin, so I do not do such things anymore. But the world is different; the world still finds pleasure in sin. We are not the same!
You have already been set free from sin, Hallelujah! You do not particularly enjoy sinning now; you may occasionally sin, but God will still save us because you are a slave of righteousness. Therefore, this change of identity is very important. You must know that because of the obedience of Jesus Christ, the one who reigns in life is not sin, not the devil, but our Lord Jesus Christ. Even if you sin today, God still calls you righteous because of God's love. You are now His slave, and your identity will not change. You will rely on God's strength to overcome all bad habits and sins.
Romans 5:20 tells us, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.
Brothers and sisters, what is the role of the law? The law is actually a mirror; it shows you how much sin you have. The law does not discount; it shows you exactly how much you have, so when we stand under the law, we find that there is not a single good place from head to toe. This is the effect of the law: to make people aware of their sins.
The law makes offenses abound, but the second half of the verse tells us that where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. No matter how much sin there is, grace can always surpass sin and even overcome sin. Thank the Lord! So whose power is greater? It is grace. When you enter into grace, you can overcome sin. It does not mean that today we keep the law and do not sin; you will still sin. But when you enter into grace, you can overcome sin, Hallelujah!
God's grace has never stopped supplying us. Even when you sin, even when you say the wrong thing, you still stand in grace, relying on Christ's grace will give you the power to overcome your sin, Hallelujah!
So what is the problem for many people today?
Romans 6:1 asks, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Should we deliberately sin to receive God's grace? Or do some people say, I am under grace today, so I can sin at will? Is there such a question?
Such assumptions do not exist. Who would willingly get cancer just to experience the joy of being healed?
So, Paul gives us the answer in verse 2, Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
In God's eyes, are we dead or alive in sin? We are already dead. Today, many legalists teach that you must crucify your old self and your sinful desires on the cross. But some still say, I will still sin! They say it is because you have not died completely.
The Bible tells us that you have died to sin. Is there anyone who has not died completely? Otherwise, you are either alive or dead; there is no one who is partially dead. What kind of person is that? Many people always come up with strange doctrines that sound reasonable but do not align with the Bible at all.
We who have died to sin cannot live any longer in it. In God's eyes, you have already died in sin. How can a dead person sin? They cannot. So you have died to sin. Today you live in Jesus Christ, living in His grace. Because of His obedience, the one who reigns in my life is Jesus Christ, not sin.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ has saved you from sin. Sin is no longer your master. How can you say you are still in sin, and sin is still your master? This is the meaning of the original text.
So let me read to you the original text: How shall we say then? Can we still dwell in sin that grace may abound? Absolutely not! We who have died to sin cannot live in it.
You can only choose one: either you have died to sin, or you are living in sin. There is no one who has died to sin and is still living in it.
We do not live in sin; we live in the grace of Jesus Christ. Thank God! When you understand all this, you must know that because of the obedience of Jesus Christ, you should receive all the grace that comes from His obedience, Amen! So today you are blessed, Hallelujah!
You are blessed when you come to this church because we teach based on the Bible, not only to let you know that Jesus Christ gave His life for you; but also to let you know that because of His obedience, you will receive His great grace, Hallelujah! He wants to give you His abundant inheritance. You are not in sin; you are in Jesus Christ, Hallelujah!
We continue to gather because we want to understand Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. We live relying on His grace, living out the glory of Christ. Hallelujah! Therefore, the longer time goes on, the more times you gather, the more you will understand that God's grace is increasing, Hallelujah!
Let us pray together:
Loving Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you for your special grace. Because of one man's sin, all men have become sinners, but because of the obedience of Jesus Christ, I believe that those who believe in Him are called righteous, and this identity will not change. Because of Jesus, you will hear my prayers, guide my path ahead, and make me different.
By relying on the grace of Jesus Christ, I can overcome all the sins in my life. By relying on the grace of Jesus Christ, as this new week approaches, I declare that in Christ, I am blessed by God. Everything I do will be prosperous because the Lord, your Son Jesus, is with me, the Holy Spirit is with me, and you will guide me in all things and teach me the path I should take.
Lord, thank you. I know I am a person of great grace. Thank you and praise the Lord; all glory be to you! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!