Many of us say as Peter, “I will die with you!” But in reality we wont even obey His Commandments. No, I am not talking about the Law I am talking about love which is displayed by extending grace. We wont extend grace out to those who have hurt us, abused us, mistreated us, lied on us, but we say we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? We lie.
Or we read where Jesus said if we divorce we are to remain unmarried until our spouse dies. Yet, we say that doesn’t pertain to “my situation”. Or He doesn’t really mean it like that. That is legalistic…no the law would have you stoned to death…yet we say we will obey Him to the death? We lie.
He says to forgive your enemies, that love will cover a multitude of sin. Yet, we want to make sure everyone knows exactly WHO did WHAT, WHEN, WHY, and HOW in order to defend our actions, though we say we forgive them. We lie.
We will outright condemn others for sins, say they have “a huge reckoning coming”, say “I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes at judgement”, etc yet our hearts are not clean, instead full of anger, hostilities, envy, wrath, judgemental, unforgiveness. Though we will quote “judge not lest ye be judged”. We lie.
In order to be able to make it to the end we must go through the furnance of affliction. We will be tried as by fire, we will go through extremly hard pressing times, just as a diamond 💎 endures great pressure so must we. It is during these times we will either be purified or we will walk away. Dying to self, pleasures, wants, a marriage God calls adultery, gossip, hatred etc must be burned out of our flesh we must be purified. No one with a spot, wrinkle, or blemish will enter in.
No, we are not saved by works at all. We are saved by grace through faith, and, just like we cannot see the wind, we see the evidence it like, leaves flying, branches moving, hair being blown. It is the same for us when we are born again, the evidence is a transformed life, a new heart with Gods love put in it. We forsake our sin with Godly sorrow that He gives us as He shows us how ugly sin against Him is. How sin keeps us in bondage. How sin brings death when completed. We will have love, joy, peace, we will pray for those who hurt us and forgive them, not gossip about them. Yes, there is a sound firm foundation to those who are born again, but it is not easy and it will entail many tears, heartaches, isolation, and at times great temptations.
Watchmen On The Pod 