get out of the way

Posted: May 3rd, 2010 | Filed under: life | Tags: grace | 21329 Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graceisforsinners.com%2Flife%2Fget-out-of-the-way%2Fget+out+of+the+way2010-05-03+16%3A05%3A35Serena+Woodshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.graceisforsinners.com%2F%3Fp%3D2132

Your sin is not what is keeping you from peace, joy or any other ‘fruit of the spirit‘. It’s the opposite. Being aware of your sin coupled with your belief that Jesus is who He says He is actually creates the ‘fruit‘. It’s found in the contrast. You need the dark to know when you see light.

No matter how many times sin punches his time card, there is no more payment to be made. Jesus made us debt free, even while sin is still clocking in with our time clock. Our sin was paid in advance and is now working in arrears. We don’t owe sin anything. We’ve been freed up to do other things.

The ‘fruit’ scripture talks about is not something you do, it’s something you get.

Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. -Romans 6:22 ESV

With everybody walking around with their ‘judge them by their fruit’ checklist, it’s no wonder people feel like they have to prove themselves. People have no problem carrying a knockoff as long as nobody else can tell. It’s all about perception.

Con’s decide what they want to be, learn what those people do and how they look and then emulate it. But, in order to not be questioned, they go the extra mile and get more extreme. You can tell the fake by their excessive embellishment. Inflated emotions and pimped out experiences are used like smoke and mirrors so people don’t have the space to question them. They sprinkle themselves in glitter because they don’t know how else to emulate ‘light‘.

…the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. -Ephesians 5:9 ESV

We are made ‘good and true‘ by faith, not by what we do or don’t do or how much glitter we have. The ‘fruit of light‘ is in us by consequence of faith. We can’t manufacture the ‘fruit‘ any more than we can produce our own salvation.

…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness… -Galatians 5:22 ESV

You can’t look at the list of ‘fruit‘ and try to display those things with behavior. They are the result, not the goal. They are the outcome, not the instigator. A person can set out a fancy bowl of fake fruit and all you can do is sit there and look at it. A hungry person won’t come to them.

peace…

You cannot have peace by not sinning because it is impossible to not sin. You get peace, the kind scripture talks about, through faith that the sin has been paid for. Peace is in knowing that, no matter what, you can never mess this up.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. -Romans 5:1 ESV

joy…

You cannot have joy by not sinning. If you had the ability to not sin, it would not have the ability to give you joy. The joy that scripture talks about, real joy, is only experienced through grace. Grace is experienced through faith that your sin cannot destroy you. Grace is God’s choosing to wipe you clean no matter how many times you come up filthy. Grace is God never giving up on you. If He never gives up on you, then you have hope and hope gives you joy. Real joy.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. -Romans 5:2 ESV

patience…

It is impossible to have patience without something to require patience. Someone who never suffers is never called ‘patient‘. In life, the worst suffering comes with the threat of losing hope. If you have no hope, then there is nothing for which to be patient. Life is full of loss, but the only loss that reaches into eternity is the one that threatens to take away your hope. Sin is the only threat that can reach into eternity and if you believe that Jesus paid sin in full, then the suffering that sin causes can only produce patience because believing in grace gives you hope.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance… -Romans 5:3 ESV

kindness, goodness, faithfulness…

There are so many people who are trying to do all the right things but have no peace or joy and it’s making them impatient, agitated and frustrated. If you’re paralyzed in the fight against yourself, then your agitation is competing with your ability to be kind. Your frustration is blinding your ability to experience goodness. If you have no faith, you have no ‘fruit‘. Especially ‘faithfulness‘.

You can’t do anything right enough to ensure you are who you’re supposed to be and are displaying what you think you need to display.

Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. -Galatians 5:23

You’re absolutely incapable of living out the life God planned for you. You’ve got to get out of your own way. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you’ll experience what real freedom is. One day you’ll be walking along, oblivious to yourself, and someone will point out your fruit. Fruit you didn’t even know you had.

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. -Romans 3:23-34

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