© 06 Colin Melbourne
Part 1 of 2
Submit to God
God’s word commands us to be strong in Him, and in His almighty power.
To be weak in Him, and His power, is rebellion.
Obeying His command to be strong in Him, and His power, is humility.
To be strong, you humbly accept God’s word as your authority, believe it in your heart, confess it as true, and obey it.
Weakness comes from rejecting God’s authority by denying His word, and disobeying it.
Which are you: weak or strong?
Your replies to the following questions will answer that;
- Are you a sinner?
- Where do you stand with God?
- What authority do you have over Satan and demons?
False Humility is Rebellion
You still come across professing ‘Christians’ declaring themselves to be sinners, and think they are being ever-so-humble. Dew-eyed, they pucker-up, and take pride in displaying their ignorance of redemption, by muttering,
‘I’m just a sinner saved by grace.’
Is that you? Quit it, repent of your rebellion, and humbly accept the word of God.
If you have been born of God, the truth is; you were a sinner, but now you are a saint saved by grace.
Most of Paul’s letters were addressed directly to the saints, if you call yourself a ‘sinner’ you shouldn’t be reading other people’s letters. They are not addressed to you, but to the saints.
So decide what you are: A sinner or a saint.
Are you a new creation, a new creature, in Christ, or the same old sinner? Has the old gone, and the new come?
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Co. 5:17 KJV
Once you have been born of God, to claim to be a sinner, is to nullify God’s word, and the Gospel of Redemption, sealed in the Blood of God’s sinless Son.
I’m fully redeemed, a saint of God, washed in the Blood of the Lamb. I am not a sinner, but a child of God. I refuse to utter profanity by calling myself a sinner. Christ has given me perfect redemption, in His salvation.
Was Paul Redeemed or Not?
Religious people get nervous when you talk like this. They protest, and point out that Paul claimed he was the chief of sinners in 1 Tim. 1:15 KJV.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Indeed, but Paul was talking about what he was like before Christ saved him. He simply used the “I am” present-tense to emphasise his pre-eminence as a sinner in his prior state; claiming still to have been the worst sinner saved by Jesus.
Paul was not claiming to still be a sinner. No! that’d be a total denial of the new birth and the Blood-bought redemption that he enunciated and preached.
The point he is making is that he exemplifies the unlimited mercy and grace of God in Christ towards all men willing to repent and believe in Him.
Would the Apostle through whom God revealed, and explained, the fullness of the Gospel of redemption in Romans, deny that same personal redemption in First Timothy? Of course not.
Verse 13 makes this clear;
Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Was Paul still sinning, still blaspheming, and still killing Christians?
Was he, when he wrote that Scripture by the Holy Spirit, still the worst sinner on Earth? Clearly not! He was as redeemed as you and me, the only way anybody can ever be redeemed.
His point being; since Christ was willing, and able, to take the chief sinner, and make the worst into an Apostle of redemption, then clearly He’s willing, and able, to save every sinner, from the greatest to the least, and make them a saint of God.
And we all receive the same perfect righteousness: God’s.
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
See Ro. 3:21-24
How Dare You Say That!
Next, people will say that you are ‘claiming you never sin’.
No, but when I sin it doesn’t change my righteous nature, I’m still a new creation, I remain a child of God.
And through confession and repentance, full provision has been made for me to be cleansed continually, so that I can walk in God’s Presence as though I’d never sinned. 1 Jn. 1:9-10
Can you see the point? Please ask the Lord to show you what being saved really means, so that you can embrace your full redemption, and be a strong saint instead of a weak ‘sinner’.
Now, having digested that, you can answer the second question:
What is your standing with God?
Well, err, I’m not perfect, just doing my best to make it along y’know. I try to please Him, but I fall far short…
On and on professing Christians describe themselves like this, and think they are being humble!
It’s a terrible confession, totally undermining the Truth of what Jesus died to give them.
Please don’t talk like that, it grieves me, so imagine how much more it grieves the Holy Spirit. It comes from religious indoctrination programming Christians to think they are being humble when they condemn themselves.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph. 6:10 Holy Bible, KJV
Instead, have faith, and boldly say what God’s word says about Christians, because it is true.
Here’s my standing with God:
God is my Father, I am His child. I am accepted in the beloved. I have the same righteousness as Christ Jesus. He gave me His righteousness the instant I accepted His Sacrifice for me, and I’ll never lose it. I have eternal redemption, always. I have eternal life, God’s Life empowering every cell of my body. I stand justified before God, all the time. I live with God as though there had never been any sin in my past. We are partners, friends, lovers.
And so on. You can look up the verses to back all that, and find it is absolutely Scriptural.
If you are born of God, that is true for you too.
Make that your good confession.
True Humility
For the religious; this is sacrilege, arrogant, self-righteous, sinful pride at it’s worst.
No! That is being humble. True humility accepts what God says. I’m not self-righteous, I have no righteousness of my own, I ‘only’ have God’s, and I did nothing to get it, other than receive Christ as LORD.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Co. 5:21 KJV
Don’t ever be rebellious by denying what the word declares He’s done for you.
Agree with His word, walk in it, and He will transform your weakness into His Strength.
Next we discover: How to be Stronger than your Enemy
© 06 Colin Melbourne
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