That actually, from a new kind of perspective, it is not
possible ever, ever, ever for a believer to backslide.
Why? Because for you today, your
standing with God doesn't depend on what you do or don't do.
God totally has disregarded that, like he said, because
there is no person who can ever be declared righteous in his
sight by the works of the law, by by what they do.
But thank God that through Jesus Christ, righteousness has been
given. And then it says all have sinned
and foreshots of the glory of God.
And thank God, he continues to say that we are all justified
freely. My gris and truth.
Band all our family. We are back with Part 2 of
backsliding. The topic of backsliding, you
would recall in the previous episode, we're talking about how
all of us have actually strayed away from God, as it says in
Romans 3, right? It describes all of us as
believers well before we became believers.
All of us, every single human being, we've drifted from the
Lord in one way or another, You know, so none of us can boast in
our words to say this is how good I've been.
This is how much I've kept the law.
And each of why each of us have turned to our own ways, as the
Bible says. And that set us free because we
know that we cannot be justified before the Lord by our actions,
because we spoke about how backsliding, it's basically
measuring, I guess, your position.
Towards. The Lord or your position in in
God based on your actions, based on what you've done, based on
what you have not done. And so when you just wrap it up,
wrapping up the, the intro, wrapping up the recap, we
basically just say that none of us can boast.
You know, in our works, none of us have perfect standing before
the Lord based on what we've done.
Our standing comes from Christ. And because of that we are set.
Free. Amen.
Now I actually want to ask you a question.
So we spoke about, you know, becoming saved.
The things you do, the things you can't do, they don't change
your standing before the Lord. Amen.
I want us to chat a bit about the new covenant perspective of,
you know, one person becomes saved and you know, they as
people like to call it, their own fire or Jesus.
Now what happens if that person starts to live?
I guess I'm saying, still saying I'm a Christian.
You're also believing in Jesus. Oh, but you know, from the
outside perspective, it looks like that you're a hypocrite.
Let's unpack that because that can also be seen as backsliding.
You know, from the outside, someone can be like, but you
gave your life to the Lord, but you are serving the Lord.
OK, but you're serving the Lord, but you're living with someone
you're not married to. You know, let's unpack that and
and and and specifically in light of the new covenant.
Amen. Yeah.
So I think we'll, we'll continue in Romans 3 in terms of in terms
of unpacking that. And you know, the last verse we
read was verse 20 where it talks about how no one will be
declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law.
Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin and
the Bible making it very clear that the the law actually makes
us conscious. It brings an awareness of the
sin, right? And and it brings really an
awareness of the sin that is in our heart through our, our
actions, right. And so if we continue reading in
verse number from verse #21 of Romans 3, then it says, But now
apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been
made known, to which the law and the prophets testify.
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to
all who believe. There is no difference between
Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. I'm sure a lot of us have heard
that verse writes faith, but it doesn't stop there.
There's good news. Thank God there's good news
because it says, and all are justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah, Amen. And then it says God presented
Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding
of his blood to be received by faith.
He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his
forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.
He did this to demonstrate his righteousness at the present
time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus Christ. And so to go back to the
question of now, what happens to you as a believer when you are
saved? But you know, you, you are still
In Sync, basically, you know, because obviously, you know,
that's how we define backsliding is that, you know, you're,
you're either you've gone back to do the things that you used
to do before you got saved, or, you know, the things that you're
supposed to be doing when you are saved, you are not doing
right. You see, The thing is that thank
God for Jesus Christ. Thank God for Jesus Christ in
that when Jesus Christ released us from the law, he released, he
released us basically from a covenant of it depends on you in
terms of your relationship with God you've been released from.
It depends on you. It depends on what you have done
or what you have not done. And so it speaks about how the
righteousness of God has been made known apart from the law.
Apart from the law means apart from from from do's and don'ts,
basically from commandments, right?
And it talks about how this righteousness has been given and
thank God for that, that it's not earned or anything like
that. It says it's been given through
faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
And the question is simple, do you believe in Jesus?
If the answer is yes, righteousness has been given.
Hallelujah. To you the.
Cross will be enough, yeah. Amen.
And and righteousness is simply right standing with God and and
what exactly is this righteousness that's been given?
It is the very righteousness of Jesus Christ because the whole
thing with backsliding right is that, you know, ultimately this
has to do with you're standing before God.
You know, we're not saying here that, you know, you can just go
and live however you know, but you see, The thing is that when,
when, because a lot of the time because we we don't know the
real truth about our relationship with God and much
Jesus has done. We still live in a in a posture
of law where we still think that it depends on our works.
Now ultimately what what this thing actually really is, is
that what we believe is that my right doing puts me in right
standing with God. That really, really is the
essence of this thing, which is a law mentality that that's
really is it because, you know, treat us as believers.
We all actually have a desire to please God.
The one thing that we do desire as Christians is to be a night
standing with God. That's why we feel guilty when
we think we've done things that are displeasing to him.
It's because we, we, we believe that because I've done those
things, now I'm actually separated from God because you
know, what I've done is not pleasing to him and, and whatnot
and whatnot. That is a law mentality where
you are saying that my right doing basically or wrongdoing
effects my standing with God. That that's in essence is what
backsliding is like we saw in, in the previous episodes in the
book of Jeremiah, when God clearly describes the, the, the,
the fact that because of their actions, because of the actions
of Israel, they turned from him, right?
God's definition there of them turning from him is that it is
based on their actions in Hosea, he says, you know, they began to
sacrifice to other gods and all that.
I mean, we saw in, in, in Exodus, you know, them building
the golden calf and worshipping it.
It is based on their actions. And the sad reality is that we
read that and we think that, or it's the same for us also today,
that if I am, you know, spending more time doing other things, if
I'm not doing this and I'm not doing this, you know, then the
same thing applies to me. I've basically turned my heart
from the Lord, right? And the Lord is rebuking me.
Or I can expect his judgement. Yo, that's crazy actually.
But yeah, the and I think that's just showing the importance of
as it says in the book of I think it's Timothy, we we pulled
to rightly divide the word of truth.
Amen. We need to understand the
difference between the old covenant and the new covenant of
grace. And you know, just the thought
that popped in my mind as you were talking it, it sounds
actually ridiculous what you say, because it almost sounds
like we're like, just get saved and you however where you want,
you're still in rise standing before the Lord.
We're obviously not saying that, but the fact of the matter is
even when we do wrong, you know, intentionally, unintentionally,
it doesn't change our standing before the Lord.
Now, I had a thought, it was about 2-3 years ago, I had a
thought I was reading my Bible even before reading my Bible.
It was just a conversation I had with the Lord and I'm asking
him, Lord, I hear what you're saying about this grace thing.
You know, you're saying that they, there's no list of do's
and don'ts in the new covenant, right?
It's we led by the Spirit. But I, I literally asked the
Lord like, but how does that work?
Like how people know what's wrong and what's right if
there's not a 10 things to obey, You know, the 10 commandments.
There's no such thing in the new covenant.
So I was asking the Lord in my thoughts, like I, I, I, I hear
you rude, but I don't know how. Like I'm supposed to live it out
and not just me, but you know, at least me.
I'm one person, but imagine the whole world.
You know how we're going to know what's wrong and what's right.
And I kid you not, that day the Lord was like open the book of
Titus. I had no idea what is in the
book of Titus and I'm just going to read it so that I don't
paraphrase it. And so this is in Titus chapter
2 and it says, and from verse 11 I'm just going to read verse 11
and 12. It says the for the grace of God
has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
It teaches us it being the grace of God.
It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions
and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this
present age. Amen.
I was blown away that day. I was actually blown away
because I'm like grace can teach us these things.
You know, we don't have to. It actually also reminds me of
another scripture in Galatians. We're poorly saying the law is,
let me just read it, Galatians 324.
So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might
be justified by faith. So up until Christ, it has been
the law, right? Keeping us in check, making sure
the do's and the don'ts we follow correctly.
But when Christ comes, he's fulfilled all of that.
So we no longer need the guardian because the reality of
Christ has come. And so after Christ, we have the
grace of God, we have the Holy Spirit that teaches us.
And you know what? The Holy Spirit is poured out
into every believer. There is no condition you use.
The minute you get saved, Holy Spirit is deposited in you and
he's the one who teaches you. Say no to ungodliness.
Say no to this type of lifestyle.
It's the grace of God that teaches us and we've actually,
not me, but like, I think societal Christians as a whole,
we've exalted the law above Christ and we've exalted the
do's and don'ts because we're scared.
We're scared that people go off and look their own ways.
But the the Bible says grace is there.
Grace is the one that teaches us.
Yeah. No, no, exactly.
And that's why when it comes to backsliding in order to and you
know what this comes from, I believe genuineness as leaders,
for example, in the church, you know, either we are talking to
new believers or, you know, people under us.
And because we genuinely desire for people to to walk in step
with the Lord and to not backslide, we teach them what
they ought to do and what they ought not to do.
You know, that's our perspective, right?
And like I say, it comes from a good place.
Unfortunately, because it is presented in that manner, which
is law, it doesn't actually help at all.
It actually perpetuates, you know, the situation in terms of
people's behaviour, you know, whether you are talking to a new
believer or you are talking to someone who's been saved for
none, as long as you are teaching from the perspective of
yeah, but you know, you, you shouldn't be, you know, as and
now that you are saved, you know, you need to make sure that
you are, you are reading a Bible.
You are doing this. You know, the Bible says the the
strength of sin is the law, right?
And like my wife was saying is that we believe that we meet the
law, right? It's like we, we, we take the
natural how in the natural, you know, we have laws to keep
order. Not for us as believers.
You know, one example I can make is the laws that govern our
road, for example. But.
People love to bring in fact. But you see, that's The thing is
that I'll be driving on the road and I'm driving at 140.
Now when I see a sign that says you ought to be driving on 20, a
lot of time, I'll still continue right until I see maybe that,
oh, there's a camera actually there.
Then I'll slow down, but The thing is that I haven't.
Actually changed? No.
Because what happens is as soon as I pass it, I pass that press
that accelerates, of course, you know, And that's the thing about
the law is that it doesn't change your heart.
Your behavior may change for a certain period of time, yeah,
but ultimately you always go back.
You always default, yeah? Unfortunately, and so that's why
we are talking about this backsliding thing from a new
covenant perspective, that actually from a new covenant
perspective, it is not possible ever, ever, ever fully believer
to backslide. Why?
Because for you today, you're standing with God doesn't depend
on what you do or don't do. God totally has disregarded
that, like he said, because there is no person who can ever
be deterred, righteous in his side by the works of the law, by
by what they do. But thank God that through Jesus
Christ righteousness has been given.
And then it says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. And thank God, he continues to
say that we are all justified free.
Now let's break this down. We're all justified.
Justified meaning we are all declared righteous and, and it's
a legal term. We are legally declared
righteous for free. Wow.
By his grace, by his unmerited favor through the redemption.
Now the word redemption means a ransom payment through the
ransom payment. You know, I believe we all
understand, you know, from movies and shows, you know,
payments being made in order to to be set free, you know, but we
were obviously in captivity to sin and through the redemption
that came by Jesus Christ, he paid the price for our freedom.
Now interestingly, verse 25 says God presented Christ as a
sacrifice. Of atonement through the
shedding of his blood to be received by faith.
And this is something that I was studying the other day that the
Holy Spirit just highlighted this word atonement in the new
King James. It says a sacrifice.
It says he presented Christ as a propitiation for our sin.
Now this word atonement or propitiation actually is the
word mercy seat, right? And it is a word that you'll
find in the Old Testament when the Bible speaks about the ark
of the covenant, right? Now what you'll find in the Old
Testament is that when they built the ark according to God's
instructions, he instructed them that inside the ark they must
put three items in it. The one is the 10 commandments.
The tablets with the 10 commandments were put inside the
parts of manna. The golden parts of manna was
also put inside, as well as Aaron's rod.
That budget was also put inside the ark.
And then God said you put them the mercy seat on on top of
that, because what God was saying is that you say those
three items represent actually Israel sin or rebellion against
God. They they rebelled and they
broke God's commandments. They rebelled against God's
provision. We know that in the, as as they
were walking in, in, in the wilderness, you know, at some
point they were complaining against the manner.
So they rejected God's provisional rebelled against it.
They they rejected God's leadership, which is why it, it
speaks about Ellen's rot. But what God said is that all
right, put the sin of Israel in the ark of the covenant and
cover it with the mercy seat, right, Because what God is
saying is that I don't want to see.
I don't want to see because if if God sees their sin, he has to
punish it. But you see, he puts what is a
picture of their sin rebellion inside.
And then he asked he he was trusting to put the mercy seat,
which is where the the blood used to be shaped.
In fact, on the Day of Atonement, when when the high
priest does the sacrifices to cover their sins for a whole
year, that blood was sprinkled on top of the mercy seat.
But The thing is that it speaks about God covering in at that
point in time. Yeah, all of their sin, right?
And we know today our sins are not just covered, they've been
taken away, Amen, from God. They've been removed from God's
sight, right. And and this all speaks of the
fact that God has dealt with the sin of men through the body of
his Son, Jesus Christ. And so when we read Scripture
and we emphasize so much the righteousness that we have today
and the fact that it doesn't depend on your actions, you
know, you may ask the question of, but then, you know, if God
is holy, how can you come and tell me that I sin but nothing
happens to me? You know what actually something
has happened to you. Amen.
You just didn't experience it. The Bible says I was crucified
with Jesus Christ. So actually you have paid for
your sins. So it was just paid in the body
of Jesus, you know, but it is a wonderful revelation from the
apostle point. And we know obviously it is the
Holy Spirit who gives indeed this amazing revelation that
actually you were crucified. So every time you fall into sin,
you, you feel like I'm inconsistent, you know, and on
all that and all that, and the devil comes to say, you know
what? Because you've done this, you
can expect nothing but bad things to happen to you or, you
know, you've backslidden. And whatnotes and whatnotes
remind him that you know what? I've already paid for the same.
Hallelujah. It is not you, it's Jesus.
You don't see that. Same on him.
Yeah, on him. Amen.
At the cross. Amen.
You know he's outstanding.
The Bible says even in Galatians 3, it says for you died and your
life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears, then also you will
appear. You don't need to read that
part. Just you know your life is now
hidden with Christ. Christ is your identity.
You know where you lack patience.
We you have to declare Christ as my patience.
You don't look to yourself and assess yourself based on but
this is what you know we love we all, all of every single
Christian. We love Galatians by fruit of
the Spirit and we love to say, but no, this is what your life
must produce. But it's a fruit.
You know, it takes time. Fruit takes time to be.
Yeah, Amen. But in the same way where you
lack the patience, you don't declare, oh, sharks, I need to
be better at being patient. You know, I need to be more
patient. OK, those are good.
But those are still self effort, like you trying to be patient.
But when you confess that Christ is my patience and you'll
receive his patience, you want to blink now?
OK, maybe not blink, but you as you just continue to declare it
whenever you fail. You know when someone cuts you
off in the traffic, when someone cuts you off in traffic, when
you know a cashier is rude to you, when something like that,
whatever happens, whatever the trigger is, Christ is your
patience. Amen.
When you lack forgiveness towards your spouse, towards
your parents, towards your siblings, someone who hurt you,
you, you don't try to find it inside and try to find the good
that they've done so that in your heart you can be like, OK,
but at least they've done this one thing.
Let me at least try to forgive. No, you're like, I have been
forgiven in Christ. I can forgive because because
Christ is the one who helps me to forgive.
It's not me trying my best so that one day I can hopefully
say, you know, I've forgiven so and so and so it's you.
You. We have to see it on Jesus.
We have to see, like you said, our sin on Jesus.
But we also have to see the things we are lacking.
We have to see them in Christ because he is our life.
And so we declare him and here we have.
We move and we have our being. Amen.
And that's exactly it. Is that truthfully we will
always lack or see lack when we look to ourselves, I know we are
always trying to find the wrong or when there is wrong, we see
in ourselves. The first thing we want to do is
you know, I need to change. I need to change, you know, now
thank God for again, the Holy Spirit reported that I, that's
exactly what was crucified, that I, you know, because the reality
is that like my wife said, even in that point in time, you don't
look to yourself and think, OK, how do I go about changing this
trait, whatever it may be in myself?
No, you take Christ as your perfection, He in that very
moment, whether it's patience you are lacking, whatever
struggle it may be, remember that He has become your new
identity, Amen. He has become your new identity
in that point in time. Remember that you are still the
righteousness of God in Christ, Amen.
And so to just conclude the the Bible in Romans 3 continues in
verse 27 to say where then is boasting?
It is excluded. Now what boasting is this?
It is the boasting of the law, right?
It is this boasting of because I have done this and this, that's
why I have confidence before God, right?
Because the Bible has made it clear that actually none of us
can ever actually say that. You know, when when we have that
confidence, you know, of we've done one or two things, right?
I know in our eyes, we don't see it like that.
We feel like we've done everything right, but it's not
true. Yeah.
If Jesus said to actually come and assess your life like the
rich young ruler who thought he's done it all right, he's I,
I, I have kept this thing since I was a young man or whatever,
something like that. And Jesus says, you know, go
sell all of your possessions and give to the poor and then come
and follow me. And he exposes what the young
man was not even away was in his heart, which is great idolatry
because he can't let him go. And so it says because of what
Lord the Lord that requires works.
No, because of the Lord that requires faith and then one of
my favorite verses in verse 28 for we maintain that a person is
justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
You know, in other words, truly this is what we keep standing on
when, when he says, we maintained, because there are
many people who obviously argue, especially in the context of
Jewish people, because Paul was actually going completely
against what Jewish people believe in terms of the law.
Hence he would say in the beginning, because I'm not
ashamed of, of, of this gospel, because for him especially there
is reason to be ashamed because the man is literally saying,
guys, actually it doesn't matter in terms of the law whether you
break it or not, you are still righteous in Christ.
He's going completely against the law.
So and they'll come and you'll say to him, Paul, you are
talking nonsense, brah, because go and read in the Old
Testament. Now remember when Paul was
writing this, he always didn't have this.
All they had was the Old Testament.
Yeah. And they can come and say to
him, Paul, how can you say that a person is righteous in Christ,
you know, apart from the law? How can you say that you saw our
fellow brothers and sisters who lived in the Old Testament?
You, You can't say. Clearly.
Sure. Which is exactly what's
happening today is that you people argue that no, but you,
you can't, you can't just say that a person, whether they do
right or they do wrong, they stand in right standing record.
You know what? That's exactly actually what the
Bible is saying. But the the the true reality and
the amazing thing about this extent you see the moment and it
takes really the power of the Holy Spirit to understand the
grace of God because when you get the revelation that you're
standing with God never changes you, you are as righteous as
Jesus Christ forever more right. That is what produces righteous
living. It doesn't cause you to actually
think to yourself, I'm free to do whatever now you are free.
That's the truth. And you can do actually whatever
you want and you will still remain righteous, but you won't
when, when it comes to addictions and things like that,
right? You may continue.
So when you get that revelation that you are righteous, yes, you
may continue for a time to keep falling into that addiction.
But you see the more you keep declaring as as you fall into
that sin, you reject the guilt of it and you declare to
yourself, I am still righteous, right.
It sounds like the Paul says you know that you are giving people
a license to sin basically because you are saying that the
person may as well just continue forever.
But you know the the the power of the grace of God is that the
more you declare every time you fall into that sin that thank
you. I am still righteous because of
Christ. All of this power packed verses
in Romans 3 that really really puts the focus on what Christ
has done. It will not be long that that
that that bondage on that addiction is just going to break
in and fall off. And, you know, you are truly
free when you don't have the desire.
Yeah. It's not just the part.
Outwardly, I'm no longer doing it.
Oh, I've gone a whole year without smoking.
I've gone a whole year without 1, two or three.
You know it. But inside you're dying.
You. That's not.
Freedom. It's not.
But when the Lord gives you and
frees you from that desire, that's when you're free.
Amen. And I think that's where we're
going to leave it on this episode.
Thank you. Thank you so much for watching,
see you in the next one.