Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the potter's field, as the lord directed me.” [Matthew 27:3-10 NASB]
I have no doubt that Judas was truly remorseful. He tried to undo his wrong by returning the money. He appealed to the priests sense of justice by saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But to no avail. In the end, he failed to do the one thing that was needed. He didn't turn to God for forgiveness.
At times in my life, I have sinned. And in the shame of that sin, I have carried the guilt. I have allowed it to sit as a barrier wall between God and me. I have allowed my relationship with God to grow cold because of the guilt that I continued to carry.
Over the years, I have learned the folly of that type of living. By God's grace, every sin in my past has been brought before Him and forgiven.
I have learned to live by grace, and not as a slave to sin. As Paul said:
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. [Romans 6:12-18 NASB]
Jesus has set us free from the bondage of sin, but we can still choose to live either in sin or in righteousness. I know there are those who believe that we cannot be free from sin. They believe this because of their own experience and because they don't understand the scriptures or the power of God.
When I say that we choose, I don't mean that we have the power within ourselves to overcome sin. I mean that we can choose whether to submit ourselves to the power of God in our lives, or we can choose to submit ourselves to the desires of our flesh.
Paul said, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. [Galatians 5:16 NASB]
He goes on to describe the difference between the flesh and the Spirit.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [Galatians 5:19-21 NASB]
These are not commandments. Paul isn't saying, "Thou shalt not..." These are the deeds of the flesh that manifest when we live for ourselves instead of for God. By saying, "and things like these", he is not limiting or defining the flesh, but is merely pointing out what is obvious and common sense. These things are of the flesh, and are therefore of sin.
He goes on to say:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. [Galatians 5:22-23 NASB]
If you are living your life for God, walking in the Spirit, keeping your mind set on Him, then your life will bear godly fruit, and it will look like this. Once again, by saying "against such things," he is not making a comprehensive list called the "fruit of the Spirit" but is demonstrating an example of a godly life.
Notice the singular use of the word "fruit" and not "fruits". It wouldn't be appropriate to say, "I have love, joy and peace, but I need to work on patience." That would contradict the message of grace that he is teaching throughout the book of Galatians that our sanctification is by Gods grace without works, just as our salvation was.
And you can't separate these attributes as individual "fruits". They are all manifestations of the one fruit of the Spirit. If you say, "I need to work on patience", what you are really saying is that you are not displaying the fruit of the Spirit in your life. The solution isn't to "work on patience", but to draw closer to God in prayer so that He can change you.
Turn your mind toward God, and let the fruit of His Spirit grow in you.
Don't think of these things as rules to live by, but as signposts showing the way.
The difference is this: if you live by rules you will say, "I must not have immorality, impurity, sensuality and such in my life. Instead I must have love, joy peace and such."
Living by grace says, "I see immorality in my life, therefore I will turn to God so that I can be rid of it." or "I have a greater love for people than I used to. I see the fruit of the Spirit in my life, and will turn to Him in thanksgiving."
Living by the rules is life in the flesh, and the flesh cannot please God. Trying to deal with sin on your own is like Judas taking the money back to the priests hoping to undo his wrong.
Living by grace is knowing that you can't undo your past, but you can be forgiven, and "forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." [Philippians 3:13-14 NASB]
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