Remember Your Identity

Titus 2:11-12 “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”

One of the biggest misconceptions about preaching, teaching and living in abundant grace is that you have to believe, “you can get saved and do whatever you want to do.” Well…first of all, that is true. This past week we looked at 1 Corinthians where the Apostle Paul said, 4 different times, that “All things are lawful”. And regarding our salvation, Jesus paid the punishment for our sin, so we won’t be punished for our sin, so all things truly are lawful because of Jesus. Usually once you flesh that out with someone they agree.

But when you get down to it, what they are typically afraid of is what you want to do. The response I ask is,  “What if I want to be faithful to my wife, can I do that?” Their answer is always, “Well, yeah.” So according to that logic, if my desires are in line with Jesus, I CAN do whatever I want, but if they aren’t, I can’t. That puts the responsibility back on me. As David shared last week, it’s the faith of Christ that sustains us, not our works.

Jesus came to address the heart issue, and that’s where our actions take root. So, yes, we can set our minds on things of this world and we can allow our desires to be drawn to the things of this world, and our actions will result in doing things of this world.

But, as King David said in Psalm 37:4, when we delight in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our hearts. As in our verse today, Paul tells us in Titus 2:11-12—that same grace that saved us, guides us into living sensibly and righteously and godly.

So the question isn’t, “Can I get saved and do whatever I want to do?” That was answered on the cross. The question is, “What do you want to do?” And understanding that spending time in God’s Word, talking to your Heavenly Father in prayer, and fellowshipping with other believers for encouragement and maturity, all work together to heighten your sensitivity to the guiding of the Holy Spirit in your life, you see your desires line up with Him. And the result will be you walking in the freedom of who are; and being who you are as a sensible, righteous, godly NEW CREATION. Remember your identity and BE YOU!

— Matt Graves

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