“Shall NOT Inherit The Kingdom Of God”???

WHO will NOT inherit heaven?!? ME?!? YOU?!?
Consider these verses:
Galatians 5:19-21 (King James)
¹⁹Now the works of the flesh (sins of the flesh) are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness (lewdness), ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance (quarreling, disputes), emulations (jealousies), wrath, strife (selfish ambitions), seditions (divisions, disorder), heresies (distorting the truth), ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
So? What do you think?
“They which DO SUCH THINGS shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God”? Which translates into: We won’t go to heaven if we do any of these things?!?
Oh Man… I do some of those things, yeah I’m not perfect. No I don’t drink. I’m not into witchcraft. I don’t cheat on my hubby. No I’ve never murdered anyone. But wait… ‘murder’ could be considered ‘murdering’ someone’s name. When you talk about someone you can slander their name. Envy? Oh I might have been there before. Strife, jealousy, variance? Maybe at some point or another. Like I said, I’m not perfect.
So what does this mean?
{This is an important verse to me because of my recent past. We were going to a church that preached the “holiness” doctrine. Meaning this: Once you get saved, you should be perfectly holy. IF you sin then there is something wrong with you & you can not possibly be saved. It also taught that WHEN you DO sin… you are no longer saved. You need to repent and once you do repent – you are saved again. So forget about struggles, battles, falls. If you fall to temptation you are UNSAVED. Whew!! That is exhausting just thinking back to it. I guess they didn’t understand sanctification or justification. Sanctification is the process of becoming ‘Christ-like’. The growing process. The process in which the Holy Spirit cleans you up. Prunes your branches. Takes away the bad (works of the flesh) & instills the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’. We won’t be perfectly sanctified until we reach heaven.}
Ok. So where was I?
I am going to focus on the words “they which DO SUCH things”.
First of all this tells us that a person cannot have sin & God at the same time. There are people who think that their lifestyle does not matter. Some people think only their faith matters & not their actions. However, if we have the proper faith in Christ then our actions will match our faith. Now this doesn’t mean that the believer is perfect. None of us are. The bible does not teach sinless perfection.
Now on to the good stuff.
The word “do” in “they which do such things” is the Greek word “prasso” which means “to practice”.  This word is a present tense verb. (A continuous action.)  The Holy Spirit (through Paul) is speaking of the character of the person. The habitual practice of the person shows their character.   The person is either a habitual sinner or a habitual believer.  Paul’s statement does not mean that if a believer falls to a sin then he loses his salvation. He is speaking of a habitual continuation in sin with every intention to continue in this lifestyle. A believer is practicing a habitual lifestyle of a believer who slips & falls to a sin. This Greek word for ‘sin’ is a past tense verb. Meaning when we believers commit a sin – it is ONE SIN that we committed. PAST TENSE. It is a one time occurrence that happenED and is over. Not the same Greek word as here in this verse which is a present tense verb meaning continually going on.
God will forgive the individual seeking forgiveness. However this person seeking forgiveness should want these sinful situations to stop. To repent means to turn away from the sin. The person should not be seeking forgiveness just to continue in the sin.
Sin has no place in a believers life. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (Rom. 6:1,2) In other words: shall we continue sinning because God’s grace is big enough to forgive us? God forbid!  “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (vs.. 2) In other words: Once we get saved we are dead to the sin nature. The sin nature is still IN us, but it has no dominion over us anymore.
To read more on the sin nature & victory over the sin nature read my post "Battles/Struggles & The Sin Nature".

{in}courage

I recently started reading a ‘blog’ (more like a ‘site’) called "(in)courage". I have not read much of the site since I am new - but what I have read,  I do like. It is ‘encouraging’. I signed up to have new posts come directly to my email. This morning I received my first post. It was called "Putting a Bullet Through His Phone". (Don’t read just yet…finish reading THIS first!) It was basically about struggles in life & ‘how bad’ do you really want to ‘give it up’?  I do really agree with what is said –however- they left out one ingredient.

One.Very.Important.Ingredient: Jesus. Actually the MAIN ingredient is Jesus… He is not just one of the ingredients. He is like the flour in bread. Without it you don’t have bread. Without Jesus you have no relief from your struggles, no freedom & no peace. Without Jesus you can never really be free. You may have times, even a very long period of time where you think you are winning over your battle. However, you will never really be free from it without HIM. 

There is nothing WE can DO to make this happen. It happens by FAITH in His work on the cross. Keep that in mind when reading this post from “(in)courage”. Our ‘works’ will not give us the true victory over our battles. FAITH in JESUS WILL give us victory over these battles! The Holy Spirit will not work properly if we are functioning by works and not by faith. The Holy Spirit works by faith alone.

Without Jesus and what He did for us on His cross – we can never have true victory from our struggles & we will never be fully FREE. We need to place our faith in His finished work on the cross. He died not just for our eternal life.  His death on the cross broke that ‘sin nature’ we were born with.

The ‘sin nature’ is still IN us…

~BUT~

Once we get saved, the ‘sin nature’ is no longer controlling us! We are dead to it!

It is like a lamp plugged into the wall socket. The electricity lighting the lamp gets TURNED OFF when the plug is unplugged! There is still electricity in the wall socket – but it can not reach the lamp to light it unless the lamp is plugged in. We are unplugged from the  ‘sin nature’ when we get saved!

How awesome is HE! He did this for us!

God’s Holy Spirit will work great wonders in our life as long as we have our faith placed in the correct object. The Cross of Christ. No not just the wooden beam… but what He did on the cross! He broke the power of the ‘sin nature’! Have faith in this finished work & the Holy Spirit will work in your life to give you a helping hand!

So now. Go read the post from (in)courage called, "Putting a Bullet Through His Phone".

It is an encouraging read. And it makes sense.

Just don’t forget the most important ingredient: JESUS and His finished work on the cross!

Ok. Now go read!

Life With Him

Galatians 5:13 (New Century Version)


"My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love."

This is just a reminder to all of us. Just because we know we are saved, and we know we can ask God to forgive us, and we know He will… this doesn’t give us an excuse to do the things that we know are WRONG. Simple as that. We take Him & His grace for granted too many times just to please ourselves. Because of course – ANY kind of sin feels good to some part of the body. No matter if it is physical or otherwise. Sin feels good to the flesh. Think about it. But keep in mind this:

Galatians 6:8 (New International Version)

"The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

So when we are ‘moaning & groaning’ about our miserable lives… remember… we may have caused our own destruction. Start living for Him (please the Spirit) and see how your life changes.