In What Way Did You Learn Christ?

[Sue J Love]

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV)

The basic foundation of our Christian faith and practice is taught for us here in this passage of Scripture. And it was the same message under the Old Covenant. No one was saved back then by keeping the liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, and dietary laws and restrictions. What determined then and what determines now who is in genuine relationship with God, by faith in him, is if the individual has died to sin and now is walking in conduct in obedience to our Lord, in the power of God. For that is what faith is.

Read with me 1 Corinthians 10:1-22. God used Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt with the plan to take them into the Promised Land. But with most of them God was not pleased, and so they were overthrown in the wilderness. Why? Because they desired evil, and they were idolaters, and revelers, and those who indulged in sexual immorality, and who put Christ (yes, Jesus Christ) to the test, and they grumbled against the Lord and against his servant Moses. So God had them killed.

And these things took place and were written down for our instruction as examples for us to not follow, so that we will not desire evil as they did and suffer the same consequences. So we are not to harden our hearts as they did which then resulted in them not entering into God’s eternal rest (eternal life with God). And they did not enter God’s eternal rest because of their disobedience, i.e. because of their unbelief. For faith=obedience, but disobedience=unbelief. (See Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16)

So, if our faith in Jesus Christ is biblical spiritual faith, which is from God, and which is gifted to us by God, and which is persuaded of God, then we will die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, and we will walk (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to him and to his commands. No longer will we walk as the ungodly do who have given themselves up to sensuality and greed, due to the hardness of their hearts against the Lord. But we will now serve the Lord with our lives in walks of holiness and righteousness.

For we should not have learned Christ and his gospel of salvation as it is being most popularized today. For so many are now teaching that all we have to do is acknowledge Christ and who he was/is and what he did for us in dying for our sins and in being resurrected from the dead, and now we are saved, all sins are forgiven, and heaven is guaranteed us when we die. But Jesus and his New Testament apostles did not teach that gospel message. They taught we must die to sin and now walk in obedience to our Lord.

So, if our faith in Jesus Christ is of God, and not of the flesh, we will die with him to sin, and we will now desire him and his word and his ways, and we will want to be taught by him regarding the way that he would have us to go. And this is not saying that we will be instantaneously perfect in every way. We still live in flesh bodies. And we are clay in the hands of the Potter being molded and shaped by him. But we shouldn’t remain addicted to sin, making sin our practice, and not live in walks of obedience to our Lord.

Therefore, by God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, we put off our old self, which is corrupt through deceitful desires, and we are now being renewed in the spirit of our minds, by the Spirit, as we cooperate with God’s work of grace and salvation in our lives. And now we put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. But we can only do this in the power of God as we surrender our lives to the Lord and as we submit to his will and purposes for our lives, in cooperation with his work.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

In What Way Did You Learn Christ?
An Original Work / January 30, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love