Warning about Sin
Fair Warning
(#292 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve Yahweh. He is the Holy Mighty One; He is a jealous Mighty One. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake Yahweh and serve foreign gods [mental self-reliance], He will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after He has been good to you.” But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve Yahweh.” Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve Yahweh.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. (Joshua 24:19-22)
“It’s all about grace.” For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of the Almighty—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Ah yes, “It is not from your own effort, but by grace.” And then there is the oft forgotten next verse; For we are the Almighty’s handiwork, created in the the Messiah Yahshua to do good works, which the Mighty One prepared in advance for us to do [that we should walk in them]. (Ephesians 2:10) Yes, your declaration of faith stands as a witness “against” you because by grace you have been saved to serve Yahweh, and that means you have “good works” to do. And Shaul, the Hebrew writer of the letter to the Ephesians, knew of only one definition of “good works.” Mitzvahs: good deeds founded upon the precepts and commands of Yahweh.
Joshua was offering Israyl a renewal of the wedding vows they had committed to some 90 years earlier after Mosheh came down from the mountain. The people answered together and said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do.” So Mosheh brought back the words of the people to Yahweh. (Exodus 19:8) Even then, their own words echoed as a witness against themselves. This is why Joshua could convict them of a history of rebellion (v. 19) and adultery for serving other gods (v. 20). It is only adultery because they first said “I do!”
Oh that the body of the Messiah would understand this wedding vow. The promise is so much better than the vanity of what the doctrines and commandments of men offers (Mark 7:7). When you said “I do!” you accepted a new standard for your life. And once you did, anything less is willful disobedience. King David knew this; “Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.” (Psalm 19:13). And the writer of Hebrews reminds (re-minds) us of the dire consequences of such; “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” (Hebrews 10:26)
You know the truth! Do not run from these foundational principles any longer. You proclaim you are “Free in Christ.” “It is for freedom that the Messiah has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1a) But, what are you free from? “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1b) Are the good works, the good deeds founded upon the precepts and commands of Yahweh, which were “prepared in advance for you to do,” the yoke of slavery? Is freedom from His commandments why grace abounds? What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:1-2, 6-7) It is abundantly clear that it is slavery to sin that you have been freed from, not slavery to His commands (good works).
You are now free to hand over all of your choices and allow Him to take complete dominion of your life? You are free to say, “Father, I acknowledge that Your commands and the shed blood of Yahshua are now the standard that will judge my every thought and action. I expect punishments for disobedience with the same joy that I expect blessings for obeying You.”
Loved one, whether or not you acknowledge His Word as a witness against you, if you proclaim to follow Yahshua, it already is. Seriously reflect on what it means when Shaul says that “your old self was crucified with Him.” Consider this fair warning; you surrendered any other option when you said, “I do! I will serve __________.” If you filled in the blank with a title or some pagan given name, then much of your disobedience has its cause therein. If you have yet to call on the Name, the only given Name of the Mighty One, then perhaps for the first time, you will take your wedding vow in the Name of Yahweh.