I was having a rather casual conversation with someone recently about a mutual acquaintance and how we both know them. This person said, “Oh, I know her from way back when we used to work together. I remember her husband, too.” I didn’t know the other person very well, but I knew she was single so I asked, “Oh, did her husband pass away?”
“Oh, no. They divorced. Neither one was very happy. It was for the best.”
I replied very simply, “That’s not biblical. God doesn’t call us to be happy. He calls us to be holy.”
Before I continue, I want to clarify, my comment was not directed at the mutual acquaintance. I don’t know her story in order to pass such judgment. My comment was aimed directly at the person making the statement, a Christian, because I do know her view of marriage and divorce and it’s not a godly one. Her nonchalant attitude about marriage and divorce, “They weren’t happy; It’s for the best,” prompted a necessary interjection of a biblical truth, “God doesn’t call us to be happy. He calls us to be holy.”
Let’s break that apart. What does it mean to be holy? Simply put, holy means to be set-apart. In the book of John, Yeshua spoke this of His disciples, “And now I come to You. And I speak these words in the world, so that they (the disciples) have My joy completed in them. I have given them Your Word, and the world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the wicked one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Set them apart in Your truth, Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. And for them I set Myself apart, so that they too might be set apart in truth. And I do not pray for these alone, but also for those believing in Me through their word…” John 17: 13-20 The Scriptures version
Our Elohim, as expressed through His Son, Yeshua, has called us to be set-apart (holy) from the wicked one and the evil that runs rampant in this world. And yet, so many of us, who claim to be Christians, look, in word and deed, just like the world. How many Christians get divorced (with the exception of infidelity)? How many Christians live together? Lie? Steal? Commit adultery? Get abortions? Gossip? Are gluttons and drunkards? And the list goes on.
“Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the reign of Elohim? Do not be deceived. Neither those who whore, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor greedy of gain, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the reign of Elohim.” 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10
“But grace.”
Yes! A thousand times yes! There is grace. There is grace for when we mess up. There is grace for the repentant believer who is no longer ignorant of their sin. But let’s not cheapen grace by using it as a license to knowingly continue consistently and constantly in sin. When sin is no longer an occasion but a lifestyle, there’s a problem. “But where sin increased, favor (grace) increased still more, so that as sin did reign in death, even so favor might reign through righteousness to everlasting life through Yeshua Messiah our Master. What then? Shall we continue in sin, to let favor increase? Let it not be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were immersed into Messiah Yeshua were immersed into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through immersion into death, that as Messiah was raised from the dead by the esteem of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life” Romans 5:20-21, 6: 1-4
Being set-apart (holy) is the fruit of a truly repentant sinner-turned-saint who is no longer ignorant of his/ her sin, a genuinely new creation in Yeshua Messiah. If sin is a lifestyle for a “Christian” who is no longer ignorant of the truth, then grace has been trampled by that person and they have insulted grace. “For if we sin purposely after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a slaughter offering for sins, but some fearsome anticipation of judgment, and a fierce fire which is about to consume the opponents. Anyone who has disregarded the Torah of Mosheh (Moses) dies without compassion on the witness of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think shall he deserve ho has trampled the Son of Elohim underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was set apart as common, and insulted the Spirit of favor (grace)?” Hebrews 10: 26-29
In short, we were all once sinners in need of grace. Once grace abounds in our lives the result should be a set-apart (holy) life as a disciple of the Master, Yeshua, free from a sin-filled lifestyle, being obedient to His commands.
“Isn’t that legalism?” Absolutely not. Legalism is trying to earn salvation (works) by perfectly keeping the Torah without having exchanged our unrighteousness for the Messiah’s righteousness. This condemns us to the curse of the law of sin and death. Legalism has no room for salvation through Yeshua the Messiah. Obedience, on the other hand, to the commands of Elohim is the fruit of those who have received the free gift of salvation through the righteousness of Elohim through the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Simply put: obedience isn’t the root of salvation, it’s the fruit of salvation. And too many “Christians” are not bearing fruit:
“For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of silver, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, thankless, wrongdoers, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, haters of good, betrayers, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of Elohim, having a form of reverence but denying its power…” 2 Timothy 3: 2-5
Too many “Christians” have disregarded obedience in exchange for the deceptive, cheap, false grace. This is what the Word is referring to when it talks about lawlessness.
Many “Christians” believe that lawlessness in the last days is in reference to sinners, those ignorant of the truth, practicing sin without ever having received His perfect plan of salvation. That’s part of it. But there’s lawlessness being preached, practiced, and condoned within the church. This is the lawlessness that assaults the Word of Elohim and His commands.
“Let no one deceive you in any way, because the falling away is to come first, and the man of lawlessness is to be revealed…” “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved. And for this reason Elohim sends them a working of delusion, for them to believe the falsehood, in order that all should be judged who did not believe the truth, but have delighted in the unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2: 3; 9-12
“And many false prophets shall rise up and lead many astray. And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of many shall become cold. But he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved.” Matthew 24: 11-13
But we are children of the Most High. We ought to walk in His truth and be obedient to His Word (See 1 John chapter 2 for more in-depth revelation on this.)
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with these words from the late Billy Graham:
“John the Baptist lost his head when he stood up for that which was morally right. Joseph went to prison when he refused to yield to temptation. Expect to have some difficulties. And that’s a part of our cross-bearing. Jesus said, ‘unless you’re willing to deny self, your own selfish desires that are wrong and are willing to take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my follower and my disciple.’ If you’re going to take your stand for Jesus Christ and you’re going to follow Him, it’s going to cost you. I’m not asking you to follow Christ because it’s easy. I tell you, it’s not easy to be a Christian. It’s hard in this materialistic, secularistic, immoral generation. But the scripture says, ‘let your light shine in this crooked and perverse generation,’”
In His Service,
Rebecca Hamilton, Founder/ Executive Director
For Every Great Battle, There is a Great Victory!!