"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.” John 6:27 Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). So the question is - what is your treasure? Most labor for "the food which perishes." What Jesus is saying here though, is that he counsels us to labor for the food that endures for all eternity. How do we do that? Don't we have to labor to sustain ourselves? Of course. But Jesus is speaking here of one's primary focus. The apostle Paul was a tent maker, but his focus was on the Kingdom of God. He did what he had to do to provide for himself, but his heart was in preaching the Gospel. His tent-making made him able to provide for himself without having to ask anyone for money, but the labor of his heart produced "food that endures to everlasting life." He had the right focus. And to this day, his epistles continue to bring life to thousands upon thousands who turn to them for guidance. Continuing on with the discussion Jesus was presenting to his followers: "Then they said to him, 'What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.'” John 6:28-29 That is, the focus of our lives should be presenting the Gospel to a lost and dying world, that they might hear and turn to Jesus whom God sent to bring them eternal life. Before Jesus left this earth he gave his followers what has come to be known as "the great commission:" "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." Mark 16:15-16 Do you have a heart for those who are condemned? We're just passing through this life, on our way to our eternal home. During this time we have been given the commission to bring to all we can - the message of the Gospel, and that is - that we are fallen, sin-filled human beings, lost whether we know it or not, and that Jesus came to provide the atonement for us, dying in our place, bearing in himself on the Cross the judgment on our sins and bringing into new life all who will believe and receive him (2nd Corinthians 5:17). One can spend his whole life seeking fulfillment in a career, but that career will come to an end. OR - one can spend his whole life seeking to bring the Gospel to the lost, and he will reap the eternal satisfaction of seeing the souls that will be saved for all eternity. "But I can't preach," you might say. Every believer is endowed with talents and abilities unique to him or her, given to him/her by almighty God. Seek to know from God how to use them in service to him. Your life can be a demonstration of the Gospel. It's your choice. If you "hear" the heart of this message, take it to the Lord and ASK him to show you HOW to use what he has invested in you to serve him. This will necessitate that you set aside TIME to spend before him, seeking his will and plan for your life. If you can, get away alone for a weekend - or a day - whatever you CAN do, to spend time before God in fasting and prayer, seeking to know from him how you can use what he has put within you to serve him. After your salvation, this is the most important thing you will do in life.
"...knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law
but by faith in Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
that we might be justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works of the law;
for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified."
Galatians 2:16
But WHY can't a person be justified by the works of the law?
Many, many people are smugly confident of their salvation because they feel they have kept the laws of God. But the Scriptures tell us that they are NOT saved by having kept the laws of God, BECAUSE we live in a fallen human nature and that fallen human nature is not CAPABLE of keeping the laws of God.
All of us sin. And once you sin, the law is broken and you can no longer claim that you've kept the law. The law is like a glass - once it's broken, it's broken. There is no remedy for it. Doing good is not going to balance it, it's permanently broken. You can't unbreak God's laws any more than you can unbreak a broken glass.
A man might say then, "well I'll confess and receive forgiveness, and then I'll try again." How many times then will you go through this process? Sin, confess, sin, confess ...and think that this is the right way? It ISN'T. No, the right way is to place your FAITH not in yourself, not in your ability to keep the law, but in the One who DID keep the law, but was crucified in the place of those who can't. Jesus Christ bore the terrible judgment on our sins - in our place. He offers the GIFT of righteousness to those who will place their faith in HIM.
Does this mean then, that you simply put your faith in him and then go on to sin freely? Of course not. It means that when you put your faith in him and have been born again by his Spirit, he puts his Spirit in your heart and you receive a new life, a new mind, and a new desire to walk in the Spirit so that you will no longer fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Upon being born again, a person will begin to see changes in himself, and after awhile he will be amazed at the changes the Spirit of God brought about in him and in his life, not by effort, but by being born a new creature with a new heart.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."
2nd Corinthians 5:17
From this point on, everything becomes new to you. Your sin has been judged on the cross of Jesus Christ. You are no longer under the law, but under grace. You no longer try to keep laws because the laws of God have been written in your heart and you are then, relying on his Spirit in you to create in you a clean heart and to renew in you a right spirit.
If you have tried and tried and tried to be "good" but find yourself constantly failing, then realize that this is just not going to work. It can't. You will continue the process until you come to the conclusion that you simply cannot get it right. If this is you, then apply the ONLY remedy:
Pray with me:
Father God, I have tried to be a good person but I keep failing. I cannot control the sin in my life. I realize now that this is because I was born into a fallen human nature that is not ABLE to keep the laws of God. Just when I pride myself in having done something right, then something wrong follows and I am defeated. I've gone through this process countless times all to no avail. So now I come before you and freely admit that I am a sinner and there is no way I can change that. But YOU have provided the remedy, Lord Jesus, when you hung on that cross and received in yourself the judgment on MY sin. Your Word says that if I place my faith totally in you, that I will be born again and your Holy Spirit will gradually change me from the inside out. Please hear the cry of my battered soul and grant me to be "born again" so that I can rejoice in the victory you and you alone provide. I confess my sin and ask you to forgive me and become not only my Savior, but also my Lord. Take over my life. I place all my trust in you. I surrender all to you.
"Be of sin the double cure,
save from wrath and make me pure."
-Lyrics From 'Rock of Ages'
What Does "Born Again" Mean?
In the 5th chapter of the Gospel of John, we see Jesus healing a man who had been sick for 38 years:
"Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'
And immediately the man was made well,
took up his bed, and walked.'"
John 5:8-9
But listen closely to what the Lord said to the man:
vs 14:
“See, you have been made well.
Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
Just as there are physical laws, for example the law of gravity, if you throw a ball up it will come back down, so also there are spiritual laws. Sin carries consequences and can produce afflictions that can affect families for generations.
"...forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Exodus 34:6-7
We must understand that there is a difference between forgiveness and consequence. A woman caught in adultery may come to God and ask for forgiveness and receive it, but if she became pregnant that consequence isn't going to disappear. A man who committed murder may come to God and ask for forgiveness and receive it, but that won't bring the dead person back, nor will it heal the loved ones of the victim. These are consequences that produce very visible results, but many times the results of sin aren't readily apparent, though they are just as real. Forgiveness does not remove the consequences of sin, and those consequences can bring affliction down upon the children even three and four generations away.
But afflictions are not ALWAYS the result of sin. There is a passage in John chapter 9 where Jesus had healed a blind man and afterward Jesus' disciples asked what sin had been committed which rendered the man blind. Jesus answered that in this case the affliction was not the result of sin. Actually the point in this case was the testimony that would follow the man's healing.
We are not able to discern the causes of afflictions, some are the consequences of sin but others are not. Nevertheless the point is clearly made that sin DOES inherently bring consequences and afflictions and this should motivate us to avoid sin lest consequences bring affliction not only to ourselves but even to our children three and four generations away.
One evening I was praying for a friend who was afflicted and in bondage, a miserable person but a believer. As I was praying, the word “tormenter” came to me. I was shocked for a moment, wondering how on earth that word had anything to do with the afflictions of my friend. I wondered if that word was in the Bible, so I went and researched it and sure enough ...it was:
"Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant,
just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry,
AND DELIVERED HIM TO THE TORTURERS
until he should pay all that was due to him.
So my heavenly Father also will do to you
if each of you, FROM HIS HEART,
does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Matthew 18:32-34
It was quite a revelation to me, that unforgiveness can be the very root of a person's “torment.”
One can always take their sin to the Lord and receive forgiveness. But forgiveness from God does not remove the consequences of our sin.
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption,
but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."
Galatians 6:7-8