DEVOTION
THE 1ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
BEING AN HEIR
1 Cor 6:7-11
7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been
completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be
cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your
brothers. 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.
NIV
Continuing on, Paul gives them a stern warning regarding how they treat
or behave toward each other. There is no question that we all have come from a
life that was completely void of any resemblance of morality. Oh sure, some
might say they have always been a good person, maybe even thinking they were
born a Christian or had at least been a Christian all their lives. But the fact
is, we all were born sinners, and lived a life of sin until the day we died,
and were born again. Of course, Paul says that some of them were those
offenders that he lists. So maybe some of them were normal sinners, just
pagans, unaware of God, or of Jesus. But the point Paul is making is that we
who now believe have been washed, we have been sanctified, and God has made us
holy, or declared us holy. We have been justified or declared innocent of all
charges. Yes, we need to change the way we think and behave, but that is why we
have to consider the old self dead. How can a person be born again unless they
first die? It seems difficult to understand how we could evolve into being a
Christian as birth seems to be a specific moment in time, as it was when we
took our first breath as a newborn baby. We celebrate that day each year of
our lives, but that person no longer lives, as that person had to die in order
for them to be born again, as Jesus took Nicodemus. The person we were born as
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, for that person is totally flesh and blood
with a deadly spirit bent on sin. Yes, we are still that person of flesh and
blood, but that deadly spirit, has to be put to death and needs to be born
again of the Spirit of God, and now lives in the Spirit of God and thus is able
to inherit the kingdom of God. Does our flesh still cry out for some sort of
sin? Unfortunately, it seems that is the case. Why does this happen? Why can’t
we just say no to all sin, and live a perfectly clean, completely spiritual life?
Why are we resurrecting the old self that is supposed to stay dead? If we have
been washed, then we are washed. Is it just a case of the spirit being willing,
but the flesh is weak. That seems as though we are making excuses for our
weakness when He is strong and should be able to keep us from sin. However,
the fact remains that we have been washed, and that does not depend on us, but
on God, and what He has done cannot be undone. He has made us holy, He has
declared us innocent, He has done that which only He can do and we cannot undo
it. Can we turn our back on him? It might seem some have, but that would have
to be a complete denial that God is real or that He exists. We still have sin
in our life, but we have not turned away from God for it is only in Him have we
found the forgiveness for all our sin, and so we live by His declaration, not
ours, or being innocent and thus able to inherit His kingdom. Just to think
that we are heir to the kingdom of God is awesome. So we live with that peace,
that joy, that confidence of our being an heir to the greatest kingdom of all.
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