It was written by the Apostle Paul:
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
Think of what God did with Cain before he murdered Abel. And think again of when God came to Abimelech in the following scripture from the book of Genesis:
"Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. "
But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die.” Genesis 20:1-7
God came to Abimelech and warned him of impending sin. And we know that God came to Cain, warning him of the "sin crouching at his door," warning him of his anger that would lead to his brother's murder.
Think of it like crime shows or movies where an officer or detective or "good guy" comes in, and a "bad guy" has a gun to his head or to someone else's head. What does the good guy say to the bad guy? "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!" The very presence of the good guy has introduced an element of reality, shaking the bad guy out of his insanity. "YOU HAVE A CHOICE. YOU HAVE OPTIONS," says the good guy.
God did the very same thing with Cain and Abimelech, and I believe He does the very same thing with believers AND unbelievers, as it is written by Paul:
"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" Acts 17:26-28
Again, look at what Jesus says about the Spirit:
“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."
John 16:5-11
Watchman Nee, the author of "The Spiritual Man" said this concerning the Spirit's conviction of the conscience:
"If we desire to follow the spirit (and since we never reach a stage of infallibility), we must heed what our inward monitor tells us regarding both inclination and overt action. For its works would be decidedly incomplete if it were only after we have committed error that conscience should rise up to reprove us. But we realize that even before we take any step-while we are still considering our way our conscience together with our intuition will protest immediately and make us uneasy at any thought or inclination which is displeasing to the Holy Spirit. If we were more disposed today to mind the voice of conscience we would not be as defeated as we are."
God, by His Spirit, comes to us BEFORE and after we are tempted, to warn us of yielding, and to convict us if we yield. He also commends us if we resist, giving us encouragement and strength to continue to resist.
This is the first aspect of God's empowering grace: His presence and revelation of the liberty we have to resist the temptation. I believe this applies, though to a very limited extent, to unbelievers as well. With unbelievers, the goal of the Spirit's conviction is salvation, not just the resistance of sinful actions.
Nevertheless, until the sinner is saved, the Spirit still seeks to show them a way out of the sinful life, and the sinful decision of that moment.
The main points I'm making are these:
God's empowerment, when it comes to moral decisions or actions, is like the power of a perfect attorney. It is not like a physical power or energy that moves or makes the will act or choose or refuse. He can perfectly persuade and convince and motivate with truth, as the Lord Jesus said:
"If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32
What sets the real disciple of Christ free?
The truth.
Therefore, the first truth of God's empowering grace is liberty, the fact that we have a choice.
If in any way we don't believe we have a choice in what we do, or that we cannot choose freely unless God does something to us, through us, or for us, beyond what He has already done in giving us a free will and a convicted conscience, we will wait for something miraculous or supernatural to happen to us BEFORE we resist sinning. But that something won't happen, and the devil will discourage us with condemnation.
Let me give one more illustration of this. When I was a bouncer, I had two experiences of the empowerment I'm speaking of. In the first, a woman looked at me and mouthed theses words, "Please get him away from me." I said in her ear, "Did you ask him to leave you alone?" She said, "No." I told her that she had to tell him to leave her alone FIRST. Then, AND ONLY THEN, could I step in.
The second experience involved me and a police officer stationed at the bar I worked. I told the officer that a patron needed to leave. The officer told me the same thing I told the young lady. I had to tell the patron to leave. If he refused, he is now trespassing. Then the officer would come and give the same command, reinforcing my command. After this refusal, the patron would be trespassing after warning, and be taken to jail...not by me, but by the officer.
Do you see the points? The woman had to exercise the authority of her identity by her will FIRST. I had to excercise my authority as a bouncer FIRST. Then the woman and I would experience the empowerment, or enforcement, of our wills or decisions. I (and the other bouncers) would get the man out for the woman. The police officer (and other officers, if necessary) would get the patron out. Notice the "power" given to my will and the woman's will. We spoke. Our wills, or words, were enforced. The power was in our enforcement, so that it didn't matter how big the man was that allegedly bothered the woman, or how big the patron was that needed to leave, we had more than enough power behind our words to have our words or wills enforced.
BUT THERE HAS TO BE A WILL TO ENFORCE! HOW CAN GOD EMPOWER US TO REFUSE SIN IF WE DON'T ACTUALLY REFUSE IT?
What I revealed to the woman was her liberty to tell the man to leave her alone. Perhaps she didn't know that she had that liberty and power, that SHE could actually tell the man to leave her alone. I didn't know that the police needed me to give the man the order first. And this empowered me from that time on. Therefore, the first truth of God's empowering grace is His liberating and reinforcing presence, just like my presence liberated and reinforced the woman as one who should be respected, and the officer's presence reinforced and liberated my authority as a bouncer.
The second truth of God's empowering grace is His goodness towards us. Joseph told Potiphar's wife that the Lord was with Him, and that Potiphar had given him everything except her. Joseph saw and appreciated God's goodness, and this motivated or empowered him to resist tempation.
Going back to the analogy of the officer in the movie, the one trying to stop a man from killing himself: The officer usually says something like, "You don't have to do this! You have a choice. Think of your wife and children who love you."
The officer is appealing to the goodness of the man's life as a motivation to resist the temptation to commit suicide. If the man can be convinced that he has something good to live for, then he will not kill himself.
The same is true with God and the one tempted to sin. God shows the one tempted His goodness as a provider, and His willingness to meet whatever need he is trying to meet selfishly. He persuades the tempted one by His Spirit to turn from sin and turn to Him. There are many ways God does this, in many situations. He may do this through a loved one, through circumstances that remind a person of a specific blessing, etc. This is the second truth of God's empowering grace.
The third truth is God's revelation of the vileness of sin. I've said this in an article I wrote in The Discipleship Dojo. In every temptation to sin, there will be something in the temptation that reveals it as unappealing. This is part of God's faithfulness in not letting us be tempted beyond what we are able, according to 1 Corinthians 10:13. This is one of the ways of escape God promises. Even with the power of Satan, Satan's world system, and the power of the selfish nature of our bodily passions, God will not let the strength of the temptations exceed the strength of our wills to resist. If there is any way that God DOES DO SOMETHING to us, through us, or for us, it is in the equalizing of our strength with the strength of the tempter or temptation. God "levels the playing field," if you will.
Think of temptation like weight lifting. If we experience 1000 pounds of resistance, then we will receive the ability to resist 1000 pounds, or even more! So, "where sin abounds, grace will even more so abound." Nevertheless, we still have to actually refuse to sin as Joseph did, to say a decisive and final "NO!." The strength will be there to do so IF WE ACTUALLY WANT TO RESIST THE TEMPTATION! If this is the case, we will submit to God and resist the devil. And in submitting our wills to God, God will empower, or reinforce, our submission. God did for Joseph what I did for the woman, and what the officer did for me. God reinforced Joseph's continual resistance and refusal to commit adultery.
In summary,
The way we actually stop sinning is to actually refuse the tempter or temptress! To say a decisive and final "No!" We refuse because God has given us the liberty to do so, because of His infinite and eternal goodness towards us, and because of the vileness of sinning against God and against people. These three truths are God's empowering grace, the motivations, powers, and persuasions given by God's Spirit that enable us to resist sinning. God's empowering grace is not a supernatural or miraculous power that kicks in and makes us resist sin or stop sinning, or that makes us choose to submit to Him and refuse to sin. The creature needs the Creator, but not like a puppet needs a puppet master. God is our liberator and enforcer, enforcing the law of liberty for humanity, made in His image and likeness and glory. He sent His Son to set us free from sin's slavery, revealing to us the good news of our emancipation. For the unbeliever, He does this through creation, conscience, conviction, and the gospel. For the believer, He does this by the indwelling Spirit. For both, He persuades by the truth, by the Spirit of truth who is truth, by His word, which is truth. If we will accept the truth, we will be empowered by God's grace to refuse sin. If we reject the truth, we yield to falsehood. The choice is ours. We have a choice. Amen.
For an indepth look at living without sinning, read Cleansed and Abiding: A Proposed View of Christian Perfection by James-Michael Smith, and Is It Possible To Live Without Sin? by me!
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
God given liberty to humanity is the first aspect of God's empowering grace.
Think of what God did with Cain before he murdered Abel. And think again of when God came to Abimelech in the following scripture from the book of Genesis:
"Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. "
But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die.” Genesis 20:1-7
God came to Abimelech and warned him of impending sin. And we know that God came to Cain, warning him of the "sin crouching at his door," warning him of his anger that would lead to his brother's murder.
Think of it like crime shows or movies where an officer or detective or "good guy" comes in, and a "bad guy" has a gun to his head or to someone else's head. What does the good guy say to the bad guy? "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!" The very presence of the good guy has introduced an element of reality, shaking the bad guy out of his insanity. "YOU HAVE A CHOICE. YOU HAVE OPTIONS," says the good guy.
God did the very same thing with Cain and Abimelech, and I believe He does the very same thing with believers AND unbelievers, as it is written by Paul:
"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" Acts 17:26-28
Again, look at what Jesus says about the Spirit:
“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."
John 16:5-11
Watchman Nee, the author of "The Spiritual Man" said this concerning the Spirit's conviction of the conscience:
"If we desire to follow the spirit (and since we never reach a stage of infallibility), we must heed what our inward monitor tells us regarding both inclination and overt action. For its works would be decidedly incomplete if it were only after we have committed error that conscience should rise up to reprove us. But we realize that even before we take any step-while we are still considering our way our conscience together with our intuition will protest immediately and make us uneasy at any thought or inclination which is displeasing to the Holy Spirit. If we were more disposed today to mind the voice of conscience we would not be as defeated as we are."
God, by His Spirit, comes to us BEFORE and after we are tempted, to warn us of yielding, and to convict us if we yield. He also commends us if we resist, giving us encouragement and strength to continue to resist.
This is the first aspect of God's empowering grace: His presence and revelation of the liberty we have to resist the temptation. I believe this applies, though to a very limited extent, to unbelievers as well. With unbelievers, the goal of the Spirit's conviction is salvation, not just the resistance of sinful actions.
Nevertheless, until the sinner is saved, the Spirit still seeks to show them a way out of the sinful life, and the sinful decision of that moment.
The main points I'm making are these:
God's empowerment, when it comes to moral decisions or actions, is like the power of a perfect attorney. It is not like a physical power or energy that moves or makes the will act or choose or refuse. He can perfectly persuade and convince and motivate with truth, as the Lord Jesus said:
"If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32
What sets the real disciple of Christ free?
The truth.
Therefore, the first truth of God's empowering grace is liberty, the fact that we have a choice.
If in any way we don't believe we have a choice in what we do, or that we cannot choose freely unless God does something to us, through us, or for us, beyond what He has already done in giving us a free will and a convicted conscience, we will wait for something miraculous or supernatural to happen to us BEFORE we resist sinning. But that something won't happen, and the devil will discourage us with condemnation.
Let me give one more illustration of this. When I was a bouncer, I had two experiences of the empowerment I'm speaking of. In the first, a woman looked at me and mouthed theses words, "Please get him away from me." I said in her ear, "Did you ask him to leave you alone?" She said, "No." I told her that she had to tell him to leave her alone FIRST. Then, AND ONLY THEN, could I step in.
The second experience involved me and a police officer stationed at the bar I worked. I told the officer that a patron needed to leave. The officer told me the same thing I told the young lady. I had to tell the patron to leave. If he refused, he is now trespassing. Then the officer would come and give the same command, reinforcing my command. After this refusal, the patron would be trespassing after warning, and be taken to jail...not by me, but by the officer.
Do you see the points? The woman had to exercise the authority of her identity by her will FIRST. I had to excercise my authority as a bouncer FIRST. Then the woman and I would experience the empowerment, or enforcement, of our wills or decisions. I (and the other bouncers) would get the man out for the woman. The police officer (and other officers, if necessary) would get the patron out. Notice the "power" given to my will and the woman's will. We spoke. Our wills, or words, were enforced. The power was in our enforcement, so that it didn't matter how big the man was that allegedly bothered the woman, or how big the patron was that needed to leave, we had more than enough power behind our words to have our words or wills enforced.
BUT THERE HAS TO BE A WILL TO ENFORCE! HOW CAN GOD EMPOWER US TO REFUSE SIN IF WE DON'T ACTUALLY REFUSE IT?
What I revealed to the woman was her liberty to tell the man to leave her alone. Perhaps she didn't know that she had that liberty and power, that SHE could actually tell the man to leave her alone. I didn't know that the police needed me to give the man the order first. And this empowered me from that time on. Therefore, the first truth of God's empowering grace is His liberating and reinforcing presence, just like my presence liberated and reinforced the woman as one who should be respected, and the officer's presence reinforced and liberated my authority as a bouncer.
The second truth of God's empowering grace is His goodness towards us. Joseph told Potiphar's wife that the Lord was with Him, and that Potiphar had given him everything except her. Joseph saw and appreciated God's goodness, and this motivated or empowered him to resist tempation.
Going back to the analogy of the officer in the movie, the one trying to stop a man from killing himself: The officer usually says something like, "You don't have to do this! You have a choice. Think of your wife and children who love you."
The officer is appealing to the goodness of the man's life as a motivation to resist the temptation to commit suicide. If the man can be convinced that he has something good to live for, then he will not kill himself.
The same is true with God and the one tempted to sin. God shows the one tempted His goodness as a provider, and His willingness to meet whatever need he is trying to meet selfishly. He persuades the tempted one by His Spirit to turn from sin and turn to Him. There are many ways God does this, in many situations. He may do this through a loved one, through circumstances that remind a person of a specific blessing, etc. This is the second truth of God's empowering grace.
The third truth is God's revelation of the vileness of sin. I've said this in an article I wrote in The Discipleship Dojo. In every temptation to sin, there will be something in the temptation that reveals it as unappealing. This is part of God's faithfulness in not letting us be tempted beyond what we are able, according to 1 Corinthians 10:13. This is one of the ways of escape God promises. Even with the power of Satan, Satan's world system, and the power of the selfish nature of our bodily passions, God will not let the strength of the temptations exceed the strength of our wills to resist. If there is any way that God DOES DO SOMETHING to us, through us, or for us, it is in the equalizing of our strength with the strength of the tempter or temptation. God "levels the playing field," if you will.
Think of temptation like weight lifting. If we experience 1000 pounds of resistance, then we will receive the ability to resist 1000 pounds, or even more! So, "where sin abounds, grace will even more so abound." Nevertheless, we still have to actually refuse to sin as Joseph did, to say a decisive and final "NO!." The strength will be there to do so IF WE ACTUALLY WANT TO RESIST THE TEMPTATION! If this is the case, we will submit to God and resist the devil. And in submitting our wills to God, God will empower, or reinforce, our submission. God did for Joseph what I did for the woman, and what the officer did for me. God reinforced Joseph's continual resistance and refusal to commit adultery.
In summary,
The way we actually stop sinning is to actually refuse the tempter or temptress! To say a decisive and final "No!" We refuse because God has given us the liberty to do so, because of His infinite and eternal goodness towards us, and because of the vileness of sinning against God and against people. These three truths are God's empowering grace, the motivations, powers, and persuasions given by God's Spirit that enable us to resist sinning. God's empowering grace is not a supernatural or miraculous power that kicks in and makes us resist sin or stop sinning, or that makes us choose to submit to Him and refuse to sin. The creature needs the Creator, but not like a puppet needs a puppet master. God is our liberator and enforcer, enforcing the law of liberty for humanity, made in His image and likeness and glory. He sent His Son to set us free from sin's slavery, revealing to us the good news of our emancipation. For the unbeliever, He does this through creation, conscience, conviction, and the gospel. For the believer, He does this by the indwelling Spirit. For both, He persuades by the truth, by the Spirit of truth who is truth, by His word, which is truth. If we will accept the truth, we will be empowered by God's grace to refuse sin. If we reject the truth, we yield to falsehood. The choice is ours. We have a choice. Amen.
For an indepth look at living without sinning, read Cleansed and Abiding: A Proposed View of Christian Perfection by James-Michael Smith, and Is It Possible To Live Without Sin? by me!
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