Mosaic Cincinnati
Thank you for joining us for Week 5 of Mosaic's "Quit Pretending" series. In this series we explore the inner tension that most of us face as we pretend that we are living one way while actually believing something completely different.
All religions point to three things:
- Do It Or Else
- Don't Do It Or Else
- Hell
1) Don't Harm Others
2) Don't Lie
3) Don’t Have Sex With Another Person's Spouse
4) Care For Those Who Are Weaker
So, religion becomes about following the rules of your particular religion...
... but Jesus and Paul taught something very different - they offered a different way forward.
Romans 7:15-16
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good... 18 For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Romans 7:24-25
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul wrote that the purpose of the law was to expose his inability to live up to God’s standards.
Romans 8:3
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did...
Romans 6:14
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. The Christian life was never intended to be characterized by imitation of Christ by keeping the law but by impartation.
Jesus Explained It Like This
John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me [abide] and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Galatians 5:16-25
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.