Stumbling (10-9-12)

Jude 24-25 - "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."

Jude ends his short book with this exhortation, and in it he says of God that He is able to keep us from stumbling. This isn't talking about literally stumbling, but rather stumbling in regard to the faith. This verse implies that God is able to keep us from falling into sin. If that is true then why do Christians still sin? If God is able to keep us from stumbling then why do we still struggle with and get tripped up by sin? We know that even after we become Christians we still sin, and the Bible even says in 1 John 1:8 - "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." So the problem is that while God is able to keep us from stumbling we still have a will of our own. A Christian has two natures, one that we're born with and one that we receive when we are born the second time. The problem is that when we receive the new nature, the old one is still there and the two are constantly at war with one another.
Our old nature is the sinful flesh or the "natural man" as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 2. This is the nature that we inherited from our parents, and they from their parents. It has been passed down from father to children all the way back to Adam, and it is this old nature that gives us the desire to sin, a desire to please self. The new nature is the Spirit of God Himself who comes and indwells a person as soon as they bow the knee to Christ. So we have these two opposing natures within us, the natural man and the spiritual man, and the two are constantly at odds with one another. Paul describes this conflict in Romans 7:14-24 - "For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" Can you feel his struggle here? Anyone who has been a Christian for any amount of time knows the conflict that Paul is here talking about, and it's overwhelming at times. I want to do the right thing, I don't want to feed my flesh with it's sinful desire anymore, but it's so hard. I'm trying to do the right thing, but I keep messing up. I keep stumbling, and my cry is the same as the apostles, "O wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" But he ends the chapter in verse 25 by giving us the answer - "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." The answer is Christ. He is the one who is able to keep us from stumbling.

Okay, I get it. Christ is able to keep me from stumbling, but even Paul said "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." Sure, God is able, of course He is, God can do anything He wants, He is able to do anything, even keep me from stumbling. So why do I still stumble? Why do I still fall into sin? It goes back to the two natures that we have. If we walk according to our natural man, if we live our lives in order to please ourselves and willingly walk into sin then God is not going to stop us. If we want to walk in the flesh God will let us, but those who walk according to the flesh cannot please God. However, when we desire to live a life that's pleasing to God, if we flee from youthful lusts which wage war against the soul and if we put to death our carnal fleshly desires then God will keep us from stumbling. And by the way, God is the only one who can produce that kind of life in and through us. We cannot do it in our own strength. Philippians 2:13 says - "it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." We cannot manufacture that kind of lifestyle in our own strength, it has to come about from our dependance on His Spirit, the new nature which He has put within us.
This is what Paul talks about in Galatians 5:16-25 - "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." If we walk by the Spirit then the Spirit, God Himself, will keep us from stumbling. When we allow Him to direct our steps we can be sure that He will not allow us to stumble. Romans 8:31 - "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?"

In 1 Corinthians 10:12 we read - "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." Even when we are walking in the Spirit we are not immune to sin. If we let down our guard we are liable to fall. When we let down our guard, even just a little bit, because we think that we're strong enough to handle the temptation, we are in very real danger of falling headlong into sin. We can look at the pattern of our lives and think that we're doing pretty well, and maybe we don't have do discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness as much as we used to because we're stronger now, and our stand is much more firm than it used to be, but that's a dangerous place to be. Proverbs 16:18 says - "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling." If we become proud we have stopped walking by the Spirit. The Lord hates pride. Pride is the domino that began the fall of creation, and God cannot stand it. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. The two natures within us have been compared to two dogs that fight all day every day, and whichever one you feed is the one that will win. If you feed the flesh, the natural with it's corrupt desires, if you indulge in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, then your life will be characterized by stumbling. However, if you feed the Spirit within you, if you feed daily on the Word of God and set you mind on things above, then you will walk by the Spirit and He will keep you from stumbling.

And what happens when we fall into sin? How do we come back to God again? We have no right to approach Him on our own merit, we come through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. His blood has covered our sins. When we fall into sin we grieve the Holy Spirit, but when we turn back and repent of our sins, agreeing with God that they are vile and wretched and turn away from them our fellowship with Him is restored and we are enabled, once again, to walk by the Spirit. He restores my soul.

Romans 16:25-27 - "Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen."