The Root Cause

Have you ever, as a child of God, sat back and wondered "Why am I here again?!" or "Why am I going through this again?!" Have you ever had something that kept reoccurring in your life and not know why? You love God, you want and have a desire to do His Word and Will, and you know His Word — and yet you find yourself at the same crossroads (or similar) over and over again.

We pray, we repent, we seek God's face, we stay in His Word, and yet the same thing — or something similar — keeps popping its head up; it keeps coming back again. The problem is we often repent and truly mean it in our hearts, but we only address the symptom. We deal with the outward sins committed through the members of our bodies — our words, actions, or thoughts — without addressing the root cause that produced them.

Where is our faith placed?

The real problem is that we have our faith, our hope, and our trust in the wrong thing. We look to something other than where our faith should be — and that is the Cross of Christ.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." — Romans 8:2

What this means (briefly)

• For the law of the Spirit of life: A law is a system of rules that govern behavior and are enforced by a controlling authority. This is the law that governs how the Holy Spirit operates.
• In Christ Jesus has set you free: Found in Christ Jesus — not only the person of Jesus but what He accomplished. His sacrificial life and death on the Cross set us free.
• From the law of sin and death: The wages of sin is death. Our sin debt was paid in full on the Cross of Calvary.

"We know that our old self (our human nature without the Holy Spirit) was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin." — Romans 6:6 (AMP)

Sin ruins everything it touches. It was so severe that God Himself had to come down and deal with it. We cannot do it in ourselves — but God can! Sin is a rejection of God’s way, and His way is Jesus and the Cross of Calvary. Paul said, "We preach Christ crucified!" — the Cross.

Why recurring sin persists

When we have our faith in anything other than Jesus and the Cross, the Holy Spirit cannot fully operate in our lives. It doesn't matter how good the thing or person is that you're looking to; if your faith isn't in Jesus and what He did on the Cross, you're essentially on your own.

Examples of misplaced faith include thinking:

• If my pastor prays, God will move.
• If I go to church, pray, and read the Bible enough, everything will work out.
• Paying extra tithe will open windows of heaven.
• Confessing the right scriptures will force God's hand.

All of these are things people have done (and many of them are good!), but when they become the object of our trust (Our Faith) instead of the Cross, they are works of the Flesh (self) with a bit of God mixed in. "If I" is not the Holy Spirit — it is you. This misplacement of faith is why we've fallen and failed repeatedly. We are looking to, relying and depending on things, people other than God. There is nothing inherently wrong with church, prayer, scripture, giving, or pastoral prayer — but they are not the source of victory. The Cross is. You don’t have to “pull scriptures into existence" with your Faith. All you must do is trust (place your Faith) in what Jesus accomplished on the Cross of Calvary which has made ALL of God’s Word “Yes and Amen!” The only way we get anything from God is through the Son and what He has done for us to have access to the Father – The Cross! .

How to realign

When our Faith is not in its proper place, then we are not in our proper place to receive anything from God! God is moved by our Faith! Our Faith in what? The ONLY thing that removed that which separated us from Him (sin) is the Cross of Christ! So yes, we need to repent and turn away (turn away from whatever the thing(s) is and do it no more). This addresses the “symptom(s)”, but not the root cause. Why as a Child of God am sinning? God hates sin, and so do we; but O retched man, who will deliver us from this body of sin. The real problem is where our Faith lies. When our Faith is not in Jesus and Him Crucified, it denies the help of The Helper, the Holy Spirit, in our lives.

The ONLY answer to sin, that which seems to plague our lives, is the Cross. Why?! Because at the Cross, sin was defeated! God’s main reason for sending His son, Jesus, was to defeat sin once and for all. But we must do it God’s way to have His Power, the Holy Spirit, operating His Word in our lives. .

I know this is a lot to take in, but NOW is the time to get it right so we can have the Victory in this life God intended for us to have in His Son, Jesus, who has made the ONLY Way! He is the ONLY Truth and has shown us the Light! Let’s follow Him!. JESUS IS EVERYTHING — and we receive it via the Cross.

Sidebar — A Personal Moment

I once fell on my face in sin and dropped to my knees and cried before the Lord, "Why? What am I missing?" When we come before our Father with a broken, contrite heart and spirit, He will never despise us. God is Love, and He always answers. When we fall and fail as true Children of God - in moments in time, it doesn't take God's Love away for nothing can separate of us from the Love of God; nor does it negate our Salvation. He said you are mine! Not long after that moment, the Message of the Cross was presented to me — and everything began to change.

Short takeaways

• Don't just look at the symptoms; don’t stop there — seek the root cause. Where is your Faith rooted and grounded?
• Place your Faith in the Cross of Christ, not in works, people (self included) or secondary things.
• Let the Holy Spirit have full reign by trusting Christ’s finished work.

WE NEED JESUS!

We all need Jesus!

Before the Fall of Lucifer, he was perfect, beautiful, and full of wisdom! There was no other angel or creature wiser than he. And please understand, he still has that wisdom but it's perverted, and NONE of us mere mortals can outsmart him. We, within ourselves, are easily manipulated and persuaded by him, blown to and fro by the winds of change, doctrines, ideas, and opinions.

With this wisdom, though perverted, he has corrupted our world and the lives of untold billions of people who are and will be eternally lost.

In his wisdom of manipulation and persuasion, he is artfully cunning and dishonest. We don't even realize it - we're deceived. It evades even some who say they name the Name of the Lord. This is the reason sin is so subtle; it is elusive to us mere mortals.

This is why we all need Jesus. This is why we must have our Faith rooted in the Cross of Calvary. The Holy Spirit can then help us to see and understand these wiles/tricks of the enemy.

You do not have the strength, within your own power, to defeat and outsmart the devil.

WE NEED JESUS! And we NEED Him NOW more than ever!

Fallen From Grace

The Grace of God is the goodness of God that has been freely given to us by what Jesus has accomplished on the Cross of Calvary. As believers, we can fall from grace.

But what does that mean?

Many people think that falling from the Grace of God means that one has simply sinned. No. In Galatians, Paul was addressing the demand that Gentile believers be circumcised. The Judaizers were teaching that circumcision (and the Law) was a requirement for salvation. Paul responded that if you add circumcision as a requirement for salvation, then what Jesus did on the Cross is rendered ineffective for you.

Galatians 5:1-6 (AMP)

¹It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (sin) [which you once removed]. ²Notice, it is I, Paul, who tells you that if you receive circumcision [as a supposed requirement of salvation], Christ will be of no benefit to you [for you will lack the faith in Christ that is necessary for salvation]. ³Once more I solemnly affirm to every man who receives circumcision [as a supposed requirement of salvation], that he is under obligation and required to keep the whole Law. ⁴You have been severed from Christ, if you seek to be justified [that is, declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty, and placed in right standing with God] through the Law; you have fallen from grace [for you have lost your grasp on God’s unmerited favor and blessing]. ⁵For we [not relying on the Law but] through the [strength and power of the Holy] Spirit, by faith, are waiting [confidently] for the hope of righteousness [the completion of our salvation]. ⁶For [if we are] in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but only faith activated and expressed and working through love.

Verses 1–6 explain that making any requirement (like circumcision) a condition of salvation removes the effect of the Cross. "Fallen from grace" in verse 4 emphasizes being severed from Christ when salvation or justification is sought through the Law rather than through faith in Christ's finished work.

In verse 4, Paul is saying that if, having heard the Message of the Cross, you believed yet then forget, forsake, or worse reject it, you have fallen from grace. When we try to gain salvation or live the saved life by any means other than the Cross of Christ, we have fallen from the Grace of God.

We only have God's goodness (grace) in our lives because of what Jesus did on the Cross for us. If Jesus had not died on the Cross, paying our sin debt, none of us would have God's unmerited favor — Grace — in our lives.

Grace vs. Law

We are either living under Grace or under the Law. "Law" can be any set of rule/requirements we place on ourselves to try to live a Christ-like life. This could church law (rules/requirements), but these are man-made. That might include going to church, praying or reading the Bible. While God desires these things, they are not the basis for salvation or holiness; we cannot look to these things. Only what Jesus accomplished on the Cross saves and makes us holy. All of this is looking at what SELF can do and not at what Jesus did for you to be saved. We continuously try to insert ourselves (what we can do) in Salvation and Sanctification (holiness). God doesn't need our help! IT IS FINISTHED (nothing else needed), and it was finished at the Cross! All we must do is have Faith in that which God has done in the giving of His Son, Jesus (John 3:16).

When we live under law — anything that is not the Cross — we frustrate the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 2:21). We also frustrate ourselves, because though we genuinely want to live for God, attempting to do it by our own effort, power, knowledge and abilities rather than by Faith in Christ and the Cross will fail. It will end in frustration.

God's way is Jesus and the Cross; any other way is law. Even if we lived under law initially out of ignorance, once we understand the sufficiency of the Cross, our faith must be placed properly in Jesus and Him crucified. When we place our faith in other things, we fall from grace. If we persist in that path, not only do we grieve the Holy Spirit, but we also risk losing our soul - and none of us want that!

Key verses cited: Galatians 5:1–6 (AMP). Scriptures quoted to explain grace and the danger of adding requirements to salvation.