Why Most Christians Never Experience a Deeper Life in Christ

Now, the world I live in is very, very simple. It’s just as simple as it can get. A group of Christians gets together, gets to know the Lord, and has a lot of problems and a lot of glory. Whatever they’re in, if they’ve got one foot in a glue pot or two feet in a glue pot, they look down, and they know the pot’s theirs and the glue is theirs. They’ve got in that mess all on their own. By the way, the foot is in there. It’s too. It’s a very simple world, but there is something so simple to watch and so beautiful.

Here comes the Christian in the door. This is the brother who’s been to the Bible classes, and he’s tried everything. He has been told what he is supposed to do as a Christian. I’m going to come back to that in a second. Here he comes; he’s tied up in knots. I’m supposed to pray, read my Bible, and tithe…what else am I supposed to do? What do y’all want me to do? What’s our standard around here? Please tell me, because I really want to know the Lord better.

Six months later, he doesn’t even remember being tied up in locks like that. He’s come to peace with the fact that he is a ruinous disaster who has failed to be and live the Christian life, always has, is, and always will. Utterly, totally failed at being a Christian. Now, do you know what taught him that? You did – all the rest of those people gathered. One of the most liberating things in this world is becoming part of a group of Christians and finding out that nobody is doing any better than you—absolutely nobody. Man, I’ll tell you, that is the most relaxing thing in this world. Hallelujah and praise the Lord. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled, and there is remission…free from the law, free from the law.

Every time anyone stands up and preaches, “This is what you ought to do as a Christian,” proves two things: one, he’s dumb to say it, and two, you’re dumb to believe it. Let me give you the most liberating sentence you’ll ever hear as long as you live: you cannot live the Christian life. The very concept of the law is that you’re capable of obeying it, and that’s the biggest slip in the human mind’s mental gyrations.

The law, today, is more or less irrelevant to the Christian, but boy, the Christian standard is alive and breathing in your life. That you, the individual, are to reckon yourself dead, are to go to church, are to tithe, are to do this, are to do that, are to do this…and that’s all you’ve got. Why don’t you reckon yourself dead to the Christian standard? If the first-century Gentiles can reckon themselves dead to the laws…613 of those things? I never can remember. 613 laws. Boy, we Christians have got them beat by a thousand at least. Brother and sister, dear Christian, please, everything in me is imploring you to understand. We reckon ourselves dead, that we were plunged into Christ, that we have risen from the dead, that we walk in the newness of life, that we no longer have sin dominating us, that we are no longer slaves.

Every use of the word slave in Romans 6 is plural. You yourselves know that you were slaves…not a slave. It is a corporate enslavement; it is a corporate liberation, and it is long-term if it is within the body of Christ. 41 references that are plural. Maybe four that are singular. Whatever riches are in the depths of Romans 6 belong only to a girl of whom you are a member. Thank God that’s not Romans 7. Romans 7 is perfect. Romans 7 is me trying to be a Christian. I want to read a little of Romans 7 to you. Let’s see if you can hear it a little differently.

Do you not know, brothers and sisters…this is not, “Do you not know, Joe or George?” Brothers and sisters in Romans 16, read their names, meeting in Priscilla’s home. Priscilla went to Rome at Paul’s request so that there would be a gathering of a body of believers in Rome because all the Christians, they had been Jews, had been pushed out by Claudius. Claudius was dead; Nero had just taken the throne. He was 16 years old. The city of Rome had opened again, and Paul wanted to make sure it wasn’t a Jewish church that started in a Gentile city. He asked Priscilla to go there. He asked the 29 people listed in Romans 16 to go there, and they began meeting in her home.

Do you not know, brothers and sisters, who are meeting in Priscilla’s? For I speak to those who know the Christian standard, that the Christian standard has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives.  I’m going to skip down here. The Christian standard is over you. If the Christian standard dies, you’re free to marry another.” If the Christian standard dies, you’re free to marry Jesus Christ. Now, which do you want to do? Live the Christian life or be married to the Lord Jesus Christ?

Gene, if we remove all law in the Christian life, will we not all be going out here whooping and hollering and doing all sorts of sinful things? Well, if you were a Baptist preacher from the stripe I came from, you’d sure believe that. Brothers and sisters, there’s nothing on earth I’d rather do than to stand up in front of you and say you’re free from every law and every standard that exists on this earth today. You’re free to do anything on earth you want to.

Okay, then what shall we say? That you’re free, except in these three areas? If you do them, you’re going to go to hell? If there’s one thing left that we’re not freed from, you do that one, and you’re in big trouble. You are free from all standards and all law. Paul said that very clearly in Romans, and he said it in Galatians, and I know some of you are about to have a duck.

Gene, you really can’t be serious. Hey, saint, get free. What do you think the word saint means? It means holy one. You are a holy one, and there is nothing like getting free from the demands that have been placed upon you as a Christian, and free from thinking that you can live the Christian life because you cannot live the Christian life. That’s the territory of Jesus Christ and Him alone. That is the territory of glory, the glory of the Son of God, and you will not be given the privilege of becoming an arrogant Christian because you succeeded in living the Christian life. God doesn’t allow it.

You are free from all law, and the freer you get is not more sin that you will do; the freer you get, the more you’ll fall in love with your Lord. You know another reason why? It’s because in the body of Christ, it’s different. As an individual trying to live the Christian life, it is exactly the same thing as a Jew trying to live the Jewish commandments. All you can think about is all those things you ought to be doing, all the things you can’t do or shouldn’t do. That’s all you think about.