There are three sides to a coin, which side are you on? #JESUS

Today’s topic, I titled, ‘There are three sides to a coin!’
There is typically ‘heads’ and ‘tails’, so the common phrase is “the other side of the coin”, or “two sides to a coin.”
And many people use these phrases to promote their point of view, or to pit choices against one another.
But there is a third side to a coin!
The edge is a side, it is another option.

Now if you flip a coin, the chances of it landing on ‘heads’ or ‘tails’ is exponentially higher than it landing and perfectly standing on its edge,
but it is still a possibility!

Again, today, I prayed for JESUS CHRIST to just lead me to what he wants me to see and understand and share.
Today’s verse is from Galatians 5 verse 24:
Those who belong to CHRIST JESUS have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So how did I land on the topic of a coin and its sides from this verse?
Go to Galatians 5, and let’s read through the two topics discussed in it, which are:
Verses 1-12: Freedom in CHRIST
Verses 13-26: Life by the SPIRIT

Galatians 5
Freedom in Christ
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.
9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.
11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Now to refer to the coin, there are those people who think and will postulate that if you say you follow the whole Bible, then you have to do everything that it states in the Bible!
Those people have zero understanding of the Bible!
Most of them are not even believers in JESUS CHRIST, but trying to refute or discredit Christians.
They will make their arguments that, “if you don’t follow the whole Bible, you are a hypocrite!”
Again, these people absolutely do not understand the Bible.

But, there is another group who do believe in JESUS CHRIST who will use parts of the Bible against other believers.
They will use parts of the ‘old law’ to pump themselves up as better believers or followers of GOD!
Paul tells us about these types of believers in verses 1-12.
These people who think that if they do this, or they do that, because it is in the Bible; that they are better Christians!
However, Paul warns us that if we cling on to any part of the law (he uses circumcision as his example to the Galatians),
then we must adhere to the whole law for our salvation!

Why? Because JESUS CHRIST fulfilled the whole law, JESUS CHRIST is now our law!
JESUS told us the two most important things we are to do!
Matthew 22:37-40!
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

What about “Love your neighbor?” a lot of people will ask, in order to prop up the ‘love is love’ ideology?

Well, let’s discuss the ‘other’ side of the coin…

Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

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
21 and 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.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

The ‘other’ side of the coin is those who go on believing they can still live in their sinful lives!
Those who think they are Christians, or followers of JESUS CHRIST, but they refuse to repent of their lifestyle.
Most of these people will say “love is love” or “Jesus loves me just the way I am” or “love your neighbor”.
While JESUS does love everyone who comes to HIM, the Bible clearly presents who our actual JESUS is!

In every specific instance when JESUS healed someone, or forgave someone, HE stated “go and sin no more!”
JESUS went into the temple, the house built for HIM and saw all the sin taking placing and
HE overturned the tables and harshly rebuked those there. (Matthew 21:12)

People forget that the first time JESUS came, he came as the perfect lamb!
That lamb was the final sacrificial lamb; which was GOD sacrificing HIMSELF on the cross to forgive us who accept JESUS CHRIST and repent of our sins.
HIS worldly body was buried in a tomb and HE rose up on HIS own authority from the first death!

So what is the third side of the coin? The edge?
Matthew 7:13-14 - JESUS says “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

We are to turn away from our sinful nature, which is both the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ of the coin!
Which is extremely hard to do if we don’t have 100% faith in JESUS CHRIST in our lives.
Not the made-up Jesus that a lot of so-called churches are pushing the ‘love is love’ ideology, and that people can still revel in sexual immorality and impurity, or even idolatry, or selfish ambition.
Reread Galatians 5 verses 19-21.
If you are living like this and feel like it is ok to do so because your Jesus loves you the way you are;
then you are following a manmade Jesus, not the JESUS CHRIST of the Bible, who is the way, the truth, and the life!

For a coin to land and balance perfectly on its edge is extremely hard to do!
And for the majority of the world’s people, they will only want to be on the large broad side of the coins, because those faces are much easier to be on.
Unfortunately for them JESUS tells us the gate is small, the road narrow, and few will find it.