In Acts 5:32, we read, “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
In James 4:7, we read, “Submit yourselves, then, to Yehovah. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
There is no getting around it; sometimes life sucks, and being a Christian does not exempt you from the suckiness of life. Christians and non-Christians alike get sick, lose loved ones, have to battle loneliness, depressions, fear, and anxiety. What then is the benefit of being a Christian?
Acts 5:32 says if you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, born again ( or whatever label you choose to describe what it means to follow Christ and His teachings), the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of you.
Stop for a moment and let this sink in; if you obey Yehovah, the Holy Spirit will come and make His home in you. You will become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? According to the Bible, He is God. So the one who created you will live on the inside of you if you obey Him.
Yes, there is that little word we Christians sometimes frown upon “obey” or “obedience.” We can’t get past the fact that Acts 5:32 says we have to obey, and it does not say we have to obey Jesus; it says we have to obey the Father of Jesus, whose name is Yehovah. How do we obey Him?
1. John 2, James 2, 1. Chor 11:1 says Jesus obeyed Yehovah, and we have to imitate His obedience if we want the Holy Spirit. How did Jesus obey Yehovah? As Christians, we already know the answer to this, Jesus kept every commandment in the law of Moses applicable to Him as a Jewish male living in Israel with access to the temple. So what Acts 5:32 is trying to tell us is this; if we want the Holy Spirit, we have to repent from lawlessness to law and start obeying the law of Moses.
Why the law of Moses? We are not Jews, are we?
The Bible says we are righteous when we obey the law of Moses because the law is righteousness. The opposite of righteousness is unrighteousness, or what we usually would call sin. So, according to the Bible, sin is breaking the law of Moses. Therefore, repentance would mean you admit to having broken the law, and you quit living as a lawbreaker and choose to become a law keeper.
You can’t change what the Bible says, even if you dont like it. So if you want the benefits and promises of the Bible, you have to obey what it says.
Why the law of Moses? Because God says so, that’s why.
So what happens if you do obey it and you choose to repent?
The Bible says in Acts 5:32, Yehovah will send you the Holy Spirit, and He will dwell on the inside of you. James 4:7 says the devil will flee from you as long as you keep obeying the law of Moses. But as you will soon discover, repentance can only forgive you, but it can not atone for your past sins. You need to atone and repent, considering how the temple is gone and how the law of Moses does not permit atonement for intentional sins; you have only one option left; belief in what Jesus Christ did for you at the cross, His burial, and resurrection.
As a Christian living in obedience to the law of Moses, you have no reason whatsoever to fear what this week might have in store for you. You have the God of the universe, the one who controls the entire universe, living on the inside of you, and He has promised to be with you and help you this week. (Deut 28:1-14).
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