![]() The Pharisees sure thought such a thing that way they could put on a show of humility. ![]() ![]() Just be yourself! Yeah, I said that! Be you!īefore salvation should we decrease? Even to that I’d say no. We don’t need to mix the Covenants or twist John the Baptist’s words. Separate your who from your do to understand this. You are a spotless, holy, blameless, new creation, child of God, set apart, currently-seated-in-heaven RIGHTEOUS SAINT. You are not your mundane actions and attitudes. “In Christ you have been brought to fullness.” (See Colossians 2:10)Īre we just going to ignore these passages to appear modest? Are we going to say the Cross didn’t fully work so we still need to decrease? Why not just take God for His word and believe what He says about us? Why not just believe what Jesus did to us not just for us? Is it because we still sin and make mistakes? If that’s what you think dear believer, let me tell you something: “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence” (Colossians 1:22) The old has passed away behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. So when someone tries to use the passage of “I must decrease, He must increase” as a Christian to prove their humbleness, they just don’t understand what actually happened to them the moment of their salvation–NEWNESS. Once Christ went to the Cross it would become obsolete for all who would believe in the Son of God (see Matthew 5:18, Hebrews 8:12-13, Romans 6:14, 10:4). Law observance–not Law itself–would soon fade away. Now t his is what would decrease, Law teaching, not John. Why? So they would repent from the Law and toward grace toward faith in the One who would save them from their Mosaic infractions (see James 2:10, Galatians 3:10). Sure, there’s some, but it’s mostly Mosaic Law being taught in order to get self-righteous people to see they were absolute failures at obeying it. There’s not much good news in the four gospels. “For the Law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) He was expressing the need for grace and truth, the need for Jesus. John wasn’t attempting to get the approval of those following him by appearing meek. But then again, even if you’re reading this as a Jew, you still have to turn to Jesus and away from Moses (see Hebrews 3:3-12, 10:26-29). Each time he yelled, “Repent!” he longed for a Messiah to come along and put an end to his legalistic ministry of teaching 613 commandments given by Moses to only the Israelites. #I MUST DECREASE HE MUST INCREASE FULL#How can I say that? Because the Old Covenant was still in full force because the Cross had not yet happened. ![]() He taught Israel to repent back toward obeying Moses not toward obeying Jesus. John the Baptist preached Moses not Jesus. He was not exuding false humility “so that” he could point to Jesus. ![]() He was not trying to appear humble to look good in front of a congregation. When John the Baptist said, “He must increase, I must decrease,” he was not talking about himself as a person (see John 3:30). I’d love to put an exclamation point at the end of that statement, but I’ll leave it as it is. GOD DOES NOT EXPECT CHRISTIANS TO DECREASE SO CHRIST CAN INCREASE. I normally will build up to my point in each devotional, but let’s just get right to it: “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence” ![]()
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