Harmful Mixture
Have you ever had an experience where you bought fuel for a vehicle and there was water in it, which caused problems with your car’s performance?
Gas and water do not mix, and if ever you try to do so, the purpose for which you use the gas is profoundly affected.
This is the result of a wrong mixture.
Another example is the danger of mixing cleaners, which can result in noxious and dangerous fumes.
For instance, if you mix bleach with vinegar, it creates chlorine gas that causes breathing and eye problems. Your body will react negatively to the gas produced from such a mixture, just as your car will react negatively to water in the gas tank.
This can be true spiritually, too! There is a mixture that is dangerous to you spiritually, and many engage in it without realizing it.
I would like to consider several passages as we think about the danger of mixture this morning.
Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Galatians 3:2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
2Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
When we mix things that we shouldn’t, our spiritual eyes are affected, and our understanding is hindered when we seek to grow through a mixture. Law and grace do not mix.
The law always appeals to the flesh and calls on the strength of the flesh. It always promotes self-righteousness in a person because it demands it. But we can live according to the Spirit and free of condemnation that comes to us through the Law.
I will wrap up this thought today with two final passages.
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
Romans 3:28 Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
I want the right kind of righteousness, one that is free of harmful mixture and full of the fire of the Holy Spirit. Only God’s righteousness can do that, and it can be mine only by faith in Christ, not through my observance of the Law. Beware the harmful mixture that is promoted as a viable spiritual cleaner. It will dim your spiritual eyes and hinder your spiritual breath. It is a veil that hides His glory from your view and experience.
