Grace - Holy Spirit wants you to know that you are righteous and sanctified

Which do you believe?

1. The Holy Spirit will convict you of your sins and failures.

or

2. The Holy Spirit convinces you that you are without fault and that the Father loves you?

If you believe the first choice, then you believe God's primary concern for you is to manage your behavior. If you believe the second, then you've responded to His kindness, changed your mind about Him (that's true biblical repentance), and you've given up your fight against sinful behaviors and rested in His love, thus finding the true power to be free from wrong behaviors. You can now finally enjoy life abundant. Only grace can do this. Your self-effort to act better will keep you in the never-ending cycle of effort, failure, and behavior modification and out of a life full of joy, peace, and righteousness

The Holy Spirit seeks to convince the world of their sin, which is unbelief in Jesus. But for you, a Christian, the Holy Spirit will never seek to convince you of your sin. How can He? All of your sin has already, once and for all, been both forgotten AND forgiven!

Consider the following:

"And He, when He comes, will convict the WORLD concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me." John 16:8-9

"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you ARE NOT of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." John 15:19

"They [Christians]] ARE NOT of the world, even as I am not of the world." John 17:16

"Sanctify them [Christians] in the truth; Your word is truth." John 17:17

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you [Christians] into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." John 16:13-15

"Since you [Christians] have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart..." 1 Peter 1:22

"But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed." Romans 6:17

"By this will [the will of the Father] we HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL...For by one offering He has perfected for ALL TIME those who ARE sanctified." Hebrews 10:10, 14

"...So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor will I rebuke you...my lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and my covenant or peace will not be shaken." Isaiah 54:9

"...For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Jeremiah 31:34

Enjoy the blessings of complete righteousness and sanctification under the New Covenant. It's a done deal, our Great High Priest has secured for us a Great Salvation (Hebrews 2) has SAT DOWN (Hebrews 1). He is faithful and has not lied (Hebrews 6:17-19). Allow Holy Spirit to guide you into the fullness of THIS truth.


Grace=Peace,
Jeremy

Grace - Quotes from Bill Johnson and Phil Drysdale

Hi Everyone,

Bill Johnson and Phil Drysdale, both at Bethel Church in Redding, CA, had great comments on their Facebook pages today. Enjoy!

"Many believers would never think of condemning another, but have little problem condemning themselves. It's the same sin. What right do I have to condemn someone God has forgiven? And that includes self-condemnation!" -- Bill Johnson

"The basis of your relationship with God is not how little you sin but how much you choose to receive His love." -- Phil Drysdale

Grace=Peace,
Jeremy

Grace - Good News to be Believed

"The Gospel is not a call to constant confession, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed." by Craig Glenn

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - A Great Book

Hi Everyone,

Below is a link to a PDF book on grace that I recently read. I highly recommend it!

http://www.thefinishedwork.org/Portals/0/Book-Download/Surpassing-Glory-by-Ryan-Sletcher.pdf


Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Perfected

Hi Everyone!

The next time someone who is obsessed with behavior modification tells you that you should be obedient because God says "Be perfect because I am perfect", just look at them, smile, and lovingly point them to Hebrews 10:14.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - What Righteousness Is Not

Hi Everyone!

Here's a grace quote from Joseph Prince:

"Righteousness is not right behavior. It is right standing with the Father. It is the clearance of all your guilt, which makes you able to stand before God. It is not something you get through right behavior. It is a gift from God. Paul calls it "the gift of righteousness". And to "seek" this gift is to be conscious of the fact that you have it, to confess that you are righteous in Christ." ~ Joseph Prince

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Filled in Him

"For in him [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority." - Colossians 2:9-10

Below are some quotes from a book I am currently reading, "Surpassing Glory", by Ryan Sletcher.

I am sending them because I believe that one aspect of the Christian life that the "grace message" addresses is sorely lacking from the lives of most Christians--that is, demonstrations of God's spiritual and supernatural power to represent the truth of the gospel to a world in need.

Consider the following:

"The number one reason Christians are unable to heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the Gospel, perform miracles, prophesy, etc., is because they believe they lack something."

"The average Christian is living so far below his potential that when he sees a normal Christian doing normal Christian things like raising the sick and raising the dead, he calls him a 'giant in the faith.' The difference between a normal Christian (aka a giant in the faith) and other Christians is not their level of power or anointing. The difference is their revelation of the power and anointing that they carry, ***and their willingness to use it***."

If we could only embrace the fullness of the Gospel of Grace, we would realize that we are fully forgiven, fully saved, fully righteous, fully accepted, fully equipped, and fully able to destroy the works of the devil during our walk on earth. Why all the fullness? Because the same Spirit that was power-packed enough to raise Jesus from the dead now LIVES in us.

Now go lay your hands on someone and be amazed how God moves to heal them and/or speak prophetically through you.

Go!!!!


Grace=Peace,

Jeremy



Sent from my iPhone 4S.

Grace - Much more than we expected

Just as the "prodigal" son returning to his father could only imagine being received as a hired servant and never in his wildest dreams would have believed his father would fully restore his sonship, so most Christians have believed something less than the truly good news.  We've been told that we can't be fully restored, fully righteous, nor fully and always in perfect fellowship with a loving Father.

I imagine that the "prodigal" son had difficulty at first believing the loving actions of his Father--that it was too good to be true.  But that is how our thinking must change about ourselves and God as well--the Gospel of Grace truly does seem too good to be true, but that's the point.  This amazement, this overwhelming love is the inspiration that every person needs and how the Christian life is to be lived.

Show me a bored Christian or a "nominal" Christian, and you'll have shown me someone whose mind has not yet truly experienced the life-changing effect of a grace that is so over the top, so packed with goodness, that one needs the gift of faith from God just to believe it.

After all, it is His great kindness that leads us to change the way we think (repentance).

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - It's Offensive!

Hi Everyone,

Why is the finished work of the cross an offense to those striving to please God?  Because it invalidates every human attempt at spirituality. Though we labor to proclaim the cross, we do not labor to repeat it as religion does. We do not labor to strive toward our own holiness, sanctification or redemption. Just believe it's yours. Nor do we strive to enter into more of His fullness. For by our union with Christ we are already full of the Godhead.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Our sin nailed to the cross

Hi friends,

Remember this hymn?

"My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!"

from the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul"

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Our Salvation

Here's another great article by Mick Mooney. Read the bold print if you're short on time.

Grace=Peace,
Jeremy


Our Salvation
by Mick Mooney

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom!"
Luke 12:32

It really is beyond imagination. That the Almighty creator of the heavens, who designed the entire universe in all of its majesty as well as the earth in all of its detail, would offer us a better best friend, a better leader and a better hope than ourselves. He has given us his very own Son.

All of us share a similar moment in time. It was the moment we heard the good news of Jesus, and having believed, we were included in Christ. In this moment we went from being distant from God, to being even more than a friend, we became children of God! (Eph. 1:13)

We didn't earn our salvation, but Christ earned it for us. We didn't deserve to be favoured because of our own works and effort, but we were included in Christ who has earned God's full favour on our behalf through his perfect atoning sacrifice upon the cross. As Christians, we do not boast in our own goodness, we boast in the goodness of Christ. Our boast is not that we have earned our holiness, righteousness and redemption. Our boast is in Christ, who has become for us, our holiness, righteousness and redemption.

Everything that we have is a gift from God based on our belief upon Jesus. It's amazing to know that even our holiness is a gift. We are not just holy, but we have actually become the holiness of Christ. That means that when God wants to define his holiness he simply points to you! If you are in Christ then you have become his holiness, his righteousness and his redemption.

This blessedness is not only for the moment we are included in Christ, but for every day we walk on earth and for eternity to come. You are forever in the position of blessing. You are forever loved. You are forever forgiven. You are forever favoured. You are forever accepted. You are forever credited as righteous, holy and blameless in God's sight. You are forever set free. Not by your efforts, but because you belong to Christ. This is the good news for your life!

For many believers, when we first believed in Christ we were so in awe of his greatness. As time went on we began to take our eyes off of Jesus and place them back onto ourselves. This is a common process that has a domino effect which leads a believer back into a false religious mindset, instead of remaining in our glorious new covenant reality. When we do this, we become self-focused (or ministry-focused, or church program-focused) and not Christ-focused. The result of changing our focus is a change in our relationship with God.

Instead of thanking God that we are included in Jesus, our prayers become consumed with how sorry we are to God. Not sorry that we have sinned, but sorry that we are just not better Christians. We work harder for God, but feel less worthy of his presence. We begin to believe that we have to do everything for God (work harder in our ministry, work harder to build the church programs, work harder in our prayer life!)

When we begin to believe that we have to earn everything from God we start living by worldly principles instead of by the reality of Christ. Instead of remaining in the truth that we receive all things from God because we belong to Christ, we begin to believe some other fine sounding argument that doesn't depend on the reality of Christ at all. It is this very problem that the Apostle Paul addresses with the Colossian church.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."  Colossians 2:8

We can't earn anything from God for the very fact that Christ has earned it all for us already. Christ now gives everything to us as a gift from God. As Christians we need to remind ourselves why God sees us the way that he does and why God favours us the way that he does. It is based on Christ's finished work, not our unfinished work.

The simple gospel truth is that we have not earned any of the blessing and benefits of God, but we have freely received them from God because we belong to his Son, Jesus Christ. We, as the church, need to take our eyes off of ourselves and place them once again upon Jesus and his perfect life and sacrifice. When we do this, suddenly everything starts to make sense; we begin to accept that we really are loved, accepted, holy, righteous, blameless and favoured. We don't accept this reality based on our works, but based on God's abundant provision of grace! (John 1:16).

All of these blessings belong to Christ, all of the promises belong to Christ, the fullness of the Holy Spirit belongs to Christ, and the kingdom of God belongs to Christ. It all belongs completely to Christ. No one else could ever earn, buy or deserve them. By the grace of God when you believed in Christ you were placed in him and you were credited with all of this.

The good news of Jesus Christ is that in him and through him we can rejoice that God has now given to us his kingdom of peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Gospel of Grace DVD by Rob Rufus

Hello Everyone,

Rob Rufus' 12-DVD set on the Gospel of Grace is available through the following link:

http://gospelofgracedvd.org/

In the set are 9 DVDs of teaching material and 3 DVDs of questions and answers about grace.  The teaching material includes video sermons all under 60 minutes each, mp3 versions, and even transcriptions in PDF files.

If you purchase this for yourself, I guarantee you will not be disappointed!


Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - Turn away

Moses turned aside to see the marvelous sight of the burning bush (Exodus 3:3). This is the same verb used to describe Isaiah's guilt being taken away by the Lord (Isa. 6:7). We need to turn aside each day and take time to see the marvelous salvation Jesus has provided for us. Such joy is incredibly empowering. Like Moses and Isaiah, we can turn nations to God, when we turn to see that our sins have been sent away forever.

Grace=Peace,
Jeremy

Grace - Jesus Became Completely Unrighteous

"He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Cor. 5:21.

I had a conversation with someone who insisted that we are not completely righteous. I suppose that the old covenant mentality kept them from believing what Paul insists upon again and again: we have been made complete and completely righteous in Christ.

But there is another side to such a non-belief in our complete righteousness: if we have not been made completely righteous in Christ, then He did not become completely unrighteous. This great exchange is vastly under-appreciated.

Perhaps the marvel of Christ's work is not so much that we've been made righteous, but rather the marvel is found in how He became utter sin and unrighteousness.

Consider the following quote:

"Notice that Paul does not say that God reconciled the world to Himself by Jesus becoming flesh. We are not reconciled by Christmas. God reconciled the world to Himself by Jesus becoming sin for us." ~Sinclair Ferguson

Blessings to you!

Grace=Peace,
Jeremy

Grace - God Himself nourishes the soul

Hi Everyone!

Below is an excerpt from A.W. Tozer and a very short remark by John Piippo, a pastor whose blog I follow.  John Piippo is also one of the people interviewed in "Finger of God".


Grace=Peace,


Jeremy

"Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts." (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, Kindle Locations 51-56)

Knowing Scripture is good. But Scripture's object is not Scripture. Scripture's object is God. Scripture, empowered by God's Spirit, points us to the abiding relationship with God. That's what we need.

Thank God for Scripture. But Scripture is not to be worshiped. Only God is.

-- John Piippo

Grace - Transfer of Trust

Hi Everyone,

Here's a short grace-nugget from Billy Graham's grandson:

"....the deepest slavery is self-dependence, self-reliance. When you live your life believing that everything (family, finances, relationships, career) depends primarily on you, you're enslaved to your strengths and weaknesses. You're trying to be your own savior. Freedom comes when we start trusting in God's abilities and wisdom instead of our own. Real life begins when we transfer our trust from our own efforts to the efforts of Christ". ~ Tullian Tchividjian

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

Grace - God Is What God Does

Grace - God Is What God Does

Below is an excerpt from an article by Bert White.  Enjoy!

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

"Jesus was above all things a revolutionary with a radical message. Most folks do not tend to see Jesus as an insurrectionist or a divine insurgent but make no mistake; His message was anything but tame.  ....Jesus makes an unmistakably clear connection with loving people and the coming of the Kingdom of God. That is because a true relationship with God is impossible without loving people (1 John 4:7, 8). The revolution of Jesus' subversive kingdom was a revolution of love. He overthrew the satanic strongholds of hatred, intolerance and religion that marred the image of His creation. The powers that He overthrew were neither territorial, nor geographical but were those powers that disfigured a person's soul. His revolution was inward and spiritual, a revolution of the heart. One of the ways that Jesus demonstrated the love of God was by showing people grace. Jesus was quick to point out that laws and rules will not bring people into the kingdom… only love will.

Rom 5:20 (MSG) "All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down."

Aggressive? Forgiveness? Gracing people into the kingdom? Now that seems pretty hard! You may ask how I can aggressively forgive when so much has been done to me. That may work for Jesus … but that's a different story for me. From my experience it is those who have experienced forgiveness that are more readily to give it away. I believe that the most powerful weapon of the New Covenant is forgiveness. If we have a problem with forgiving it is usually because we are making ourselves to be a judge and if we do that we have a need to establish guilt and punishment to vindicate our sense of justice. The only problem with that is that if we walk through life as the judge we end up entrapped in our own cell of bitterness.

Showing love will definitely challenge us, but it will also change us. The kingdom of God is demonstrated every time we choose love over hate, love over unforgiveness, love over intolerance, love over greed, love over violence, and love over injustice. I believe the way of love is the better way. I think that the love of God is the simple answer to all our complex questions.

Love tells us the truth when all we have ever known are lies. Love tells us that we are accepted when all we have ever known is rejection. Love tells us of freedom when all we have known is addiction. Love tells us about grace when all we have ever known is religion.

We are called to be an army in a revolution of love. We are the healers in broken places, pouring ourselves out to a hurting and suffering world. As Donald Miller says "We're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding" and the only way is by demonstrating the Love of God.

… and love without stopping. (1 Cor. 16:14, the Message)"

Live Loved – Bert White

Grace - The reed and the Rock

Hi Everyone,

Recently, in the past two months, someone pointed out to me that Peter wept bitterly when he and Jesus exchanged glances after Peter had denied Jesus three times. This person's point was that Peter was bitterly remorseful because he sinned against Jesus and that we should react similarly when we sin against Him. While I don't deny that Peter's denial of Jesus was in fact a sin, I sincerely doubt this is the lesson we are to learn from this passage.

It is my belief that Peter, who had boasted of his own love for Jesus and his own determination to follow his Savior's footsteps, even to the point of death, was bitterly remorseful because he realized his boasting in himself was a complete failure. Peter boasted of his love for Jesus and failed. I believe we should also remember that Holy Spirit as Comforter had not yet come, hence all the more Peter's bitter sorrow.

What we see as the result of this story is Jesus' restoration of Peter when Jesus three times asks Peter if he had "agape" love for Jesus. Peter's response was, "Jesus, you know that I "phileo" You. Here Peter shows his no-confidence vote in his own love for Jesus, stating the his love for Jesus was at best a brotherly love, not the God-type of agape love.

The point: Peter learned to boast in Jesus' love for him, not his love for Jesus. This is to be our experience with God, not our boasting and attempting in our own strength to love Him more.

Let Him love you; let Him impress you. This is how you will grow in Grace.

Enjoy the grace article below!

Grace=Peace,
Jeremy


The reed and the Rock
By Mick Mooney

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4

When we look once more into the gospels we see that out of all of the disciples, Peter seemed to be the stand out disciple. When his relationship with Jesus began, Jesus said something very interesting. He said to him:

Your name is Simon son of John, you will be called Peter. John 1:42

One of the interpretations of the name Simon is 'reed'. A reed is very fragile; it is easily blown about in the wind. Peter means 'rock'. A rock is strong and solid, it stands firm. What Jesus could have been saying to him was "you are insecure and easily shaken, but I will make you stand firm." It is interesting how he interpreted that moment. Jesus meant that he was going to make him a rock through the finished work of the cross, but he interpreted Jesus' words through the focus of 'self' and spent the rest of his walk with Jesus trying to make that word come to pass in his own strength.

From that time on Peter was always trying to be the rock for Jesus. When Jesus asked a question, it was always Peter who tried to answer it first. When Jesus was walking on the water, it was Peter who stepped out of the boat and walked on the water with Jesus. Yet, in his zeal to change himself into a rock for Jesus, he found himself time and time again failing! The more he zealously tried to be a great Christian, the more he felt he was not good enough. More than that, Jesus himself seemed to be the one who kept pointing out that he had such little faith.

'Come' he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink cried out. 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith' he said 'why did you doubt?' Matthew 14:29-31

The first few steps he took when he walked on the water happened while he was looking at Jesus, but he quickly turned away from him and started looking at the wind. He became scared and began to sink. At this point Jesus reached out and saved him. In that moment Jesus made an incredible statement. He said to Peter "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

You can just imagine Peter thinking to himself, 'little faith? Are you being serious Jesus? I have huge faith, and I just walked on water by faith. What else do you want me to do to prove to you I have faith!' However, Jesus was not asking him where his faith was to walk on water; he was asking Peter why he had such little faith to keep his focus on him.

It is easy as Christians to think that we need faith to do things, but actually faith is not needed 'for' things, it is needed 'in' Christ. We need to have faith in the greatness of Christ. We need faith to believe the fullness of what he has accomplished for us, not faith to merely do great things for him.

Peter spent three years walking with Jesus trying to change himself by his efforts and his works into the 'rock' Jesus said he would be. What he eventually discovered was that he would never become the rock Jesus called him to be by his own will. He became a rock when he gave up trying to live the life of faith in his own strength, and allowed Christ to transform him by his Spirit.

Jesus died for all of us, to guarantee we would all receive the Holy Spirit, and it is this Spirit that makes all of us firm and secure in our faith. It is a gift from God based on the perfect finished work of Christ.

We are all made rocks in Christ when we are made into new creations. God doesn't expect us to change ourselves into rocks for him; he expects us to live in the one true Rock—Jesus himself. With this focus we give access to the Spirit of God to transform us into rocks for God—firm and secure in the covenant of grace that we have with him.

Keep your eyes on Jesus and rest in the understanding that God will transform your life to be one that reflects his great love and grace. From God's perspective, the way to have great faith is not by doing great works for God, but through beholding the greatness of Jesus. If you do this, you can be sure that the Spirit will do his part and finish all of the good works God has prepared in advance to complete through your life. (Ephesians 2:10)

Grace - Blessing Magnet

God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

 

 

When Jesus was made to be sin, He did not have to fast and pray and ask the Father to pour out wrath upon Him. Jesus, who became sin and a curse, attracted God's WRATH like the ultimate wrath-magnet in all the universe. Likewise, when we were made to be righteous in Christ, we didn't have to fast and beg and ask for our Father's blessing.  All His blessings zeroed in on us and chased us down as though drawn by the greatest blessing-magnet in the universe.  Stop fasting, begging, and believing you're an orphan now abandoned by a neglectful, apathetic parent.  Our righteousness in Him is a super blessing-magnet that will never fail.

 

Grace=Peace,

 

 

Jeremy




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Definition of a friend: A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
A friend involves himself in your life and you in theirs.

Grace - The Old and the New

Hey Everyone,

 

Here's another article on Grace by Mick Mooney.  In it, he makes a very good point about how we are led by Jesus, since He Himself is "The Way".  Enjoy!

 

Grace=Peace,

 

Jeremy

 

 

The old and the new

By Mick Mooney

 

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Colossians 3:9-10

 

As a believer, it is so important to actually believe the reality of what Christ has done on your behalf. He has really made you into a new creation. You really are now a saint. You really do have a righteous nature! Christ really did cut away your sinful nature (Colossians 2:11) so that you can now freely live with him and for him. All of this was not the fruit of your work, but the fruit of Christ's perfect finished work upon the cross.

 

Whenever we look at ourselves apart from the revelation of the cross, we cannot see the reality of our new selves. This results in holding on to a religious mindset that believes that we are still the same people we were before we accepted him. When we continue to believe that we are our old selves, then our old mindsets, our old ideas about God and ultimately our old sinful practices begin to reflect this belief.

 

The old self is naturally spiritually inadequate because it was made through the body of Adam, the original sinner. However, the truth is that we are no longer the old self; we have been made into a new creation.

 

We were all born the first time through the body of Adam, but through our faith we have been born again spiritually through the body of Christ. He is not like Adam, he is not a sinner. Adam may have passed on the nature of sin, but Christ is the righteousness of God, and it is this nature that he passes on to all who are born through him!

 

Now if we believe that the old self was sinful, how much more should we believe that the new self is righteous? Think about it, if Adam's sin was powerful enough to make all mankind sinful, how much more is Christ's righteousness powerful enough to make all who are in him righteous? (Romans 5:15-17)

 

Now that we are in Christ, it is so important to believe the right things regarding both our true identity in him, and how God is now relating to us based on this reality. He relates to us based on the righteousness of Christ, not the sin of Adam. In fact, it is only through focusing fully on the work that Christ completed through the cross that we can have the confidence to believe it!

 

It is the glorious news that we are a new creation, made perfect by faith in the eyes of God. We are not only adequate in our relationship with him, but we also qualify, based on Christ qualifying on our behalf, to be citizens of heaven. (Colossians 1:12-13)

 

So now we are in the new covenant of grace, but what about the old covenant of law? Some believers might argue that the law is still applicable and essential to Christian living because it helps us know the way in which we should live, but is that really true? Some may genuinely ask: "how we will know what is good from bad without the law? How will we know what God expects from us without the law? How will we live a moral life without the law? How will we know the way God wants us to walk without the law to show us the way?"

 

The Apostle Thomas had a very similar thought. At the last supper Jesus said: 

 

'You know the way to the place where I am going.' Thomas replied 'Lord, we don't even know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' John 14:4-5

 

Thomas had a very sincere question. He was basically asking Jesus how they would ever be able to know the way if they didn't have a map or written directions?

 

What was Jesus' response to Thomas? Did he say, "You know the way because you have been instructed by the law?" Or did he say, "You know the way because you have the Ten Commandments to guide you?" If not, then what did he say? He answered:

 

'I am the way.'

 

As Christians, we know the way to live, because we are led by, and are living in, 'the way' himself! The Holy Spirit is not just a nice idea, he is real! One thing is for certain: When we do our part, he does his! Our part is to look to Christ for our justification before God, and the Holy Spirit's part is to bring about the transformational life.

 

You can't go the wrong way by putting all your confidence in Jesus and the fullness of his grace, because he is the way! It is when we try to find the way by following a written code that we actually lose our way, because our focus is no longer on our glorious Saviour, but our own failed attempt at legalistic righteousness.

 

Christ loves God's ways, and he loves to see his beloved living in God's ways. Christ also knows that this will only come to pass if we can look to him alone. Complete dependence on the Spirit of Christ to lead us is what brings about a transformed life! The Apostle Paul also testifies to this wonderful truth:

 

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:3-4

 

Anything that is loving and moral and good is from God, and we can rest assured that these good qualities will bear fruit in our lives by the power of the Spirit without ever seeking direction or help from the law.

 

Why can we say with confidence, as Paul did, that Christ is the end of the law for all who believe? (Romans 10:4)  Because now that we see Jesus, we see the power of his life and understand that his powerful life is now living in us!

 

The law was never the saviour of wicked mankind; it was given to mankind that we might find the Saviour. Now that we have found him, let us believe him when he says 'I am the way' and follow without looking back to the law.

 

Living in the new covenant of God's grace and being led by the Spirit isn't a license for immorality. It is freedom to let Christ transform your life by the working of his Spirit in you. Praise God.