What So Many In The Church Fail To Understand

There are so many people who are still lost in the attitude of law and who have entirely missed the point of grace. The world is a place where everything has a price, a cost associated with it, so it is difficult for us to understand the free act of God's grace in such a context. Law is an easier thing for us to understand because justice is something we cherish in a world of law breakers. So we sit in our churches with our lists of do's and don'ts thinking that everything is well with us in a world that is going mad. But the truth is that we are just as lost as the world if we think a law will save us.

With the giving of the Holy Spirit, our Father has taken what was on paper and he has written it on our heart so that we are able to live the purpose of the law. Read through the Scriptures again and see how much our heart's condition matters to God. People struggle to understand where the law fits in compared to God's grace but Apostle Paul explained it very well in a few short verses. He starts off with:

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ^[h] that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

So we see here that the law had purpose up until the arrival of Jesus. In fact, it's purpose, like everything from the Old Testament, was to lead us to Jesus. Paul explains it like this:

What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. (Galatians 4:1-3)

The Law given to Moses dealt with the basic principles of this world. It is all that they could handle at the time. God had to reveal a lot more of himself through this nation, using the Law, before he could bring them into the freedom of maturity. They were being raised under the trusteeship of the Law. Makes sense; a child under guardianship cannot make his own decisions but must follow the direction of the guardian. He has no choice in the matter.

Eventually that child is going to reach the age of majority and will be entitled to the freedom of sonship. That is what Jesus did for us, moving us from guardianship to the full rights of a son:

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:4-7)

Perhaps this is not all that exciting for you who are young in your faith but for those who are mature enough to understand, this is incredible stuff. I know that Paul seems to make a mere mention of the fact but the role of the Spirit is well worth taking note of. Jesus became the door for us to go through, to enter into this relationship with our Father. The cross is that door for us, not a place to hang out but to move beyond. It is the entry point. The mark of sonship, that we belong to God is the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Look at it again:

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

Not everyone in this creation sees him as Father and not everyone has the right to call him Father, but we do. And as he gives us the Spirit, the Spirit moves the Law from the paper to our hearts and we are now governed by the greater law of love. The entire law is summed up in two very simple things that can only be lived out in practicality when we are possessed by the Holy Spirit: love God with your entire being and love your neighbour as yourself. Everything depends on these two things that are written on our hearts by the Spirit and worked out in our daily living.

Unfortunately, there are huge sections of the Church who insist on the guardianship of the Law, setting aside grace because they do not understand it in the context of this world. They are very much like the Pharisees and priests who joined the early Church and became the circumcision group that followed Paul around and constantly stirred up trouble for him. But just because they struggle with the big picture of what God has done does not mean we have to. Just because they remain in the guardianship of the Law does not mean we have to. We have been set free so that we can become sons of God.

Claim that freedom today. Come out of that guardianship and enjoy the full benefits and privileges of sonship by the grace of God. We are the children of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ who is the first born of a very large family. Trust God and accept this free gift of redemption. Receive the Spirit and start living as God has always intended for us to live, in deep fellowship with him.

It Really Is A Joy To Be Alive And Free

Sometimes we get so involved in the living of our day that we forget to put it in the context of our life. Today may seem horrible and so we think we have a horrible life, but that is only how we feel for this moment. Last week we felt much different as the sun was shining, the birds were singing and everything was great for us. The same with 2 years ago and so on. We have had great days in the past and we will have great days in the future. This moment is just a brief thing that will pass because we have a great life. This is putting things in the context of our life.

We need to do this with God as well. Sometimes we get so caught up in our present-day struggle that we forget to put it in the context of his great plan. We have to remember that he created man to have a relationship with him. Man rebelled against him. God had a plan to bring man back into fellowship. He chose Abraham to be the beginning of a nation of priests through whom he would reveal his glory to the world. When this people had become a nation he gave them a law so that they would see how miserable we really are and gave them a system of sacrifices as a temporary way of administering his grace. But his plan was to raise up one priest who would become the one great sacrifice to cover man's sin so that God's grace would be available freely for those who wanted it. He sent Jesus to be that priest and revealed his great plan of redemption through him. Now today, anyone who believes is immediately covered by that one sacrifice and God adopts them as his children. It's a wonderful plan that should explain to us why the law was given and why it no longer applies to those who are covered by the grace of Jesus Christ:

Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)

Take note that it says "until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come". That seed is Jesus Christ. The Law was given because of man's sin. God needed a way to reveal sin to man so he would understand his condition. He gave them a temporary system of sacrifices to cover them as they realized their condition, because he knew that man could not live this law. When Jesus came, he fulfilled the law and replaced the system of sacrifices with his one sacrifice on the Cross. No sacrifice can save us but the one Jesus Christ did for us. Does that mean the law is now sinful? Not at all:

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. (vv. 21-22)

If any law could have saved us it would have been this law but we are too imperfect for this law; sin is too powerful in us. The only thing that can break our marriage to sin is the most ultimate, powerful sacrifice of Jesus. The power of what was done on the cross cannot even be fully understood this side of eternity, but we can see the effects of it.

Those who turn to Jesus are changed forever. The power of sin over them is broken. For the first time in their lives they have the ability to breathe, move about, make decisions and to respond to God. That is the freedom we have been given back through Jesus Christ. He breaks all sin that keeps us in bondage; violence, drunkenness, drugs, sex, pornography, thievery, lying, selfishness, and the list goes on. All these things we were enslaved to and they have kept us from God. The law showed us how far we had fallen short of God's glory, that we are not worthy to look on his face. But Jesus changed all of that so that we are washed clean, freed from those chains and now have the ability to look on God's face any time we want. We are his people, redeemed from our filth and adopted as his children.

This is the context in which we need to live our lives. This is the context that tells us our days are no longer miserable but are opportunities of God's grace. Each day is destined to be a day of victory. Each day is a day of revealing more of God's grace and love. Each day is a day closer to eternity. Each day is the potential of declaring more of God's glory to the world. This is our life and it is wonderful to live it in Jesus.

The Lies Of Our Heart Are Re-enforced By The Lies Of Our Enemy

I really hate the enemy of our soul for what he has done to mankind. I know it was Adam's choice at the beginning that threw the whole race into rebellion against God, but it is the enemy who has kept us here. Satan hates God. He hates him with a passion and he wants to hurt God by robbing God of the object of his affection, us. He hates us too because God loves us, but his real purpose in the lies he convinces us are truths is because he wants to keep us separated from God to hurt God. This is the reason he works so hard to keep us in the dark and tries to keep blinders on us so we can't see God.

In order for us to be saved from this sin nature and from the enemy we have to get to the point of understanding and accepting the truth that:

... all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God... (Romans 8:23)

Maybe you think there are a lot of good people out there, and, compared to some people who commit murder, they appear good, but the fact is we all sin. Paul told Timothy:

The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. (1 Timothy 5:24)

In other words, some sins are obvious and the whole world can see, whereas others are hidden but will still be revealed in time.

All of us. Every single person ever born was born with this sin nature and have given into it, except the one who came to save us by defeating this sin nature, Jesus Christ. This sin nature will try to convince us of a lot of lies and the enemy is there to re-enforce them but sin still comes down to us and that is why we will be held accountable for it. God has given us enough revelation in nature itself to know there is a God, and he has given us his Word and the Holy Spirit to convict us of our need to be rescued from this sin nature. He has also sent Jesus as our rescuer, the one who can set us free. Romans 8 is a great chapter to read to give better insight into the power of this nature and the power of Jesus to break it's grip on us. Read this:

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (Romans 8:5)

When we turn our back on this sin nature by accepting the gift of freedom from Jesus and we dedicate our lives to him, he gives us another gift, the Holy Spirit, who is the power of God in us. The Spirit guides us away from sin and into all the wonderful blessings of God. He gives us the power to live godly lives to the honour and glory of God.

Jesus Christ is the only one who can save us from this nature we were born with. He is the only one who can reconcile us to God. He is the only one who can free us from our slavery. He is the only way we can come to the Father; there is no other way. We can't live a good life and earn our way. We can lie to ourselves and convince ourselves that God's love will save us even though we persist in our sins. We can convince ourselves that the Bible is outdated and God understands the current age in which we live. God understands alright, he understands that sin separates us from him. It always has and always will. We were given the Law so that sin would be defined, so that we could understand the difference between right and wrong, so that we would be convicted of our actions and the nature of our heart. Then he gave us Jesus to pay the price of our sin and set us free. Calling evil good and good evil will not save you. It is God who makes these definitions and we will be judged according to them, unless we have been set free from them by Jesus.

Do yourself a big favour today, set aside your opinions and thinking, set aside the lies of the enemy, set aside the blinders and let Jesus remove the scales from your eyes. Be willing to see the truth and then allow Jesus to rescue you from the slavery you were born in to. God created you but he did not create you to be like this. He has something better planned for you and you will find it in Jesus.

Handcuffed By Our Past

Too many of us are handcuffed by our past. God has called us, equipped us and put us in place but we fail to rise up to our calling because we continue to limit ourselves according to what we were or what we have done. We are afraid. I am not sure that we are afraid of failing or if we are afraid of being called impostors. We know that people know our past so who are we to try to be anything different, especially so radically different? We can say with David:

For I know my transgressions,    and my sin is always before me. (Psalm 51:3)

Now imagine if your past was known throughout the world. Imagine if people in the Body of Christ had suffered at your hands. Imagine if thousands of people blamed you for the lose of their home, for being forced to move away from family, for having to learn new languages, new customs in a new country. Now imagine you were told by God to go to these same people to encourage them with the gospel. Would you do it, or would your past handcuff you?

Perhaps we can begin to understand the faith and obedience apostle Paul had to show by doing this. It is different then going to those who harmed you. Giving forgiveness is one thing, seeking it is another. It takes a lot of confidence in God to face those you have harmed and be God's representative to them. The world and even some in the Church would say you are disqualified, but not God:

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (1 Corinthians 15:9)

There was always this sense in Paul that his sin was always before him. It is not that he did not accept God's forgiveness nor that he did not forgive himself, he just always remembered what he was saved from. It kept him humble and appreciative of God's grace. However, he also knew the value of that grace and would not allow his past to prevent his present:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

It was by that grace that Paul was able to stand before those people he had sent to flight during his persecution of the Church and to minister to them by the Spirit. We hope it was also by that same grace that they forgave and accepted Paul and the message he bore.

It is this grace that allowed Paul to say "I am what I am". There is the key to those handcuffs. By the grace of God I am what I am. Paul said that he did not deserve this but he found himself in this position because of God's grace. We deserve death not life but by God's grace we have life in abundance. We deserve to be kicked to the curb because of our past but by God's grace we are more than forgiven, we are also called to serve. We can't do anything about the perceptions of others who know our past but we can know who we are in Jesus today. We are who we are because of what Jesus has done, not that we deserved it but we have received it by his grace.

You are real, you are authentic, you have been called by God, you have received his grace. Your past is real but it is now forgiven so allow it to remind you of God's grace but today live in his love, forgiveness and power to do what he has called you to do. No excuses are accepted. You are what you are by the grace of Jesus Christ.