Give Me Law Or Give Me Death!

The logic of grace, on the other hand, is incomprehensible to our law-locked hearts. Grace is thickly counter-intuitive. It feels risky and unfair. It’s dangerous and disorderly. It wrestles control out of our hands. It is wild and unsettling. It turns everything that makes sense to us upside-down and inside-out. Law says, “Good people get good stuff; bad people get bad stuff.” Grace says, “The bad get the best; the worst inherit the wealth; the slave becomes a son.” This offends our deepest sense of justice and rightness. We are, by nature, allergic to grace.

As I was watching that scene last night, I couldn’t help but think of the many inside the church who, like Javert, have no idea what to do with the disorientating unconditionality of grace and reflexively fight it at every turn and in every way without even realizing what they are fighting or why.

We are so deeply conditioned against grace because we’ve been told in a thousand different ways that accomplishment precedes approval. So, when we hear, “Of course you don’t deserve it, but I’m giving it to you anyway,” we wonder, “What is this really about? What’s the catch?” Internal bells and alarms start to go off, and we begin saying “wait a minute…this sounds too good to be true.” By nature we’re all wary of grace. We wonder about the ulterior motives of the excessively generous. What’s in it for him? After all, who could trust in or believe something so radically unbelievable?

Life the way we’ve always known it to work doesn’t make sense anymore if grace is true.

Robert Capon articulates brilliantly the prayer of the grace-averse heart:

Lord, please restore to us the comfort of merit and demerit. Show us that there is at least something we can do. Tell us that at the end of the day there will at least be one redeeming card of our very own. Lord, if it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with a few shreds of self-respect upon which we can congratulate ourselves. But whatever you do, do not preach grace. Give us something to do, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.

As I was falling asleep last night and thinking about Javert’s struggle, I couldn’t help but wonder if the church has too often chosen death over grace. Fearful of what kind of chaos would ensue if we abandoned ourselves wholly to the radicality of grace, we cling to control–we stick with what we know so well, with what comes natural.

It is high time, in my opinion, for the church to embrace sola gratia (grace alone) anew. “For many of us the time has come to abandon once and for all our play-it-safe, toe-dabbling Christianity and dive in” (Dane Ortlund). No more “yes grace, but…”. No more fine print. No more conditions, qualifications, and footnotes. And especially, no more silly cries for “balance.” It is time to get drunk on grace. Two hundred-proof, defiant grace.

It’s scandalous and scary, unnatural and undomesticated…but it’s the only thing that can set us free and light the church on fire.

-  Tullian Tchividjian

Merry Xmas? NOT!

John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world not to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Sometimes we tend to view sin mainly in terms of actions: doing this or not doing that. But sin, according to Scripture, is mainly a condition which produces sinful actions. We are born with this condition, spiritually sick and ruined, helpless to heal ourselves.

Christmas is the celebration of our “spiritual immunization,” our complete cure for the consequences of this deadly condition. We have the condition but we experience none of its eternal effects. We have been “immunized” by the love of God, through Jesus Christ.

It is because we have experienced grace first hand that we celebrate Christmas. That’s why we refuse to remove the “Christ” from Christmas. To remove God’s grace would be to alter the formula for the world’s forgiveness and render it useless.

More than a child was born in a stable in Jerusalem. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to remove forever what we could never purchase on our own.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. John 1:14-16

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17

This is the real Christmas celebration in the heart of every born again believer, that, because of God’s amazing grace, the Son of God was given, to usher in a New Testament, a Testament of His love whereby we, through Jesus, are free from the effects of our sinful condition.

Merry Christmas!!

God’s Glory Has Been Restored To You!

John 17:22 22And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

When God made man, the Bible says that God crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:5) The word “crowned” here means to encompass or to surround like a glorious circle. The glory of God was therefore man’s clothing. In other words, Adam’s whole being was gloriously radiant. When man sinned against God, he forfeited the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) But when Jesus Christ was born, the glory of God came down. (Luke 2:9) And many years later, Jesus, before He died, said to His Father, “The glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” So the glory of God which man forfeited has now been restored to him because Jesus has come. When He died on the cross, He took our shame, gave us His righteousness and restored the glory of God to us. But what exactly is the glory of God? Doxa, the Greek word for “glory” here, means having a good opinion concerning one that results in praise, honor and glory. This means that in restoring to us His glory, God wants us to have the sense that we are praiseworthy, honorable and glorious because of His constant good opinion of us! Beloved, because God’s glory is on you, there is a weightiness about you. People don’t know why, but their spirits are lifted when they are in your presence. There is something about you that impacts them even if they have only been with you for a short while. When you talk, they listen because there is substance in what you say. Also, because God’s glory is on you, you can expect it to touch every aspect of your life — your finances, relationships, work and health. Your body, for example, will glow with divine health. So my friend, because Jesus has come and restored the glory of God to you, be conscious of God’s constant good opinion of you. Know that there is a weightiness about you and arise, shine! - Joseph Prince

The Keys are In Your Pocket

All too often I've been running late for work or an appointment and lost my car keys that I just had in my hand. I put them right here on the counter and now they’re gone. They didn't just vanish into thin air! Where are they? I’m late. ” I've walked into my bedroom, bathroom, man cave, laundry room to look (moaning and groaning), put my hand in my pocket and found my keys. They’d been there the whole time.

Every time I tell that story, people laugh. And rightfully so. What forgetful moron falls prey to frantically looking for car keys that are in his pocket? 

The truth is, however, that this is the way we Christians typically live: frantically and frustratingly searching for something we already have. The gospel is God’s good news announcement that everything we need we already possess in Christ. Because of Jesus’ finished work, Christians already have all of the justification, approval, significance, security, freedom, validation, love, righteousness, and rescue that we desperately long for, and look for in a thousand things infinitely smaller than Jesus.

Through the Holy Spirit, God daily delivers the gospel to forgetful Christian’s like me, declaring, “The keys are in your pocket.”

Freedom From Sin...

When we finally realize that we have everything we need in Christ we become free to love, free to live, free to give. When we understand that we possess the Kingdom of God we are free to give freely to others.


God justified us through the sacrifice of Jesus. God forgave all our sins, past, present and future, and made us to be the righteousness of God in Christ.

Because Jesus is strong for me, I am free to be weak
Because Jesus won for me, I am free to lose
Because Jesus was someone, I am free to be no one
Because Jesus was extraordinary, I am free to be ordinary
Because Jesus succeeded for me, I am free to fail.

Righteousness (right-standing with God) is based not on works, but on faith. There were no good works which we did which made us worthy to receive complete forgiveness.

God declared us righteous on the basis of His mercy and grace, through Christ.

Obviously, before we were Christians, it was never our nature to seek all our satisfaction in Christ and the gospel; but even after God saves us, that isn't where we naturally turn. In fact, when it comes to Christian life and experience, many of us have understood the gospel as the thing that gets us in, while the thing that keeps us in (we assume) is our own effort and performance.

We recognize that the gospel ignites the Christian life, but we all to often fail to see that it's also the fuel to keep us going and growing as Christians.

Mark 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

We view this scripture prescriptively rather than descriptively.

This amazing grace that we possess because of Jesus allows us to be imperfect and draws us closer to perfection.

Because Jesus is strong for me, I am free to be weak!

We are righteous on the inside, because we have become a partaker of God's divine nature (2Peter 1:4). Righteousness is infused into the very being of every Christian. This is why we can come boldly before God's throne. This is why we have the abiding presence of His Spirit with us continually.

Romans 6:8

Our identification with Christ didn't end on the cross. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” Paul is referring to the fact that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we shall walk in newness of life. Alive to God and free from the condemnation of sin.

Eph. 2:5,6 “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, (He) made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.”

Crucified with Him!
Made alive together with Him!
Raised up with Him!
Seated in heavenly places with Him!

So if we aren't naturally prone to look to the finished work of Jesus for us as it is presented in the gospel for the “everything” - where are we looking? Please understand, its not that Christians seek to blatantly replace the gospel. What we often try to do is add to it.

Christianity and popularity
Christianity and success
Christianity and power
Christianity and social status
Christianity and reform
Christianity and tradition

Because Jesus won for me, I am free to lose.

We are part of His Kingdom, because He has made us new creatures and filled us with His own holy and righteous nature. Our new nature is the nature of God.

Satan will always try to convince you that you have failed and fallen out of the grace of God. He will always work to make you feel condemned, that your not good enough, that your aren't worthy of God's best.

The truth is none of us are! The truth is we are free to choose between sin and righteousness and sometimes we choose poorly but that doesn't remove God's grace. That doesn't change what happened on the cross. That doesn't “un-save” us.

You see, because Jesus succeeded for me, I am free to fail.

Our “good works” can become the very thing that gives us so much self-comfort and self-approval, this very thing we find so killingly attractive. Self-righteousness is our attempt to provide our own righteousness apart from God. God hates it because he loves us.
Self righteousness can lead only to the robbery of our freedom.

Do more, try harder
Do more, try harder
Do more, try harder
Do more, try harder

Not in this church, not from this pulpit. We want you involved, we want your talents, we want God to use you for the gospel but we want you to know that you already possess everything you need in Christ Jesus.

Because Jesus was someone, I am free to be no one. We don't need perfection, we have perfection in Jesus!

Love

God offers his love to every person on the planet. What makes this so distinctive is not grace but the extent of His grace. Jesus declared that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”, citing this as evidence that God acts with favor to those who return his love and those who do not (Matthew 5:43-48). 

The sufficiency of God's grace is abundantly available to not only those who have received Jesus as Lord but to those who have not, as of yet, come to Christ. We are saved "by grace, through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). There's nothing we did - no "bragging rights" here! 

There are no conditions, no prerequisites, no contracts, no fine print. It is simply... Know Jesus, Know grace NEVER no Jesus, no grace because "God so loved the world" (John 3:16). 

I think we find it difficult to grasp the concept of grace because that’s not how we operate. "Sometimes" if a person does something to offend us or hurt us, they automatically take a place on the “ruler”. Those who have done "good" to us are usually on the “good standing” end of the ruler, while those who have wronged us tend to be on the “bad standing” side. Of course, there are those who fall into the middle of the ruler as well. This ruler is then used to measure how we relate to those placed on it. 

Thankfully, God doesn't have a ruler, rather, He sent His Son. Truth is, we are to love all people, good, bad and yes, even ugly. We can do that because, as Christians, the love of God resides in us. We can love just as God loves. We just have to choose to love. 

Think about this...The greatest attribute of God is love. Love describes the very essence of God’s nature. He displayed His nature when He sent Jesus to die for us. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us? (Romans 5:8). God’s love gives without preconditions. God didn't wait until we deserved salvation. He sent Jesus when we were helpless sinners, totally undeserving of His mercy and grace. Every believer has God’s love within. This means that we (Christians) have the ability to walk in God’s love and manifest to the world what that love is really like. That's exciting! Thankfully, God loves both saint and sinner, because if He hadn't, we'd all remain lost and without hope. God's unmerited favor, just so awesome!

What Kind of Christian do Sinners Need?

But when people come and have been broken by sin and have fallen into temptation and are ashamed to confess the awful mess they have made of their life, it is not a Christian who has been sanctified by vinegar that they need. It is a Christian that has been mastered by the unconditional, free grace of God. It is a Christian from whom ironclad orthodoxy has been torn away and the whole armor of a gracious God has been placed upon his soul-the armor of one who would not break the bruised reed or quench the dimly burning wick.

You see, my friends, as we think together in these days about a Godly pastor we have to ask, what is a Godly Christian? A Godly Christian is one who is like God, who has a heart of free grace running after sinners. The Godly Christian is the one who sees the prodigal and runs and falls on his neck and weeps and kisses him and says, “This my son was dead, he was lost and now he is alive and found.” - My apologies to Tillian Tchividjian and Sinclair Ferguson (Marrow Controversy Lectures) for removing "Pastor" and adding "Christian" in its place. DG

Grace Is a Gift

Have you ever walked out to the garage, or driveway, hopped into the car, turned the key….and nothing happens? Everything was fine when you left it there last night, no problems, no warning, but now…dead silence.

That’s happened to me and I’ll bet it has happened to you as well. You think, “Thank God, I’m home, not at some parking lot, with groceries, in the rain and no cell phone!” None the less, you and the car have a communication problem.

With grace…there are times when our supposed success, our “morality”, our virtues, our rule keeping, our “relationship” with God is broken to the degree that we think we don’t need unconditional justification, or perhaps even to the degree that we think we are going to use God to achieve our own ideas of sanctity. The relationship is broken precisel

y because we think it is our holiness that keeps it all together. When in fact no amount of our effort will ever translate into grace or holiness; grace is a gift.

The problem, while generally approved in human eyes because it is advantageous and socially useful, is more dangerous before God because it is praised and sought after. It is the kind of hypocrisy Jesus criticized so vehemently in the gospels: “like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).

Not a pretty picture to say the least. Like the “dead car” example where we’ve placed so much confidence in “our” vehicle we overlook any possibility unexpected failure. The same is true with our walk with God. If we’ve placed confidence in our spirituality, our holiness, our brokenness, if, we believe our efforts are what is keeping us running we are just as dead as the car and we are headed for a spiritual let down.

The moment, we think we no longer need the unconditional justification of God’s grace is the moment we need it the most.

Grace vs. Karma

John Lennon submitted this description of karma, in his song "Instant Karma" (We All Shine On) - "Instant Karma's gonna get you" - "Gonna knock you right on the head" -
"You better get yourself together" - "Pretty soon you're gonna be dead."

The good news is John didn't get it entirely right...God, by His grace, through Jesus, has called us out of the realm of karma to that of grace. In case you haven't noticed, karma is at the heart of all religions - and the universe as well. But God’s grace intervenes and interrupts the revengeful cycle of karma we also find in physics where every action is met by one of equal force or measure of compensation.

Because of God's grace, we are no longer dealt equal compensation for sin. Instead of "equal force," because of Jesus, we receive unmerited favor. Because of grace we are completely forgiven, even when we feel we deserve it. Well, in truth, WE DO DESERVE IT because before we came to Christ, we couldn't "get ourselves together" as John suggested, but in Christ, we are together in Him.

Well, I can’t stop talking ‘bout everything He’s done
It’s the best thing, happened since the world began
It didn’t come cheap but I got it for free
It’s the hope of glory, Christ in me

- Hillsong

You remember, right? It was a week of so ago.
Things, circumstance, attitude, focus, all change when we begin thinking about God’s grace in the context of those things we have to be thankful for. It’s very easy for us to be thankful for many things in our life, yet still believe they are in our life because of our own power or doing.
However, God’s grace is that of an undeserved gift or undeserved support or favor. It’s undeserved because we haven’t persuaded God to provide it to us and we, certainly, haven’t earned it….We can never earn it, for that matter. He simply does so because we are His creation; He genuinely loves each of us and wants to see that we are cared for and living a life of purpose and fulfillment.

Because of God’s grace, I have a wonderful wife, great friends, a great job and so, a wonderful growing church family, and so much more - All those things that I became mindful of through Thanksgiving Day.
So, at the root of our list of those things we remembered being thankful for back during Thanksgiving, Include the Grace of God because God’s Grace stands so very tall. It’s by His grace that our life is shaped and all things made possible.
Today is a new Thanksgiving Day!

Best Day Everyday!

Morning...

I hope and pray that all is going very well with you and your family. Start your day with God by being grateful for every opportunity to live in the grace of God. God’s grace is enough to carry you through any situation and circumstances in life. Live with peace and strength in God and no matter what comes your way, God’s grace is enough to push your forward. ”SO YOU, my son, be strong (strengthened inwardly) in the grace (spiritual blessing) that is [to be found only] in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 2:1 AMP) So be encouraged this morning and know that God’s grace will hold you together to get to where God needs you to be.

Challenge of the day: Be you and know that it is by God’s grace that you can be you. Don’t worry about being someone else, be you by design. There is no time to be in another person’s shoes - your feet will not fit them. Walk on the path that God has specifically laid out for you. “But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me.” (1 Cor 15:10 AMP). That the best day you can have everyday!!

Empowered

My wife and I discuss God’s grace often, sometimes while driving in the car, while on the phone, at home, etc. This particular discussion took place right before going to sleep on a Wednesday night. The time or place have nothing to do with the discussion it’s just, for me, cool to have these wonderful discussions regarding the grace of God, together, so often and to be in complete agreement (usually). God is so good.

This particular conversation was about “excusing vs. grace.” My wife brought up the subject by saying “Grace does not excuse inappropriate behavior.” I though. “Oh, Oh, what did I do?” but, it wasn’t about me (this time), it was about the temptation to permit ungodly behavior in a friend or loved one because we feel we should extend “our grace” toward that person and overlook the sin.

“For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self-controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world” Titus 2:11-12 (AMP)

Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because they were told they would be, "like God." We are born ruined by their sinful attempt but praise God we are saved by grace through faith. Now I know I'm likely to be "preaching to the choir here." And unless you are in some kind of cult you know that we are "saved" only through the blood of Christ Jesus. God's grace through faith has restored us into the family of God. Unfortunately... we still have that sin nature, that desire to be like God which is why we think it a Godly idea to bestow "our natural grace" on others.

Our grace does nothing to remove sin, in truth, it permits sin to continue. The “Hate the sin, love the sinner” solution. God’s grace not only removed our sin, it removed our sin permanently when we made Jesus the Lord of our life. Our grace permits behavior, God’s grace removes the penalty for the behavior and ultimately the behavior as well.
Are we to do when a fellow Christian is obviously not walking uprightly? Do we simply ignore him or her? NOT AT ALL! The greatest attribute of God is love. Love describes the very essence of God’s nature. He displayed His nature when He sent Jesus to die for us. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us? (Romans 5:8).
God’s love gives without preconditions. God didn’t wait until we deserved salvation. He sent Jesus when we were helpless sinners, totally undeserving of His mercy and grace.
Every believer has God’s love within. This means, as Christians we have the ability to walk in God’s love and manifest to the world what that love is really like. In this way, the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples. When the Church shows the selfless love of God among its members and toward those that are outside, the world takes note that these are followers of Jesus.
For this reason, love is the greatest and by far the most important of all the character qualities and by far the most important of all character qualities that we are exhorted to demonstrate. “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). No amount of mighty miracles can replace walking in love. Without love, miracles mean very little. Even those with tremendous faith amount to nothing in God’s sight if they don’t operate in love (1 Corinthians 13:3).
But God has placed within us the power to demonstrate His love. We can learn to walk and operate in the kind of love that God has and is. As we do, we’ll become more and more effective in His service. We’ll be living demonstrations of the glorious “grace and truth” that the disciples saw so vividly in Jesus (John 1:14).
We are to follow the example of Jesus and love that person, not ignore the sin, not love with our “emotional love” because that love depends on how we feel at the time but with the love that God poured into our hearts at salvation. The Greek word used in the New Testament to describe God’s love is agape. Agape refers to the kind of love which is bestowed on those who don’t deserve it. Agape is unearned, unmerited love. It gives, asking nothing in return. It’s the love that God demonstrated toward us. God is agape! He loves us while we were still sinners We were alienated from Him and in rebellion against His plan for us. But He loved us enough to send Jesus. Now Jesus wants to send you and I. Not to bestow ineffective human grace but to remind those who may be backslid of what God deposited in them through Jesus. The ability to walk in the complete love of God.

That Which I Hate...

This is at the heart of Paul’s internal struggle that he articulates in Romans 7:

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

The painful struggle that Paul gives voice to arises from his condition as simul justus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinful). He has been raised from the dead and is now alive to Christ, but remaining sin continues to plague him at every level and in every way.

Paul’s testimony demonstrates that even after God saves us, there is no part of us that becomes sin free–we remain sinful and imperfect in all of our capacities, in the “totality” of our being. Even after God saves us, our thoughts, words, motives, deeds, and affections need the constant cleansing of Christ’s blood and the forgiveness that comes our way for free. This is what J.C. Ryle was getting at when he wrote, “Even the best things we do have something in them to be pardoned.”

While it is gloriously true for the Christian that there is nowhere Christ has not arrived by his Spirit, it is equally true that there is no part of any Christian in this life that is free of sin. Because of the totality of sins effect, therefore, we never outgrow our need for Christ’s finished work on our behalf–we never graduate beyond our desperate need for Christ’s righteousness and his strong and perfect blood-soaked plea “before the throne of God above.”

The reason this is so important is because we will always be suspicious of grace (“yes grace, but…”) until we realize our desperate need for it. Our dire need for God’s grace doesn’t get smaller after God saves us. In one sense, it actually gets bigger. Christian growth, says the Apostle Peter, is always “growth into grace”, not away from it. Many Christians think that becoming sanctified means that we become stronger and stronger, more and more competent. And although we would never say it this way, we Christian’s sometimes give the impression that sanctification is growth beyond our need for Jesus and his finished work for us: we needed Jesus a lot for justification; we need him less for sanctification.

The truth is, however, that Christian growth and progress involves coming to the realization of just how weak and incompetent we continue to be and how strong and competent Jesus continues to be for us. Spiritual maturity is not marked by our growing, independent fitness. Rather, it’s marked by our growing dependence on Christ’s fitness for us. Because we are daily sinners, we need God’s daily distributions of free grace that come our way as a result of Christ’s finished work. Christian growth involves believing and embracing the fact that, even as a Christian, you’re worse than you think you are but that God’s grace toward you in Christ is much bigger than you could ever imagine.

Because of total depravity, you and I were desperate for God’s grace before we were saved. Because of total depravity, you and I remain desperate for God’s grace even after we’re saved.

Thankfully, though our sin reaches far, God’s grace reaches infinitely farther. -Tullian Tchividjian

Martin Luther

“The fatuous idea that a person can be holy by himself denies God the pleasure of saving sinners. God must therefore first take the sledge-hammer of the Law in His fists and smash the beast of self-righteousness and its brood of self-confidence, self wisdom, and self-help. When the conscience has been thoroughly frightened by the Law it welcomes the Gospel of grace with its message of a Savior Who came–not to break the bruised reed nor to quench the smoking flax–but to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, and to grant forgiveness of sins to all the captives.”

Martin Luther

Charles Spurgeon

“If heaven were by merit, it would never be heaven to me, for if I were in it I should say, ‘I am sure I am here by mistake; I am sure this is not my place; I have no claim to it.’ But if it be of grace and not of works, then we may walk into heaven with boldness.” - Charles Spurgeon

Forgiven

Well, I don't know about you but I would sometimes find myself feeling guilty because of something I might have done or said or even thought, Something that doesn't condemn me but doesn't reflect the presence of God in my life, at that moment. I would, once realizing that what I had done may have been displeasing to God, I would vow to ..."Never do that again." And then, later or sooner, I'd do it again. Once again, I'd become frustrated with myself, unhappy that I had "disappointing God" because I had broken my promise. I'd repeat the process again, and again, and...

Thankfully once I discovered the power of God's grace I learned that I (we) can never keep any promise to God when it is born out of guilt or condemnation. You see, the truth is that very often, if we are honest with ourselv

es, we want the feeling of condemnation to "go away" so that we can begin to, "work on" the needed change. We want a "cure" for the condemnation.

Thankfully, God, all along has provided that "cure" in the form of His grace. God has forgiven every sin, every slip up, everything. We aren't ever condemned and because of that we can change because of His love for us and, in turn, our love for Him. It is grace that gives us freedom from sin and it is grace that allows His love to mold us into His likeness.

Will we ever be perfect enough? Not while we are here but because He first loved us we can, through Jesus, experience the gift of His grace and the power of His unconditional love. A love that motivates and transforms us each and every day.

Romans 12

Hunting For Grace!

D.L. Moody said, "God doesn't seek for golden vessels and doesn't ask for silver ones, but He must have cleansed ones."

It's a common assumption that salvation is a result of good deeds. God isn't a do-right, get-right kind of God. His desire isn't that we simply follow a set of rules, but that we have a personal relationship with Him. Then, out of that personal relationship grows a desire to please God with our actions.

Jesus taught Peter this truth in John 13. It was the day of the feast of the Passover, and Jesus and His disciples were about to eat. After everyone sat down, Jesus got up and grabbed a basin from the back room. He filled it with water, tied a towel around His waist and began washing the disciples' feet.

When Peter's turn came, he refused, saying, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." He didn't feel worthy of having his master wash his feet. But Jesus replied, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

In other words, “I was sent to remove that which no other can remove and if you deny Me, you will have no part (no in-Christ salvation) with me.”

How true is it that many of us respond like Peter. We reject God's offer to make us clean because we feel unworthy. We try to do more right, hoping to make ourselves more deserving of God's love. But the truth is, no amount of good we ever do could make us worthy. I'm so glad it's not up to me to earn it, aren't you?

In John 15:16, Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit." Ultimately, it's not our own choices that qualify us for God's salvation; it's the choice Jesus made to cleanse us and claim us as His that enables us to receive it.

He chooses to make us clean, not because of who we are or what we've done, but because of who He is. As a compassionate Father, God wants to cleanse and bless every part of our life, and so it's up to us to choose His love.
Sure, there will be days when we feel unworthy and are tempted to let condemnation settle in, but we must remember that His grace isn't based on our goodness; it's based on His.

If you're having a hard time receiving God's love or are wearing yourself out trying to earn it, read the bible though the revelation of God's grace. You will find that His Word opens up, in every instance, to reveal just how much you mean to Him and how much He sacrificed to bring His grace to you through Jesus.

Remember the story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)? Remember how you were taught that this was a parable that demonstrated the forgiveness of God? Well, lets look at it through grace...The son goes to his father and demands his inheritance (the portion of goods that falleth to me) so that he can, well, basically go live his life like a fool (wasted his substance with riotous living). He wasted his inheritance, a famine came, and he found himself wanting to eat what the pigs he was feeding were eating... but no one would give him any.

Remember, regardless of his foolish decision, the son, remained a part of the family. Notice that at no time did the father set out to find his son. Doesn't that seem odd? The reason is that the father never saw his son as anything less that who he was when he lived with (in) him. He did not see him poor, he did not see him hungry, he did not see him riotous or foolish, he did not see him sick or depressed. He saw him only as his son. That is how God sees us in Christ.

Finally the son realized that he had been very foolish. He thought, “All my father’s hired workers have plenty of food. But here I am, almost dead because I have nothing to eat. I will leave and go to my father. I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But let me be like one of your hired workers. So he left and went to his father.” Luke 15:17-20.

Isn't that just like we once were? Running back to God, willing to work our way back into right standing as if that would make us righteous? Not realizing that all along we never were for a second any less loved than when we came to know Jesus as Lord.
The Father reacted, just like God, just like grace, never once condemning, only seeing his son. Just the same way that God sees each of us, in Christ, because of the the work of the cross and the power of His amazing grace.

Gods word is full of stories and demonstrations of His grace. Take some time to read your bible with His grace as your guide. You'll be surprised how much love you've missed!

Happy hunting!!

A Little Help From My Friends

1 Corinthians 1:2... “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:”

“simul iustus et peccatoris” is to say that while we remain sinful in ourselves we are, in Christ, totally righteous.

In themselves, the Corinthians were anything but sanctified saints: they were quarreling and creating factions around various Christian leaders; they were taking one another to court; sexual immorality was rampant; the bodily resurrection was being denied; worship was chaotic. But writing to these people in the face of this sin, Paul addresses them as “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.”. The possibility of this kind of speech is anchored in a distinction between who the Corinthians are in themselves and who they are in Christ. This confident and creative “calling”—this naming of a person in terms of who they are in Christ—is the catalyst for change. To call a person by their “new name” is to summon them away from faith in themselves–away from the sin and death that defines the old age–and to summon them to faith in Christ, to the salvation and status that defines the new creation and the Christian as one whose identity is “hid with God in Christ.”

The question on the job application read, “Have you ever been arrested?” The applicant printed the word “No” in the space. The next question was a follow-up to the first; it asked, “Why?” So this honest applicant wrote, “I guess it’s because I never got caught.” Probably an accurate diagnosis for many of us! We live with the knowledge that we sin; and we often assume we’re getting away with it. In reality, we’ve just never been caught - or have we?

Just as God knew the problems within the Corinthian church, God knows our sin, every last sin. He set the mark for forgiveness in the Old Testament so high that no one could hurdle it. It was not only set high so that we would fail but to show us that forgiveness was unobtainable in our own strength. We needed a Savior, we needed an eternal sacrifice, we needed the power of His grace though Jesus for the complete forgiveness of all our sin.

We need that same grace to overcome every obstacle in our lives today and, just as it was available when we surrendered our lives to Jesus it is available for every need right now.

Have you ever been alone, angry, suffering, God-forsaken, unemployed, depressed?

The above words would more than likely describe the despair for the person who is paralyzed in Mark 2:1-12. We do not know the origin of his paralysis. Was it an injury at work or a war? A birth defect? A withering of atrophied limbs after a stroke? An accident during a Saturday chariot ride with friends? We do not know, and don't need to know.
It makes little difference, because the truth is he cannot walk, and he cannot work in this agrarian economy. There are no desk jobs in first century Palestine, no “light duty” positions, only jobs for able-bodied farm hands and skilled craftsmen. There is no Social Security, no workman's compensation insurance, no disability coverage, no sick days. To make matters worse, the prevailing rule of thought of the day is that when bad things happen to people, it is a sign that God is mad at them. So, it isn't a much of a stretch to consider that he probably even thinks God is against him.

Maybe he's mad at God, and the rest of the upright world as well? How uncaring they stride by his 3 by 6 mat. How tall they all seem, towering above him, looking down on him, pitying him. How he must resent hearing the complaints of those who whine about sore leg muscles from excess playing or working.
And, over the years of his ailment, what else has become shriveled and paralyzed within his spirit? How his soul must have taken on the atrophy of his legs! Now he is not only paralyzed in limbs, but also in spirit. He is angry, blaming, and resentful. He does not appear to be a likely candidate for healing from Jesus.
Yet this Gospel story tells of his healing, nonetheless. For this man had one thing and one thing only, he had one hopeful word in his dictionary of despair. He had "friends." So, what does this story teach us? What are the life lessons contained here?
First, God always finds a way to reach out to us, no matter how unreachable we think we are. No matter how much we hide, or how much we refuse, how much we say we “just want to be left alone.” God never stops reaching.
This man is a human porcupine. He is hard to notice, but if you did notice him, he is hard to love. And even if you loved him, he is hard to heal. He does not reach out to Jesus. He does not beg to be healed. This man has long since given up on healing, and maybe he has given up on God.
He does not ask his friends to take him to Jesus; he does not thank them for taking him to Jesus. He does not even ask Jesus for healing when the friends lower him through the roof to lie in front of Jesus while he was teaching in the house. He is a hard man to love, there's no question about it. But thankfully, God's goodness and grace are not dispensed according to our deserving. It never has been, for any of us. So this man's depression, his anger or his paralysis does not offend or defeat God's love and mercy.
Maybe you can identify with this man. Maybe you feel like life has passed you by, or given you the short end of the good things of life. Maybe you suffer physically, or emotionally, or spiritually. You feel paralyzed by guilt, or sin, or some ailment. You feel alienated from God, or your loved ones.
Here is the good news: the man in this story is not beyond the reach of God's grace. You don't even have to reach out to God, for God is already reaching out to you. God may have to resort to creative and surprising ways to reach you with his love, but he will do it. He did it with the man in this Gospel.
He will do it for you.
Secondly, we may be called in life to be one of the "friends" who carry one of the corners of someone's mat. The test is clear. The friends carry the paralytic to the house where Jesus was staying, perhaps ignoring the insulting protests from their paralyzed friend. They persisted in their task to bring their friend before Jesus, despite social pressure and the physical limitation of the crowd. They distroy a stranger's roof to lower their friend to the floor where Jesus was teaching, risking at the very least a set of disapproving stares.
These friends are tenacious. They have patience, strength, stubbornness and one other quality -- they have faith. It is the faith that Jesus sees when he heals the paralytic. Not the faith of the paralytic himself, but the faith of four tired friends peering down through a 3 by 6 hole in a stranger's roof.
Who have been those friends to you through the years? Who has carried a corner of your mat when you needed help? Maybe someone gave you a job when your resume was a blank sheet of paper. Or maybe someone taught you Christian faith when you weren't even paying close attention. Or carried you on the strength of their prayers, or ethics or gifts through some particularly difficult period in your life. Do you remember them, those friends who manned a corner of your mat?
At the same time, we are all called to help others carry their mat. The healing is not ours to do, only the caring and the encouraging. When the dust of history and the dust of torn roofs settles at the feet of God, will there be anyone who, when asked who carried the corner of their mat, names you?

You are Loved!

Please forgive me for not posting lately...been spending time in the "faithfulness of God." Knowing beyond ant doubt that He is faithful makes using faith so much more easier. We don't have to focus on the need or the problem, we can let that go and focus on the truth that God is faithful. It is our anchor, our foundation, our peace. here's a small sampling of whats to come in the next few day here on Living on Grace......“simul iustus et peccatoris” is saying that while we remain sinful in ourselves we are, in Christ, totally righteous. Now that's good news!

Truth

Sometimes, life just doesn't line up with what you expect. Sometimes you just have to travel through in faith and know the God is always faithful. You wonder "maybe I'm not living close enough to God's will?" or "maybe my imperfections have brought this season into my life?". "Maybe Gods trying to tell me something?" "Maybe I've got it all wrong?" But then, just when the insecurities seem to look all to much like reality you hear His voice. Not a clap of thunder, or the sound of angels singing but just a simple couple of sentences that changes everything. "Did you honestly think that your commitment to bring the truth of My grace to everyone who would hear it would not bring opposition?" "Do you not know that My sufficient grace is greater than condemnation and fear?" Oh how just a quiet reassurance from Father God brings confidence for every single trial. Thank you Father for the truth of your powerful unending amazing grace.

Now and Later

There is much to be said about knowing we will be with God when we die. That’s our faith. Jesus died our death so we could live eternally in God’s Kingdom. Good news, right? But does that mean our days here on earth have no meaning? Is being with God the big payoff for biding our time here on earth? What about life in this place? Does God matter much in our day-to-day in this world?
I guess the truth can be for anyone who reads this is that we sometimes tend to live life in the “if I can just get past…” mode. Lately, it's been tougher than usual. Having the “operation” and waiting for the eventual recovery to be over.
The same thing happens with faith, “If I can just hold on until Jesus comes or I get to heaven…” But is that any way to live? Is this what God intends – we manage as best w

e can and God will meet us on the other side?
The trouble with this “managing life” way of thinking is that we can put life with God as a future event. It is so easy to get in a mindset where life with God begins when life in this world ends. As long as I have this life I need to make the best of it, on my own, working as diligently as I can to be a good person. It’s easy to live believing that ONE day, SOME day, things will be better, but for now I just need to HOLD ON. For now I need to MANAGE MY LIFE in this world so God will be proud of me when I get to HIS world.
Well, that’s where we need to remember – God wants all of us to have life NOW and LATER. Jesus came that we might have life and have it in great abundance. Today is the day to live in grace and enjoy life in Christ.
Living in grace is living in peace – no matter what life throws at us. We can choose grace every day.

Swimming In Grace

From across the pool I saw a man, probably in his late 50s, pushing a wheel chair. In it was his adult son, a man in his 30s who appeared to have a severe case of cerebral palsy. I didn’t think much of it as I returned to playing with my kids in the pool. Little did I know what I was about to witness.

The father picked up his adult son from the wheel chair, carried him across the deck of the pool and down the steps into the pool. I paused from playing with my kids as I became captivated by this scene. The father waded through the shallow section into deeper water where he gently braced his son so he could float. Then they peacefully journeyed around the pool.

And the son loved it! You should have seen the look on his face as he looked up at the big blue sky, kept afloat by the aid of his loving father. This man, stricken with a terrible disorder, just basked in the sun on a warm, Kansas summer day. And judging by their tans they do this often, father carrying son into the pool and son, glad to escape the confines of his wheel chair, loving every minute of it.

I told my wife that if this is not a metaphor of the gospel then I don’t know what is. The gospel or good news of Christianity is that God looked down on the tragic state of his children due to sin and said this is going to change. So he sent Jesus from heaven on a mission to redeem. Jesus came to make sin that was as red as crimson as white as snow. Paul tells us about Christ’s mission in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

It is as impossible for a person to redeem himself as it is for that son with cerebral palsy to swim by himself. We might desire to save ourselves, but there is nothing in our own power we can do to overcome our sin. But like the loving father enabling his son to swim, God in his grace picks us up and carries us to the Promised Land. Enjoy the swim.

TJ Rose is a Masters Student at Whitefield Seminary.