Rest!

Grace is more important than religion. Grace is more important than healing. Grace is more important than prosperity. Grace is more important than success. Grace is more important than favor. Grace is more important because it gives you and I the one thing that none of those things can give any of us.....that one thing is...

Grace changes your DO to DONE. When Jesus said "It is finished" we, in Christ, were finished. If we are not resting in God, WE CAN"T RECEIVE FROM GOD! Grace, unmerited favor, right standing, complete total forgiveness brings with it life changing rest in God.

What is this rest? Why haven't we heard about this supernatural resting grace we possess that stretches as far as the east is from the west? Why isn't it not just forgiveness?

God's grace sets us free once and for all. Rom 8:1,2 "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

The truth is, “the law of sin and death” and the OT sacrifices were typical and symbolic of the sacrifice of Christ and that they could not in themselves remove sin (Heb. 10:4). God required animal sacrifices to provide a temporary covering of sins and to foreshadow the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Leviticus 4:35, 5:10). Animal sacrifice is an important theme found throughout Scripture because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). 

That might, for some of you, be a big bite to swallow. The idea that we are forever sinless in the eyes of God removes our having to work out our own righteousness. When we no longer have a sin consciousness, or to but it another way, when we no longer feel condemned every single time we fall short, we can then begin to understand the complete gift that Jesus purchased for us.

We all fall short, our righteousness falls short, our good intentions create nothing spiritual, nothing eternal. No one can save himself, we all needed a Savior, a perfect sacrifice so that the grace of God could bring us to complete forgiveness, complete right standing. We are permanently “not guilty”.

Grace provides rest in times when we don't get the outcome we expect here on earth. If we aren’t walking in complete understanding of God's grace. If we are lacking in complete rest. If we are still trying to work our way up the ladder to God's acceptance and we don't receive the answer we want we immediately start to think that we are not working hard enough, not praying enough, not studying enough, not devoting enough time to our church because if we were we would have gotten what we expected from God. That is just what Satan wants us to believe. What to bring a smile to Satan’s face? Believe your not good enough in the eyes of God. Condemnation never originates from God, it is always the work of Satan.

The real problem is that if we are not resting completely in God grace, and, because of that we cannot receive from God. Grace places us in position to receive from God. We can have perfect peace in every outcome.