What’s True Grace
Grace brings Victory!
*What is GRACE?? Need Scripture(Truth) to define not mans idea.
A Couple of tough Questions!
*Can you walk in darkness and in the light at the same time? (1John 1:5-7)
*Is there(should there be) Grace if we are not living IN Truth?
*What is Truth? (John 18: 33-38)
*What is Freedom?(2 Corinthians 3:17)
What does Jesus say?
Read John 1:14-17
And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16 ESV)
John is speaking in this passage about the incarnation of the creative word of God, Jesus Christ.
The question that must be asked regarding this passage is “with what was Jesus filled?”
The most obvious answer is GRACE or those benefits of God that cannot be earned.
*KEY. Jesus fulfills the intention of the law by bringing Grace and Truth to the lives of those WHO Receive HIM.
Please think on this one!!!
“Grace is not Freedom from Law.
*Grace is the power to live in God’s Truth which the law represents.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, (Colossians 1:19 ESV) Jesus had the fullness of God! With this fullness Jesus received all power in heaven and earth. He had all knowledge. Nothing would be impossible to Jesus because He received this power and acted on it with all the authority granted Him by God the Father!
*Ephesians 3:19 says it is God’s will for Each and Every believer to:
1. Experience
2. Receive
3. and Act with the SAME fullness of God in their lives as Jesus did!
Fullness (Colossians 1:19 again)
Our SIN temptation is to disregard the Law as something obsolete now that I have Christ because (at least part of) its purpose was to convict and point out our need for salvation, but it was also a revelation of God’s heart and what He desires. Christ is the Truth, but so is it.
John 1: 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
Now, since Jesus took that judgment upon Himself at the Cross WE can experience the grace of God.
* Not only did Jesus reveal God as Father but He also revealed the Continuous Reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
When we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit then our result will be the same as Jesus’ result – Victory over Satan. Paul said in Ephesians 6:18, ” Be filled with the Holy Spirit…”
Question/example: If there is continuous Manipulation going on -An arrogant spirit -lies of all kinds- a rebellious spirit, a person only about self and their agenda, interrupting scripture to fit their needs, they want the Body only when they have a need and they are a confessing Christians, etc.
ARE these people: *Walking in the Light or Darkness?
*Are they walking in Truth?
*Are they walking in Freedom?
*Are the walking in Grace?
I have to ask: are they even trying to live in TRUTH? Or just their individual selected pieces of TRUTH they believe worth following? I can tell you the answer to this from experience –because I was Once at this place–and it is darkness.
I will let God be the Judge on others not me. But We as the Body are only to speak Truth and Absolute Truth can only be what the Bible says.
It is God’s intent that we receive His Grace rather than His judgment and by so doing WE experience the same powers of grace Jesus exhibited during His ministry.
By so doing victory is ours over every sickness, every circumstance, and every spiritual force that rise in opposition to us!
Grace brings Victory!
Again: Jesus fulfills the intention of the law by bringing Grace and Truth to the lives of those who Receive him.
*Grace IS NOT Freedom from law.
* Grace is the power to LIVE IN God’s TRUTH which the law represents.
* 2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
What is Grace to you?
The Grace I am talking about is the grace God gives and it has always been a mystery to me. BUT through my trials I have learned a little more about Grace.
* And that is the Grace God Gives IS free… And the cost of that Grace given to me for free COST. GOD HIS SON!
** Now what Does God expect of me? To Follow Jesus and Walk in the Light, in TRUTH, IN LOVE!
Love-Freedom-Truth!!! Can you really Have any one of them without the other?
Hebrews 10: 26 Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the TRUTH, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.
*Bible teaches that Christ has set us free from bondage to sin. If we choose to go on living a life of sin after receiving grace then WE Crucify Christ anew.
So I see it as: There can be no redemption for sin committed as a Deliberate rejection of grace.
* If I know the truth then I can stop myself from sinning. Is that true I Ask?
* We all know we are sinful by nature and therefore it is our nature to sin.
BUT only by the grace of God can we find freedom.(1Corinthians 8:9-12).
*As we read – It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God if we deliberately keep on sinning.
*Does this mean that if we sin again after receiving Christ, we will be doomed forever?
No, there are other scriptures that make it clear that WE still do sin even after receiving Christ,
BUT that we should quickly Confess and Repent. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
We must live in Light of what GOD has done for us and live Pure and Holy lives. We can go to God any time.
*Any Sin is a serious matter! Sin separates us from God.
*It is a perversion of Christian doctrine to say that since there is now Grace, we can continue to sin so that grace may abound. (Romans 6:1)
*So, we must strive daily to live Holy lives!! (1 Thess. 4)
BUT if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).
So we must quickly confess and repent and receive God’s forgiveness.
*Our lives must be characterized by holiness, not by sin.
*At the same time, we can rejoice in the intimacy we have with God because of what Jesus has done.
John 17 Read.
Jesus Christ, ‘full of grace and truth.’ He is here to show us God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.
*God has bound himself to this sinful world in LOVE.
*God reveals the very depths of that love in Jesus. And this is the Jesus of John 17.
* The temptation for true Christians is to Doubt that ‘God is for us.
*Jesus is a billboard, shouting out, ‘I love you.’ And so, before you come to John 17, have you come to know this Jesus? Have you come to know the love of God in flesh?
GRACE IS NOT CHEAP! It cost God His Son!
Are you hungry to be a holy man or woman of God?
* There is only one way to see this happen.
*It is to lay down both human efforts to strive at your own righteousness and be FULLY cloaked with the garments of Christ and to simply receive the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
This holiness is FAR MORE than self-willed negating of SIN;
* it is an “Absolute Surrender to Christ” who releases a great and glorious passion for holiness.
*I don’t want to spend my life trying to wrestle with my old man.
* I want to see Christ form in me the fullness of the new man he has created.
New Christians often have a fervor to share their faith. In time, however, many find their hearts cooling as they focus Less on their Relationship with Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:1 tells us to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”
Salvation is God’s amazing solution to man’s sinful condition: it is His gift of rescue — through the death of Jesus — from the penalty for our transgressions. Before Christ entered our life, we were all sinners existing, as Paul says, “in the lusts of our flesh” (Ephesians 2:3).
No matter how good our behavior may have seemed, we were spiritually dead and separated from God.
Then: Receiving Christ’s forgiveness breathed life back into our spirits so that we could GO Before the Father’s throne.
We must not forget what Jesus did for us!!!
Father, I am tempted daily to sin. I come before you in the Holy of Holies to ask for your power to resist the devil and discipline my own flesh. I confess my sins to You and thank You for Your forgiveness bought by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the intimate relationship we can have with You because of Your gift.
Father, I don’t want to sin. I don’t want to hurt you or disgrace you or take You or Your Grace for granted. Help me to worship You and give You ALL the GLORY You deserve and help me to understand more clearly what you are saying in your Word… Help me in the hard areas that needs more clarification. I do want to be more like YOU JESUS! Seeking you, LORD. Amen.