On God's Grace...

 

"The devil wants you to be looking at you. When you feel guilty, you're looking at yourself.When you look at yourself, you'll see shortcomings and ugliness. But God sees us in Christ, and in His eyes, we are holy, righteous, and full of glory. Don't focus on yourself. Keep your focus on Christ." - Pastor Joseph Prince


I don't usually write about the bible, but today I felt compelled to do so. I read a Solid Rock magazine today and one of the articles really caught my attention. The message, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince, is worth sharing. 

"For the law was taught through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." -- John 1:17

According to the article, God's grace came through Christ's sacrifice on the cross and believers should no longer be living in guilt and condemnation. There is nothing wrong with the law - the law is holy, but it can't make us holy. The law is righteous, but it can't make us righteous.

Therefore, only grace, not law, can cause people to be holy. Under the law, you have broken all of God's commandments when you break one. Under grace - believing ONE thing - that you are righteous because of the blood of Jesus christ - allows Jesus to become OUR righteousness. The covering of Jesus' blood lets God see us the way he sees Jesus - complete, unblemished, holy, and loved just as God loved his precious son. 

The article did cautioned that living under grace, however, is no excuse to sin. He explained that the law brings unrest; people abide by the rules because of the rules. But for those who rest under grace, they can walk with God and will want to do what is right because they have received His love. Only grace itself, can transform the heart. 

Pastor Joseph Prince shared that he used to preach law and sin until God showed him a revelation in the Bible. He found that the children of Israel lived under pure grace in their journey from Egypt to Mt Sinai. They kept complaining but God never punished them. However, when they chose self-righteousness at the foot of Mount Sinai by saying, "All that the Lord says we can do," (Exodus 19:8) God let them live under the law since they asked for it. And because they placed themselves under the law and were unholy, God had to keep a distance and punish them from that time on whenever they complained.

In the bible, there were only two persons - the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman - whom Jesus said had "great faith". Pastor Prince enquired why this was so, and God revealed that it's because they were both Gentiles. Gentiles, during those days, were not under the law. Therefore, they were not under condemnation and did not disqualify themselves from receiving. Instead, they were conscious of the grace of Jesus Christ. 

It is important to note that law and grace CANNOT be mixed. Many preachers do try to balance the presentation of grace and law. But, what man calls "balance", Jesus calls "mixture". Jesus himself once said that the new wine of grace cannot be put into the old wineskin of law, because you will lose both. It is either being completely under law or under grace. 


"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" - Romans 5:20


The main takeaway, I feel, is to understand what EXACTLY is Grace. Grace is the UNEARNED, UNMERITED, and UNDESERVED favour of God. We do not receive it by trying to be deserving of it, by our own works and effort. We receive it simply by believing that Jesus died for our sins. God hates sin as it destroys lives and relationships, but sin is not overcome by our own works or relying on our willpower to overcome it. The devil will constantly remind us, "You still EXPECT God's blessing after you messed up again?" This is when we must remind ourselves that Christ alone, is our perfection and righteousness. None of us are without faults, and none of us infallible humans are qualified for God's blessing by our own merit. That is WHY we plead the grace of God - which is again, which is the unearned, unmerited, and deeply, deeply, undeserving love of the Father towards us.

Something to think about.