GRACE In Ur Face

When you wake up in the morning, are you more aware of the demands God has for you, or His supply?

This is a bit of a trick question, if you are under grace then you would have caught onto this in a flash. You would have responded with a quick “what demands?”

Under Grace we know there is only one demand, and even calling it a demand feels wrong. It is the only thing Jesus said that can be classified as a ‘rule’. And that is of course to love one another. That’s it.

When you are constantly conscious of God’s demands, then there is a good chance that you still think you are married to the Law. the Law demands, Grace supplies. Romans 7 puts this into perspective with the woman-marries-husband-husband-dies comparison.

We are no longer married to the Law…but to Grace… Jesus:

But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God - Romans 7

Once we grasp that the law with all its demands have passed away, and got replaced with freedom, love, forgiveness and grace. We start opening ourselves to be able to see only God’s supply. The demands fall away, because when you are married to Jesus… there are none.

F.

Do you sometimes feel like you deserve something from God? Do you feel that you’ve been committed and obedient for X amount of years, so you really deserve this job, blessing, relationship, etc?

It is s very dangerous place to be in when you feel that based on what you have DONE God should respond.

We cannot move God, He is not stuck. 

On the Flip side, if you feel like you deserve a blessing when you are “good” do you also feel you deserve punishment when you are “bad”?

Here’s the catch… if you think the above describes you…then you are a hypocrite.

When we are good we feel God should listen and give us whatever we feel we deserve, but whenever we are bad, we ask forgiveness and fall back to grace as a scapegoat, expecting to jump free from the punishment or consequences of our bad deed. This is a gross misrepresentation on what grace truly is. 

This is what it boils down to:

Nothing  you do can make God bless you or curse you. Nothing! If you were still living under the old covenant, then yes… you do-good-get-good and do-bad-get-bad. But we are no longer living under this covenant. We are living under a new covenant that was initiated by Jesus and His FINISHED work on the cross. This new covenant completely re-wrote the way in which we relate to God. It made you:

- Completely forgiven (past present and future sins) 

- Righteous, no longer depending on your own efforts, but those of Jesus

- Holy, we became Holy the day our spirits merged with that if God.

Let us come to the knowledge that God is Love, and has done more than enough already to show us His love for us.

One of the biggest changes in my behavior since my grace based life was the change in me from being self righteous, to becoming the righteousness of Christ. Let me explain:

Quite a few things happened the day Jesus died on the cross and rose again 3 days later. I believed that it meant that if I believe in Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, and being “my king and savior”, I now have my sins forgiven, and can go to heaven. This is such a limited few of this AMAZING sacrifice made by God. It is a slap in the face. It is like someone bailing you out of jail for murder, doing the life sentence FOR YOU and you think it was merely a bail out for a speeding fine.

But… back to the point…

The other MASSIVE thing that happened is Jesus completely revamped the system with which me operate in with regards to how we relate to God. Pre-Cross we related based on our own deeds (self righteousness). This is believing that God is pleased with you, bless you, or curse you, punish you based on how well you live and the good things you do. It is all up to you and how you live. Self righteousness.

The new system is us not having to worry about any of this, because Jesus gave us HIS Righteousness:

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him - 2 Cor 5:21

This basically means that God no longer approves, loves, sees, blesses you based on your own performance, but on the performance of Jesus… which was perfect!

I have a few steps on how to get rid of self righteousness, which I will post next, and more importantly steps on how to get rooted in the righteousness of Christ.

F.

This post is based on a previous post I made about by looking only at the old testament how our perception of God can be one of a hateful God. I simply cannot fathom how someone can see God as a hateful, greedy, evil God. I read this post by Steve McVey on unfathomable love… here’s the link, and a short snippet…

What do you see today? 

When you find drugs under the front seat of your teenager’s car? 
When your stack of bills is deeper than your stash of cash? 
When your doctor says “there’s nothing else I can do”? 
When your sit alone at night knowing your mate is with somebody else? 
When your teen age daughter says, “I’m pregnant”? 
When you’ve buried your child? 

What do you do? You look up! There is a throne in heaven at this moment and there is a omnipotent King on it … and He loves you! HE LOVES YOU! 

The language of man isn’t big enough to describe His love. The letters of the alphabet can’t begin to describe the love of our King – but they try….oh, how they try! 

1. The antecedent of His love is His own goodness – not yours. 
2. The basis of His love is His deity – He is God and His love isn’t like that of a man. It is otherworldly, being neither motivated nor perpetuated by external reason. 
3. The cause of His love is His own sovereign choice. “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” reverberate throughout the hidden corridors of eternity. 
4. The depths of His love is a cross where He endured hell so He could take you to heaven. 
5. The expression of His love is intimate. 
6. The faithfulness of His love is infinite. 
7. The greatness of His love is immeasurable. 
8. The happiness of His love is unbridled. 
9. The impact of His love is eternal. 
10. The jealousy of His love is consuming. 
11. The knowledge of His love is enough. 
12. The limit of His love is without end. 
13. The magnitude of His love is without limits. 
14. The nature of His love is gentle. 
15. The omnipotence of His love is without equal. 
16. The patience of His love is superhuman. 
17. The quality of His love is untarnished. 
18. The relentlessness of His love will conquer you. 
19. The sweetness of His love will comfort you. 
20. The triumph of His love will calm you. 
21. The uniqueness of His love will seduce you. 
22. The voice of His love will call you by name. 
23. The wonder of His love will captivate you. 
24. The x-stravagance of His love will amaze you. 
25. The yardstick of His love stretches into eternity in both directions. 
26. The zenith of His love will bring you home, at last – where you will look deeply into your eyes and gently say, “How do I love you, Let me count the ways…” 

Awesome! How Great is our God!

F.