The Power to Get The Job Done!

One more thing on Law and Grace...

Before embarking upon any task it is important to attain the power and resources needed to finish the job. If we are to obey the Law of God we need to attain the power and resources to do so as well! No one wants to begin an important task and run out of necessary resources needed to finish the job!

Thankfully, Jesus helps us keep the moral commands of His Law. Christians have been given God's Holy Spirit who works within us to mold our will and direct our actions so we can be obedient to Him (Phil 2:13). We are empowered, encouraged and enabled to follow God's will for our life! We are not left to depend upon our willpower and moral fortitude for our obedience to God. God loves us too much to ever leave us alone! We see the realization of God's empowerment by our faith in what He has promised to do for us. Believe, trust and realize God's power in your life!

It is important to remember, we do not obey the Law of God in order to find favor with Him. We have found favor in the eyes of God because of His grace and our faith in the sacrifice of His Son for our salvation. BUT, we do obey the Law of God as a result of our relationship with Him and love for Him. What a gracious God who gives us the power to be obedient to Him, and therein, express our love for Him!

James

Lukewarm Christian...An Oxymoron???

I will likely post later than usual tomorrow morning so I thought I would give the "regulars" something to consider in the early am.

A True Makeover

One of my favorite shows is the Biggest Loser. It is an emotional show to watch - especially, the first episode when you see people get on the scale and realize how heavy they have become. When they arrive at the ranch, they all have a huge challenge ahead and it is amazing to watch their physical and personality transformation. I absolutely love the finale and seeing the results of the contestants hard work pay off when they get on the scale for the last time. Their appearance is obviously dramatically changed once they have dropped all that weight. But what amazes me even more than their appearance is the amount of confidence they have gained now that they feel better about themselves. In my opinion, the show's greatest accomplishment is not the weight they lose, but the new excitement about themselves they gain!

When watching that show I can't help to relate it to the change one experiences when they accept Christ as their Savior! A complete life transformation takes place when we invite Jesus to be Lord of our lives! Our priorities, outlook on life and sometimes even our appearance can be completely different. Often times, others will notice the difference in our eyes - it is the joy of the Lord coming through! However, just like the contestants on the Biggest Loser we have to stay disciplined to continue to live our new lifestyle even when the temptations are all around us! It is not an easy thing to do but now you are not doing it alone - once you allowed Christ to be Lord of your life He will never leave you.

Kim

Does What We Do Matter?

Jesus makes very clear in Matthew 5:19 we are to obey the Law and teach others to do the same. Anyone who believes they can place faith in Jesus for their salvation and live a life of disobedience to God has misunderstood grace. Salvation from sin and eternal separation from God comes to us by God's grace through our faith in Jesus alone. Our salvation is in no way related to our good works or obedience to God's moral Law but obedience to God's Law is central to the life of a believer.

The Apostle Paul was often accused of being an antinomian. A what??? An antinomian is someone who teaches Christians are free from the moral Law of God by virtue of the grace God gives us through Jesus. Paul addressed such misunderstandings about his theology in Romans 6 when he wrote, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" In fact the entire chapter can be read as a defense against those who believed Paul's theology was antinomian in nature. As followers of Christ we have died to sin and its power over us! We have been resurrected to a new life of obedience in Christ! If anyone teaches otherwise their faith and relationship with Jesus should be questioned.

Grace is God's unmerited favor given to believers; we do absolutely nothing to earn grace! God gives grace simply because He loves us and has chosen to have mercy on us. When we believe and trust Jesus died on the Cross for our sins and give Him our life we enter into a relationship with God; we are saved from the eternal consequences of our sin (separation from God and a destiny which ends in hell). Many Christians understand this part of salvation and have faith in God for forgiveness of their sins and its consequences. But many believers have misunderstood the place of grace in their life for those years between salvation and the end of their life here on earth. Many believers have accepted the forgiveness and promises of Christ for their eternal future but failed to fully realize the promises of Christ for their present life. The result of this failure is many Christians receive salvation by faith in Christ and live the rest of their life in a vain attempt to garner God's favor through obedience to the Law. These poor souls have forgotten the definition of grace! Grace is unmerited favor! We can do nothing to earn God's grace and acceptance for both are given through our faith in Christ alone!

I once heard an old pastor say believers in Christ are not under the Law of God but rather walk in the Law of God. The preacher meant by this statement that we are not under the authority of the Law because our acceptance before God is never based on how well we keep the Law of God. God accepts and saves us on the basis of His grace and our faith in Christ alone! However, as believers we obey God's Law because of the relationship we have with Christ. Jesus said in John 14:23, "If anyone loves me he will obey my teaching." Our love for Christ compels us to obey the Law of God. We do not obey the Law to earn points with God or to be saved. We obey God's Law because of our relationship with Christ and love for Him. This may seem like splitting hairs to some but the difference is HUGE! We do NOT obey God's moral Law in order to be accepted by God but rather BECAUSE we are accepted by God.

Stay tuned for more on Law and grace tomorrow!

James

Meet Law and Need Grace!

Matthew 5:17-20 continued...

In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says the Law will never pass away so we know it has a very important function(s) for our world today. Paul helps us understand one of the important eternal functions of the Law in Galatians 3:24, "The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." So let's consider a few things together in light of these words...

When we share our faith with someone we should remember to take the person to the Law of God before leading them to the grace of Christ. A person must be convinced he or she is a sinner in need of grace and forgiveness if they are to ever place faith in Jesus for these blessings. To simply tell someone they will receive love, joy and peace if they place faith in Jesus does not produce right motivation for receiving Christ as Savior. A non-Christian must understand they are an enemy of God in need of forgiveness and reconciliation with Him if they are to truly become a part of God's family and enjoy the love, joy and peace found in that family. A person who does not know Christ must understand sin produces a great wall of separation between themselves and God which must be dealt with if they are to have relationship with Him.

In Romans 3:19 Paul tells us the Law serves to silence the whole world so each of us may be held accountable to God for our life. If we did not have the Law to help us see our life for what it is (sinful apart from Christ no matter how good we try to behave) we would be condemned to believe our good works were enough to earn right relationship with God! Praise God for the Law!

When we share our faith with others it is a wonderful thing to talk about God's great love, grace and forgiveness but we must make sure our friend without Christ has met the Law of God before elaborating on these subjects. Only someone who has met the Law of God can cease defending their life on the basis of their good works and what they consider "right living." Only someone who has ceased defending his or her life can receive God's grace through Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 there will always be a an important place for the Law and the role of schoolmaster is one such place! Only a person who has met God's Law can realize the futility of their attempts to be reconciled to God by anything other than the Cross of Christ.

More on Law and grace tomorrow...

James

Law and Grace...The Journey Begins

Today's devotion will be the first of several on the subject of grace and God's Law. This morning we will begin looking at Christ's words concerning the Law in Matthew 5:17-20. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians live life confused about the relationship between Law and grace. We are saved by God's grace through our faith in Jesus so the "Million Dollar Question" is: What place does the Law have in the life of the believer? In this particular passage Jesus states the Law and the Prophets (The Old Testament) will never pass away or diminish in importance so Law must have some place in our life today. However, if we become confused over the actual place Law has in our life, we will become very miserable followers of Christ!

So what is Law? The Law is that part of the Word of God which gives a written record of what God has determined to be right or perfect behavior. To put it in simple terms, the Law is the "do's and don't's" found in Scripture. In the Old Testament, obedience to the Law was the way a person had right relationship with God. If you obeyed the Law you were accepted by God and one of His people but if you did not obey you were cut off from the people of God and condemned. Disobedience to God's Law could be atoned for through the sacrificial system found in the Old Testament (see Leviticus). So, if you were disobedient you could repent and sacrifice an animal to atone for your sin; upon doing this you would be forgiven of your disobedience, restored to right relationship with God and given another chance to be obedient to God's Law. This circle of futility continued until Jesus entered the world and put an end to Law's grip on mankind by giving us grace through His Cross...but more on that later!

It was evident from the start mankind could never maintain relationship with God through obedience to the Law. We are corrupt because of the sin nature we inherit from Adam and this nature makes us born sinners. Man simply cannot keep from sin and attain the perfection necessary for lasting relationship with God.

If God knew we could never be obedient to the Law and have relationship with Him through it why give us the Law in the first place? The purpose of the Law is to teach us that we cannot become acceptable to God through any action or work of our own doing. Galatians 3:24 tells us, "The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." God gave us the Law so we might realize our helplessness in the face of its requirements and receive salvation by God's grace through faith in Jesus alone!

We will pick up right here tomorrow and continue the discussing the place of the Law of God in the life of the believer. There has to be some place for it right??? It is still wrong to lie, steal and kill...right? Of course! But how we obey God and the motivation behind our behavior are much different than for those living under the Law in the Old Testament.

Stay tuned...

James

Thirsty?

"Jesus answered, "everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life."" --John 4:13-14

The "water" Jesus speaks of in our passage today is the Holy Spirit and relationship with God which Christ gives to those who have faith in Him for their salvation. Those who drink water to satisfy physical thirst will need additional water to satisfy future thirst but those who drink the spiritual water Christ offers will never again have need of anything to satisfy their spiritual thirst!

We all are born with a "spiritual thirst" for deliverance from sin and relationship with God. Jesus came to satisfy our spiritual thirst through His sacrifice on the Cross. Once we accept Christ as our Savior we have unfettered access to God and His Spirit becomes a "spring of spiritual water" welling up within us giving us life in God.

Many place faith in God's grace and salvation through Jesus for their relationship with God yet fail to enjoy full satisfaction of their spiritual thirst. These unfortunate ones already have all of the "water" they need to satisfy their spiritual thirst but simply fail to put the "cup" to their lips! God is waiting for us to "drink deeply" our relationship with Him! The "cup" I reference here is the means of grace by which we enjoy our relationship with God; our time spent with Him. Are you putting the "cup" to your lips? Are you spending time with God? Are you enjoying the full benefits of your relationship with Him?

Many people are saved through faith in Christ yet spiritually thirsty because they have failed to drink from the spring of water welling up within their own heart! If you find yourself a little spiritually dehydrated today go to the spring and be satisfied in Christ!

James