DER
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DELIGHT, EXAMINE, RENEW
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
1 Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Who delights greatly in His commandments.
There are 2 levels of grace.
The first level is salvation. Another word for this level is “justification.”
actually, everything God does for us is an act of Grace. Just because it involves grace, doesn’t mean it’s salvation related.
For example, if God blesses you with a raise at work, did you earn that blessing? It was by grace!
Grace simply means INSTEAD OF EARNING IT, we get it out of the love and goodness of His heart. If we earned it, it’s not of grace anymore.
SO, just because something is by God’s Grace, doesn’t mean we’re talking about salvation from Hell, also known as “justification.”
Salvation is actually super clear, and pretty light, really. It has 3 components:
1. confess the Lord Jesus with you mouth
2. Believe God raised Him from the dead
3. Don’t bury it.
Romans 10:9-10 is very clear about salvation faith:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth
Believe that God raised Him from the dead
Then we add to that James & Jesus’s parables.
30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
3. Don’t bury it.
share it, serve, at least *try* to spread it.
This is level one of Grace. The most basic Grace from God there is: salvation. Do that and you won’t be cast into outer darkness, even though you earned being cast into outer darkness.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
So here we have a clear differentiation between the basic saving faith of justification, and ALSO access grace IN which we STAND
So, what does it mean to STAND in Grace?
Before Jesus, all of humanity only had one option to live under: Law. If you live under law, you are guilty because you broke God’s law.
Law is the opposite of Grace. Grace means we get what we didn’t earn, whereas law means earning it!
Under the law, we have rewards for obedience, payment for disobedience.
That’s the opposite of receiving what we DIDN’T earn. And in fact, receiving good things when we EARNED death and punishment!
The Bible is super clear, that under the law, we are separated from God.
That means:
broken fellowship
no revelation
separation from His presence
Notice though, that doesn’t mean we’re not saved. It means while we’re alive, we’re separated and our fellowship with Him is broken.
Think about it, living under the law was the only game in town before Christ came! Just because they lived under the law, does that mean believers went to Hell?
Why? Under the law, we’re guilty and owe death!
Now, though, because of Christ, there are 2 ways to live! We don’t *have* to live under the law. Now we can *stand* in Grace!
As i’ve said, this Grace is something you enter. It’s something you live *under*. It’s the alternative to living under the law!
If we’re under grace, we’re not under the law!
BUT, guess what… if we’re under the law, we’re not under grace.
you cannot be under both!
Under grace, your sin IS paid for!
You owed death, and when we get UNDER grace, that payment of death has been paid!
Just because this is available to stand in, though, doesn’t mean we *are* standing in it.
SO, the new testament life is a call to STAND IN GRACE!
To live UNDER grace!
To recognize the law and reject it!
SO, how do we live in Grace?
For grace, God is concerned with our LOVE and our Faith.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
replace “circumcision” with “payment.”
Instead of focusing on acts of obedience, we have to focus on our love of obedience.
Instead of thinking we need to pay, we put our faith in Christ’s FINISHED and COMPLETE work!
The call to live in Grace is a call to live a life of continual
Delight (Romans 7:22)
Examine (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Renew (Romans 12:2)
Gotta love God
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
2. Gotta love, or delight in, His commandments. (this is as opposed to perfectly obeying His commandments).
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
4. You must *walk* in repentance. (as opposed to only repenting when you did something wrong).
4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
3. You must believe in Christ’s finished, and complete work.
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
4. You must believe you are dead to sin.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
5. Love and forgive others.
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
6. You must walk in humility
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
7. You can’t love the world.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
2 people:
1 loves God but believes all sin always separates him until he repents.
The second one believes that if he maintains an attitude of continual repentance, humility, forgiveness, love for God, love of God’s commandments, and love for others, he never experiences any separation, condemnation, judgment, or absence of blessing. Their sin continuously remains paid for, making them continuously worthy of the throne room and able to always allow Christ’s authority and power to flow through them. And they have all these things because of continual examination, and maintaining, of their faith rather than any work, action, or self-produced purity. Oh, btw, they also believe if they wanna sin, they can’t hide from God, sin, then come back.
Which perspective would produce the superior walk with God?
We all know you can be separated from God and still be saved. I’ve taught my whole ministry that if you sin, there is enmity between you and God until you repent.
So that’s what i’m saying here is you can be saved, but be separated from God. I’m simply shifting how to think about it.
Because of Jesus WE now, New Testament believers, have two ways to live. Before Jesus, everyone was under law. That means they were guilty until their sin was paid for. Because no one’s sin was paid for, there was enmity between us and God.
There are two ways you can live now: under grace or under law. Under
Friendship with the World.
Keeping His commandments.
Delighting in the law.
