For years people have made the mistake of thinking that if they keep some or other kind of law , that they would be allowed in heaven or that they will be rewarded in heaven. God is not interested in your false humility. For it is by grace that you have been saved ; now why do you still believe that being sanctified would come from the LAW ? Just believe and receive what Jesus died to give you ! You can be free of being a slave to sin. If you believe that Jesus paid the price for your sins you are free from condemning law so that you can be free from being a slave to sin. Being angry at yourself or God for sinning is wrong. There is no LAW held against you so why do you want to now pay the fine ? The fine has been paid.. Only believe.
Now people think this is the easy way out that I am advocating. In God’s eyes you are sanctified if you believe in Jesus but its not easy to stand for what I am saying. There are many people who will persecute you because its too simple. That is exactly why it will save the world but its not going to happen if we just sit on our bottoms and think someone else is going to take a stand for Jesus.
Rom 3:20 Therefore1360 by1537 the deeds2041 of the law3551 there shall no3756, 3956 flesh4561 be justified1344 in his sight:1799, 846 for1063 by1223 the law3551 is the knowledge1922 of sin.266
Rom 3:21 But1161 now3570 the righteousness1343 of God2316 without5565 the law3551 is manifested,5319 being witnessed3140 by5259 the3588 law3551 and2532 the3588 prophets;4396
Rom 4:15 Because1063 the3588 law3551 worketh2716 wrath:3709 for1063 where3757 no3756 law3551 is,2076 there is no3761 transgression.3847
Rom 10:4 For1063 Christ5547 is the end5056 of the law3551 for1519 righteousness1343 to every one3956 that believeth.4100
Rom 5:13 (For1063 until891 the law3551 sin266 was2258 in1722 the world:2889 but1161 sin266 is not3756 imputed1677 when there is5607 no3361 law.3551
Rom 7:2 For1063 the3588 woman1135 which hath an husband5220 is bound1210 by the law3551 to her husband435 so long as he liveth;2198 but1161 if1437 the3588 husband435 be dead,599 she is loosed2673 from575 the3588 law3551 of her husband.435
Where the law is the husband in the verse above. So if the law of her husband dies , so does the condemnation that a person is under from that law of her husband. WOW ! She is now free to marry another.. Called Grace. No more marriage to Law.. Marriage to Grace. We are saved by Grace through FAITH !
Rom 6:14 For1063 sin266 shall not3756 have dominion over2961 you:5216 for1063 ye are2075 not3756 under5259 the law,3551 but235 under5259 grace.5485
Gal 5:4 Christ5547 is become of no effect2673 unto you, whosoever3748 of you are justified1344 by1722 the law;3551 ye are fallen1601 from grace.5485
Gal 3:13 Christ5547 hath redeemed1805 us2248 from1537 the3588 curse2671 of the3588 law,3551 being made1096 a curse2671 for5228 us:2257 for1063 it is written,1125 Cursed1944 is every one3956 that hangeth2910 on1909 a tree:3586
1Co 15:56 (1161) The3588 sting2759 of death2288 is sin;266 and1161 the3588 strength1411 of sin266 is the3588 law.3551
1Co 15:57 But1161 thanks5485 be to God,2316 which giveth1325 us2254 the3588 victory3534 through1223 our2257 Lord2962 Jesus2424 Christ.5547
Rom 8:1 There is therefore686 now3568 no3762 condemnation2631 to them3588 which are in1722 Christ5547 Jesus,2424 who walk4043 not3361 after2596 the flesh,4561 but235 after2596 the Spirit.4151
Rom 8:2 For1063 the3588 law3551 of the3588 Spirit4151 of life2222 in1722 Christ5547 Jesus2424 hath made me free1659, 3165 from575 the3588 law3551 of sin266 and2532 death.2288
Gal 3:19 Wherefore5101 then3767 serveth the3588 law?3551 It was added4369 because5484 of transgressions,3847 till891, 3757 the3588 seed4690 should come2064 to whom3739 the promise was made;1861 and it was ordained1299 by1223 angels32 in1722 the hand5495 of a mediator.3316
Gal 3:24 Wherefore5620 the3588 law3551 was1096 our2257 schoolmaster3807 to bring us unto1519 Christ,5547 that2443 we might be justified1344 by1537 faith.4102
Gal 3:25 But1161 after that faith4102 is come,2064 we are2070 no longer3765 under5259 a schoolmaster.3807
Gal 3:3 Are2075 ye so3779 foolish?453 having begun1728 in the Spirit,4151 are ye now3568 made perfect2005 by the flesh?4561
So then how are we to live this new life In Christ ?
Always considering ourselves as clean before God. And focusing on the Joy of Our salvation in His finished work on the cross. By simply believing in Him.
Consider this..
Luk 5:36 And He also spoke a parable to them: No one puts a piece of a new garment on an old garment. Otherwise, both the new will tear, and the old does not match the piece from the new.
Luk 5:37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskin will perish.
Luk 5:38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved together.
Luk 5:39 Also no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, The old is better.
So I believe, You are convicted of Sin by the simple fact that you are not going to be made righteous by the LAW. No one can be made righteous by keeping the law because :
Eph 2:8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
So now that you are out of the law are you going to sin ?
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law, but under grace.
How so ?
Rom 7:4 So, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ so that you should be married to Another, even to Him raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.
How does this work then ? I am not providing anyone with a license to sin. From the law is the knowledge of sin. So we are free from that law. Because if we still had to perform law , God will see us as proud .. And no flesh will glory in His presence. So then ? The law is covered by His blood so that if we enter by Faith into his presence we can find grace. And by grace shall we stand and not sin. And if you sin…
1Jo 2:1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1Jo 2:2 And He is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world.
So now.. we sin but Jesus says to the Father… Not guilty….. And we have access to heaven. our Father loves un unconditionally.
Most people feel condemned and long for righteousness. They keep trying to keep the LETTER. Meaning they make laws up in their minds all the time from the very words the Jesus Spoke and those that preachers use. So in trying to fulfill those words in order to be acceptable , they fail. And by and through failing they are in a downward spiral into the Abyss.
Jesus came to fulfill the law so that if we believe that he did it on our behalf we can now be made righteous. So then ? A person can now accept that God sees them as righteous because of what Jesus did. This is not law , but faith. And because these people so longed to be righteous before God they are , if they accept that Jesus loved them enough to do away with the LAW. In other words when you accept Love you are free from LAW! I believe you can get what you want ! And Jesus paid the price. Now seeing as how a person always wanted to be righteous in God’s eyes why would they then start looking for trouble ? They will only start looking for trouble if they know there is something they can do to disappoint God because they don’t believe in themselves. So now why come along and destroy what Jesus died to create ? We need to trust that everyone has within them a built in idea of who God is , and if that God sees us as clean then the righteousness of that God will come out. Its built in ! or do we not trust the word of God that he made us originally in His image ? The word confirms this inner reality.
We can not go back to the LAW. By going back to a system of LAW between God and man people are going to fail all over again and then we have what is written in Luke 5. 36-39.
The old wine is PRIDE. The new wine is Grace and Praise in the Holy Spirit for Jesus Christ. How can we mix the old with the new ? NEVER. That only creates people who condemn one another and the world.. Isn’t that who we are trying to save ?
So then… There is no LAW between God and man.. Instead there is a total and full surrender of hostilities between God and man. You can’t blame God for your failures anymore. He holds nothing against you. You are free… but then you have to bear the consequences of your actions. You are now responsible for your life. If you mess it up , you are going to die… But God will still let you into his heaven. God is not endebted to no man. He does not need to hold a grudge against anyone who breaks the law. But you are going to suffer if you sin. So why sin then ? If you know that sin leads to death , why do it ?
Ok so now… we sin but God does not hold it against us… Knowing that God does not hold it against us , that habitual sin loses its power. Because where there is no LAW, sin is not charged to your account. And even if you wanted to pay the account… there is no where to pay it.. The temple is gone … Destroyed and the priests that dealt with the sacrifices are also gone…
The laws are written on our hears because we have the same image as Jesus once we are washed by His blood. His work in other words. If you know that God sees you as righteous why would you do anything unrighteous ? If you bring law into it then Jesus died in vain. We need to learn to trust the image the God has placed in all of us and that if it is cleaned up , it will not sin unless we go and do what God did in the garden of Eden and say…. You may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( LAW and worry ) ….. of course then… what do you think will happen ? We will eat of it for various reasons and we will no longer believe we are righteous because we have failed. Take away the potential to fail and replace it with a safety net ! If you believe in Jesus Christ , you are standing on a ROCK. Nothing can touch you. That tree is covered by His blood. So he does not hold your sin against you. The mercy seat above the ark of the covenant is now covered by His blood. There is No Law against us any longer and we are free to receive grace !
Sin is not half as exciting as when you know its forbidden . All you feel when you sin and its not held against you is stupid. Lets rather convict the world of its stupidity than to try and talk about an angry God. A homosexual is not going to come to Christ if we continue to hold up a stick of judgment found in the Letter. He will only accept grace if he knows it is unconditional. We don’t know the reason why he is what he is. So lets reach out to him with the True Gospel and maybe he really wants to be saved from that life style. To know that God will let him into Heaven if he believes that Jesus paid the FULL price. Maybe he will value it more because his soul has been crying out for salvation more than people who don’t know what it is to have such a life style. But if he refuses it , he is condemning himself … let us not portray God as condemning anymore.
Its much tougher to live a life where we can’t blame God for putting all these rules in place. He has done away with them… See ?
Col 2:14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
Col 2:15 Having stripped rulers and authorities, He made a show of them publicly, triumphing over them in it.
Col 2:16 Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbaths.
Now if Sabbaths are part of the Ten commandments …. There can not be keeping of LAW in order to think that you are now righteous before God.
Rom 4:4 But to him working, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt.
You owe God if you try and work towards your salvation or justification.
Rom 4:5 But to him not working, but believing on Him justifying the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness
So how does it all work then ?
The only way to get into heaven is to know that you don’t deserve it but that He paid the price. So in other words to change your thinking from a person who is proud for not having ever broken one law to one who is now thankful through accepting Christ. Now what kind of a thankful man is going to look for a woman and get aids in the process. So now Life is rather a question of the consequences of sin. And by the law we know what sin is. So knowledge of sin can save you , but be thankful for the knowledge not proud !
Once Christ is recognized as Lord and Savior … his life should turn to a direction of gratitude for what Jesus did for him. But people grow in grace and no one is perfect immediately. Yes we want to see them saved but placing our anxiety onto them isn’t going to help. Just to know that God will let you into His heaven for believing in Jesus should be enough to stop you from sinning any longer. Sin has lost its power from preventing you from getting into heaven. Now out of Love for yourself because Jesus died for you … change your behavior from a work walk ( Sin consciousness ) into a grace walk ( Thankful Consciousness ) . Some of the seed of the word was sown in thorny places and others on Rocky ground…. And some into fertile soil where it yielded much…. What is this fertile soil? It’s a thankful heart… If a person is not thankful enough he will not change. Forget it! You are blessed when you are at the end of your rope. Offer a rich man salvation and he will say what from? Offer a person who has lost his riches salvation and he will say. THANK YOU. Only God can prepare a heart before it hears the word. A stony heart is a stony heart. No amount of bible punching is going to make this stony heart into a flesh heart. No amount of LAW preaching is going to make a stony heart a flesh heart !
So its not about LAW … its about GRACE. You can only learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. What we need is an education and not condemnation from God or others.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
God has done his part, now we have to stop presenting him in a light where he looks like a condemning God.
We are in a NEW testament… not a condemning covenant. A testament is something you can inherit not something you have to do like a covenant. Jesus left us a testament and if we believe it we can receive it. Jesus is for believers not achievers ( Prophet Kobus van Rensburg ).
So how are we to walk then?
In the Spirit and always giving thanks for what Jesus has done for us and is doing for us and is going to do for us. We are delivered and being delivered daily. From an old dead way of thinking about God to a NEW AND LIVING WAY. Have faith… because sin is never worth it… There is no law that God holds against us … being aware of LAW only takes our eyes off Jesus and places us back in works. And one who works stresses and never feels loved.. A person who never feels loved will look for someone to sleep with , or kill or steal from.
I finish with this….
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness,
Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 meekness, self-control; against such things there is NO LAW.
Gal 5:24 But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become glory-seeking, provoking one another, envying one another.
So we change our focus then from a God that does not love us or understand us through LAW. To one that died for us and gave himself up for us , so that we might be the righteousness of God…. How so ? BY BEING THANKFUL. Now what kind of a thankful man is going to :
Steal , kill , commit adultery etc , etc…..
We need to receive Love before we can ever show it ! And God always forgives…. The problem is.. man does not .. so he clings to the LAW.. thinking he is doing God a favor.
There are terrestrial laws that control society. We are to obey them. If we are stressed we will only fail at these laws more and more… But God has done away with law. We are not supposed to be of this world. We are supposed to represent another world. A better world that can only show unconditional love if it accepts unconditional love. People who beat themselves up don’t do God a favor and do us even less of a favor. If this truth can take hold in a person’s life , even while they sin for no one is perfect… They will go from Glory to Glory.. but if we are going to set up standards for people to hurdle they won’t even get up and try. Jesus came so that God wouldn’t be blamed for them being the way they are.. Why do we insist on lying about it ? Truth be known.. with so great a salvation… the only reason people will sin after hearing about this is because they don’t want to be saved in the first place…..
Joh 3:18 He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
Joh 3:21 But he who practices truth comes to the Light so that his works may be revealed, that they exist, having been worked in God.
I believe that what Jesus is talking about is that people are so much into worry that they enjoy the thrill of it. Instead of being thankful that they are saved by grace through Faith .. in order to develop an attitude of gratitude.. They want to continue in their worrisome ways. Never taking the opportunity to stop and smell the roses.
We don’t have the time in the world to worry about things. We need to take each day as it comes and we need to learn to be thankful for what we have. The very air we breathe is better than the coal mines under ground. Are we thankful for the fact that we don’t have to breath that stale air ? Is there anything we are thankful for ?
This is the problem.
People are too busy chasing and comparing their shadows of the Law that they miss the SUN of the shadow. This sun is unconditional Love from Jesus Christ. If I turn and face the SUN I will cast a large shadow. But if I chase my shadow it will eventually get smaller till I find myself crawling around on the ground. If I face the Sun I will not be aware of My Large Shadow. And so I will not bother condemning others for their small shadow. People need love. Let us learn to be the face of Love.
The Municipality that used to dish out the fines is GONE. There is no LAW period. Stop talking about the municipality of the LAW of God. There are no fines posted on the road. If people would just look at the BIG Jesus BUS infront of them they won’t veer off the ROAD.
So how can we win souls for Christ then ?
We tell them that there used to be a Municipality where the LAW was kept and fines were dished out. This created a society where people were always hard on each other and never got anywhere. It was made obsolete by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ claimed to be the Mayor of the Municipality. He claimed to Be God. And that if we Believe he is the Mayor we will be allowed to be members of His new city. Once a person realized that he does not need to pay a spot fine every time he does something wrong he is going to be thankful to the mayor for giving him grace. We should point out that if he is not thankful he will not qualify himself to be a member of the new city. If he wants to try and keep the laws of the old city and traffic department he is going to have a hard time because the traffic department has been broken down. The only way to be a member of the NEW city is to be thankful to the mayor for breaking down the Traffic department. He can state his thankfulness via e-mail-prayer to the Mayor who really wants to hear from the people instead of always seeing how many fines they racked up during the day. Now cars can collide into each other in the streets and there will be no more fines. So people had better learn to be responsible. If you crash your car now , you can always have it fixed again but its going to take you off the road for a while and you may even die from the collision. So the Mayor said , we had better learn to take care of one another so this does not happen. He said , don’t crash your car into another car , rather avoid the crash altogether. In the old city people would be crushed in their old cars and all the drivers of the city would have pushed the start button of the car crusher. In the transition to the new city , if you crash your car you can die , because all the other cars are doing something wrong. Some of the wrong things they do like speeding excessively can really cause harm. You might die in your car ! The people aren’t allowed to put you in the car crusher anymore with your car and press the button. So the best thing to do in the new city is just be happy that you are part of the Mayors new plan and avoid a collision. If someone crashes into you and your car becomes obsolete your car goes into the ground and you get a time out till the new city is finished. When we e-mail God we can hear very clearly why our car is the way it is and of how to get it in a better condition. He will even help us because he is the Mayor. He will even e-mail someone to help them change their behavior. He can change the person without your help but he will never ignore someone if he receives an e-mail for them. Please remember that he is God and he will have his way because we are living in His word. This world was created by His word and because its his word , he has total control over it. Isn’t it better to work with the person that made you instead of against him ? It can never pay to go against him.
So then if you believe with your HEART and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Mayor of the city where the traffic department once stood and believe that he did away with the traffic department for your sake , you will be saved ( only if you are thankful ) . Try to understand the other drivers on the road till the new city comes. If we are good examples to one another in this new and living way , who knows , we could even surprise him when he comes back with our new behavior. He said LOVE ONE ANOTHER ! Maybe this could even become heaven on earth if we all just did our part.
This is why we pray :
Mat 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Mat 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.