"Your life is transformed to the degree that your mind is renewed. Cornel's book goes a long way to removing the hindrances to that renewal."
-Curry R. Blake, John G. Lake Ministries
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Face it, we have all been there. We mess up so badly and think God is utterly disappointed with us. We entertain thoughts of condemnation and guilt over our actions and feel totally unworthy of God’s grace. Whenever I have felt like this, these 8 verses have always helped me get over myself and run to Dad! They will help you too I know it!
Isa 43:25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
God blotted out your transgression FOR HIS SAKE, not yours. Sure it’s great for you too, but God did it for his own sake, because if He didn’t, He would have had no other choice but to kill you. So rest assured, God made the choice to not kill you.
Jer 31:34 “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
We will know the Lord? How? Because we will come to realize He is utterly good because He forgave us when we didn’t deserve it.
Jer 33:8 ‘I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.
ALL means ALL! All iniquity, all transgression, all sin pardoned and cleansed by Him
Rom 4:7-8 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”
You are blessed! Why? Because your lawless deeds are forgiven, your sins are covered and sin is not imputed to you! What a Saviour!
Hbr 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
God has already chosen to have mercy on your unrighteousness by forgiving you and not remembering your sin or lawless deeds. Then on top of that He graciously offered you the free gift of Christ’s Righteousness!
Hbr 10:17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Then He adds, for the 6th time now, “I am not remembering your lawless deeds or sins.”
2Cr 5:17-19 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
The way God reconciled you to Himself was to NOT count your sins against you. If He were counting your sins against you, you would not have been able to be reconciled!
Psa 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
And lastly my personal favorite! God HAS NOT done to any of us what our sins deserved. He has not thrown the book at us, He is not holding the law over our heads, He is not condemning or finding fault with us. He is shouting it all throughout His Word: “I have removed the record of your sin from My mind for all time! I love you with an everlasting love!”
How great, oh how great is our Dad!
Cornel
We are saved by grace through faith and it is not of ourselves (Eph 2:8-9). Since it’s not of ourselves, it’s not of ourselves. That means your behaviour has nothing to do with it. Simple, right! But what happens when a believer does use grace as a licence to sin?
As sons we have a covenant with our Father that is not based on our performance. All our sins have been forgiven and He is not keeping count of what we are doing wrong. If you don’t believe me, try believing Him. Read Isa 43:25, Jer 31:34, Heb 8:12, Heb 10:16-17, 2 Cor 5:19, Rom 4:7-8 to name but a few. Since He keeps repeating Himself, I believe He is pretty serious about the things He has said. So serious that He would rather have His Name be put to shame than violate His Word. (Ps 138:2) We need to realise how serious our Father takes covenants. There is actually a great example of this found in the Bible. Samson, one of the many men appointed by God to bring deliverance to Israel also had a covenant that was not based on his performance or behaviour.
The stipulation of Samson’s covenant with our Father was regarding his hair. As long as Samson didn’t cut his hair, he would be supernaturally strengthened by the Spirit of God to bring deliverance to Israel. But when we actually take a step back and look at Samson’s life, we see him using this covenant to do whatever he felt like doing. Let me give you few examples:
- After gambling and losing a bet with a bunch of Philistines at his wedding (to a Philistine woman), Samson went and murdered 30 men, took their clothes and possessions and used that to repay his debt. (Jdg 14:12-13, Jdg 14:19)
- When Samson’s father-in-law refused to let him see his wife, Samson went and caught 300 foxes and burned down the Philistines’ fields. This in turned caused the Philistines to murder his wife and father-in-law. (Jdg 15:1-6)
- When Samson’s own people arrested him for making their oppression under the Philistines worse instead of better through his actions, he broke free of his bonds and killed 1000 Philistines. (Jdg 15:10-15)
- Samson went to Gaza and slept with a prostitute. The Gazites plotted to kill him over this so he ripped their city gates out of the ground and carried them to the top of a hill. (Jdg 16:1-3)
- Finally, he lied about the source of his power 3 times before giving it up. (Jdg 16:6-15)
So Samson was a gambling, thieving, murdering, aggressive & anger-driven liar who slept around with prostitutes. Very holy… The interesting thing about all these instances is that the Spirit never left Samson. Even though his behaviour was far from moral, upright or holy. He remained Israel’s judge, empowered by the Spirit. Why is that? Because he never shaved his head. The covenant was never broken therefore the promise defined by the covenant was always in force. The moment Delilah had his head shaved, the covenant was broken and the Spirit left Samson.
He had his eyes gouged out and was thrown into prison. The man who was appointed to deliver Israel’s from the Philistines ended up to be their prisoner and was further humiliated by having to entertain the Philistines at a royal party. (Jdg 16:23-25). Through his own carefree actions, Samson robbed himself of fulfilling his destiny as Israel’s deliverer. Yet the moment his hair grew back the stipulation of the covenant was again met and the Spirit returned to him. He then famously pushed the two pillars over and killed more Philistines in his death than in his life.
The tragedy of Samson’s life teaches us that even though our covenant is not kept in place by our actions, sin is still the seed of destruction in our lives. Samson’s hair grew back; his eyes and destiny, not so much. We too risk our lives, relationships, health, reputations and destinies by using grace as a licence to do whatever we want.
Gal 6:7-8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (NKJV)
Tts 2:11-13 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. (NIV)
Grace teaches you to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions. It trains you to live self-controlled and upright. Not because that is what will uphold your covenant, but because God did not sacrifice His Son to save you from corruption only for you to stay in corruption. Saying ‘No’ to sin is exactly what grace empowers you to do. If you are using grace to say ‘Yes’ to sin, you are not being taught by the grace that brings salvation. There is no salvation in sin, there is only salvation from sin. You can be genuinely saved and call yourself free but fail to see that where you are in sin, you are still not free. Therefore freedom is not measured by not having any rules you can’t break, but in how little sin still has dominion over you.
Be Free!
Cornel
Ps. For more on this topic, see ‘Whose Grace Message Are You Listening To?‘
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Aesop was a Greek slave who lived lived around 600BC. He is renowned for telling pretty awesome fables, some of which are known and retold all over the world to this day. You might recognize some of his fables actually. Ever heard of ‘The Tortoise And The Hare’ or ‘The Ants And The Grasshopper’ or ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’? If you haven’t, what is it like living under that rock? Just kidding. I recently started reading his collection of fables again. The very first one was enough to get me thinking for a few days. It’s called, “The Wolf And The Lamb”
“A Wolf, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him. He thus addressed him: ‘Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.’ ‘Indeed,’ bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, ‘I was not then born.’ Then said the Wolf, ‘You feed in my pasture.’ ‘No, good sir,’ replied the Lamb, ‘I have not yet tasted grass.’ Again said the Wolf, ‘You drink of my well.’ ‘No,’ exclaimed the Lamb, ‘I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.’ Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, ‘Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.” – The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.”
The devil is exactly like this wolf. He will try to justify his tyranny with a pretext. He will throw every excuse at you to justify his attack. Here are his most common pretexts:
1. ”Because you have sinned, I have a right to do this to you.” You probably did sin, but that is no justification for the enemy taking anything from you. If my car is locked in my garage with a satellite tracking and steering lock on, a thief could break in and steal it. If on the other hand I leave my car in a shady part of town at night with the windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition, a thief can still come and steal it. In both scenarios my car was stolen. My careless actions made it much easier for the thief in the second case, but it in no ways justified the theft. Similarly, a rape is not justified because the clothes the woman did or didn’t wear. (John 10:10)
2. ”It’s not me, it’s God punishing you.” Some people are smart enough to not fall for the first pretext above. Obviously the thief has no right. ‘But God has a right to punish sin, so maybe He has something to do with this.’ Yes, God does have a right to punish sin, but what the devil wants you to not realize is that God already punished sin on the cross, even the very sin you just committed minutes ago. God already judged and punished Jesus in your place. If not, what was the point of Jesus’ death? (John 5:22, John 5:24, John 12:47)
3. ”Of course Jesus died for your sins, BUT…” Your internal alarm bells should sound whenever anybody tries to add a ‘but’ to the Gospel. The ‘but’ is usually followed by some sort of measure you have to live up to in order to make the benefits of Jesus’ death applicable to you. … BUT you need to fast. BUT you need to tithe. BUT you need to belong to our church. BUT you need to live in this manner. BUT you you you have to do do do this this and that. Basically forget about Jesus and all He did, look at what you still have to do, not to mention what you are not doing. Excuse me, but does Scripture not say we are saved by grace through faith AND IT IS NOT OF OURSELVES? (Eph 2:8-9) Does it not also say we received the Spirit by Faith and not by law? That miracles and power work amongst us through faith and not our self-righteousness? (Gal 3:1-3)
Preaching a but-gospel? Look at what Paul had to say about that:
2Cr 11:4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or [if] you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted–you may well put up with it!
If you preach a but-gospel, you will have to put up with a it. If you preach bondage, you will have to put up with bondage.
Gal 1:6-9 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
I think Paul said it clearly enough. Don’t fall for the enemies pretexts. Understand what Jesus did for you. Understand the covenant you live under.
Cornel
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- Incomplete Vs. Complete Forgiveness November 25, 2011
- 20 Rob Rufus Quotes On Law vs. Grace November 23, 2011
- When Kids Pray… November 20, 2011
- Why Does God Love You? November 17, 2011
- This Is My Dad November 9, 2011
Thanks for visiting!
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- The Happy Gospel, by Benjamin Dunn January 24, 2012
- Grace as a ‘License to Sin’ & God’s Disinterest in Our Sacrifice January 28, 2012
- Questioning Everything January 24, 2012
- Deception, Persecution, Freedom, & Dinosaurs January 20, 2012
- Organic Church Introduction January 30, 2012
- Dead to Sin and Alive to God! November 10, 2011
- The Old Testament Law… FULFILLED July 11, 2011
- The Blueprint of “Renewing Your Mind” November 24, 2011
- Decisions that Define Us – Graham Cooke November 23, 2011
- God. is. with. You. September 30, 2011
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