I believe that many believers have never really fully comprehended what grace truly means for the believer. We hear the word grace many times, we hear about justice and mercy. Let me first say that mercy and justice are very much different from grace. Justice is something that we all deserve for we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23.
Mercy is not receiving what we deserve. We are all guilty before God and because God is a just God, He has to punish the sinners. He cannot compromise His perfect law and justice. If any of us committed a crime in this world and we had to appear before a judge and the judge would say, “you know what, I feel great today, I let you go.” That judge would not be a just judge. Crimes require a penalty, either with a fine or jail time.
The same thing is true with God our heavenly judge, He cannot just say, “don’t worry I let you off the hook.” A just judge will give a sentence that fit’s the crime committed, but he cannot let the person go free without any kind of penalty. That is justice according to the laws of the land. The judge hands down the punishment, a fine of $50.000 for the crime committed. The person say’s “I don’t have that kind of money.” The judge decides because the person can’t pay the fine, to impose a jail sentence instead. Just as the officers begins to handcuff the person someone comes in and pays the fine for the convicted criminal. The man is free to go, someone paid his fine for him. Not only that, when the men goes to his bank, he finds out that there is a deposit on his account for one million dollars.
That is what God did for us, Jesus paid the penalty for the sinners. He took all the punishment that we deserved upon Him at the cross. He is our propitiation i.e appeasement. It is by God’s grace that those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are pardoned from their sins. The sinner is justified before God because Jesus paid it all. We were all deserving of the judgment and the punishment is eternal separation from God. But because God in His mercy and Grace gave His only Son so that we may live. Grace is a free gift. We cannot earn it or improve on it.
All believers are declared justified before God and that is just like we never ever sinned. God sees us through the blood of Jesus and He sees His righteousness. It is not by our righteousness or good works, it is the righteousness of Christ that was imputed onto the believers.God has bestowed His grace upon the believer and His grace is sufficient and will never wear out.
Many believers are trying so hard to please God, either by good works or some acts of righteousness. They live a legalistic life with commandments and ordinances and the result is that they have placed themselves into a life of bondage. They live under constant condemnation because they never feel that they are good enough. They are working so hard that they have forgotten the grace of God that they are trying to please God in the flesh which is impossible. No one can please God by the works of the flesh. One of the last words of Jesus on the cross were, Tetelstai or, it is finished. Relax, Jesus did it all for us. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.
I believe that we need to remind ourselves sometimes that it is by God’s grace that we are saved and that there is nothing we can do to change that. He will never leave us nor forsake us. None of us is perfect and if we could be perfect on our own, Christ died in vain. We all stumble from time to time or mess up, but God’s grace covers it all.
The believer is justified the moment they believe in Jesus, that is unchangeable and irreversible. There is sanctification and that is a life long process. Everyday we are conformed more and more into the image of Christ. As we let go of the things of this world we draw nearer to Christ until the day arrives that we will be glorified with Him.
In the meantime listen to the still small voice and abide in Christ and He will finish our faith. He is the author and finisher of our faith. To me that sounds like that Jesus is writing my book and with every chapter written, I’m one step closer to heaven.
I thank God for His grace and His love and mercy towards me. Without the gift of grace and the sacrifice of Jesus, I would be hopeless and lost. Thank you Lord for revealing Yourself to me when I needed You most. You are the way the truth and the life. Thank you Father for your grace and I pray that many will come to realize that you love them and that they would turn from the world and embrace you and you promise of everlasting life.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”Eph 2:8,9.
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26.
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1, 2.
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Jesus Christ was/is our example. Jesus was the only man ever without sin. Moses sinned. King David Sinned. King Solomon sinned. Paul sinned. Peter sinned, “You will deny me three times…” Jesus said, thus, Peter Denied Him three times. We all sin; the question is whether we live in sin. Jesus did not go around cursing, lying, cheating, stealing, lusting, etc., nor should we. Afterall, unless we say that the Word of God is a lie, again I say, He was/is our example. The Bible is our example, and if we’re going to use it as our example, we cannot take things out of context in order to make a point. If we look at the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments both, we see God’s wrath, we see His love, we see people who are forgiven, yet must take responsibility for sin (King David took a census. God forgave Him, but He was given three choices, and none of them were pleasant. King David committed adultery and murdered Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. He was forgiven, yet he had take responsibility for what He did–there was constant strife in his household, (the sword), and their first child, made in adultery, died. The best thing I can say in all of this is this: we will all stand before God in judgment, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Is there anything in this life worth the possibility of Satan’s desire for all of us; to spend eternity separated from God in hell? Furthermore, God cares more about our soul than He does our flesh. Our soul is our eternity, and our flesh is only but a moment. So, Anne, what I am trying to say to you is this..we are all sisters and brothers, we love you, and beneath any pride or offense you might be holding, you love us too because we are family. We love you so much that we want to make sure we’re all together in the clouds when the trumpet blows. I don’t think anyone here is truly trying to make someone mad or be offensive… there is not one person here..you, your husband, Freddie, myself, savedbygrace…no one who is just like Jesus…we’d be liars to say such a thing, and to do so is debauchery! Only Jesus, as I’ve already mentioned, is sinless. He loves the murderer, the idolator, the adulterer, the fornicator, the drug user, the Muslim, the Buddhist, the Mormon, the alcholic, the Christian, the Atheist. This is not the question. He loves everyone so much He wants no one in hell…He came to save us. Hell was made for Satan and his dark angels, not for humanity. However, because of Adam and Eve’s one small sin…we can and will go to hell if we do not follow Jesus. If you would like to get into original Hebrew and Greek…I’m good at this…I study it myself. The term Servant in the New Testament, in it’s original context, means slave. The translators thought slave was too strong of a word, so they used servant. So, when we are born into this world, we are automatically a slave to Satan. When we get saved, we are a slave to Christ. As bad as it may sound, I’m sorry, but those are our only two choices…and I would much rather be Christ’s slave than Satan’s because my God loves me…and not only am I a slave of Christ, but I am also His child…and He looks after me. He’s a different kind of a master, and so being a slave of His doesn’t mean the same thing as just being a slave as we think on this earth. What master gives his slaves kingdoms, glory, riches, beauty, eternal life and joy, love more than we can fathom, kingdom glory, blessings abound, and more? None but Jesus! And so once we are saved, we are no longer called sinners, because we have been cleansed; however, if we return to a life of sin, which we can because Yahweh/Jehovah Jireh/Alpha/Omega/Beginning/End/Adonai/etc. does not force us or deceive us into things.. He wants us to willingly love Him and come to Him. The best advice for anyone who reads this is fall in love with Jesus. Let me explain, please.
Years ago, I was sitting on the edge of my bed in tears, “Lord, why is it so hard? If I am your child, and you love me, why?” The Holy Spirit spoke to me. “Because you do not love me!” In defense, I cried out, “Oh but that’s not true, Lord! Of course I love you!” He said, “So, when you look at relationships you’ve been in, people you’ve loved….let’s say, a man for example. YOu couldn’t wait to get home and call him on the phone first thing, you couldn’t wait to get together with him, he was all you thought about as the butterflies flitted around in your stomache. You ate, drank, slept, and wept nothing but him. You sought to impress him with your appearance and nice things. In his eyes, you wanted to be the best and make him happy. You could spend hours everyday talking to him, writing him letters, and staring at pictures of him. You told everyone about him; your parents, your friends…you bragged what a wonderful man he was and how good he was to you. Over time, you were dedicated and loyal to him, and you batted your eye at no other. Is this how you’ve ever felt for me?”
I sat in silence afraid to answer the question. I knew the Lord knew the truth already, and I knew He was right. I loved what i knew about Him, but in truth, I wasn’t in love with Him as I should. So, hesitantly but honestly, I replied, “Lord, I don’t love you. I love what i know of You, but I’m not as personal as what I should be. I’m sorry Father; can You forgive me and teach me to love You? I WANT to love You, please teach me!” I realized why it was so hard to serve Him. Could any of us be like that if we were with someone we didn’t love?
Are some of us today, who call ourselves Christians, with someone we dont really love, and haven’t really taken the time to get to know? Might this by the reason it’s hard to find joy when people give us heck? Or when life’s circumstances try and knock us down? If you really knew you had Jesus there, and my goodness, you were so in love with Him, who cares what’s going on..you’ll get through it! I can’t tell you some of the trials and troubles I’ve made it through when I loved someone…and I had unbelievable strength, energy, and will to do it too because of that crazy little thing called love.
I’ll be 40 years old soon, yet I was saved as a child. It took me nearly 36-37 years to have this realization and to actually get to know the Lord. If you really know the Lord personally, there is no reason for pride or anger when someone doesn’t see eye to eye with us. Yes, our flesh certainly does feel it, but we have the power within to overcome it….the man who lives inside of us…the Comfortor, the Counselor–the Holy Spirit! Through the death of Jesus, Amen, Praise the Lord, and halleleujah, He was given to us! He’s a gentleman too, and never pushy. He speaks to us in a still, small voice…the one that usually gets ignored because all too often, we’re lugging around a dead body with us..our old self…and we can’t hear His groanings over that nasty, filthy, rotten, vile old man.
And so Jesus taught me how. I couldn’t wait to get home first thing and spend time reading His letters of love to me. I couldn’t wait to call Him up on the heavenly phone and talk to Him. And never once did I get a voice mail that said, “This is Jesus, I’m sorry, the Father and I our out playing a game of golf; leave your name and number and we’ll get back to you whenver we get a chance!” Beep…
I couldn’t wait to write a poem to Him and read it aloud in His presence. I couldn’t wait to tell people about Him with excitement and joy, wanting them to come and see this wonderful love I had found..I wanted them to have the same kind of love I had! I wanted them to have that same peace and joy during the storm I had! I wanted them to walk around all day long and say with confidence, “Lord my God, in the name of Your precious Son Jesus…YOU oh Lord are MY strong tower! You are the light of my salvation! Humble me Lord, always, and let me not turn a deaf ear ever to your correction which oftentimes comes through others! Do not let me pride and stubborness (because I can be a very stubborn woman indeed…) ever overpower what you’re trying to tell me! I want to be corrected if I’m wrong! I want to know the truth if what I believe is incorrect! Let me test what I learn according to your truth, and give me the wisdom and the knowledge to discern because I’m in a corruptible body of flesh!”
I knew for sure if they found it, they’d feel exactly as me, and so I wanted everyone to have this that I had. Can all of us here honestly say we are in love with the Lord? And as the newness wears over time, does it become something much deeper….does it go from falling in love to love? Are we loyal to our love? After all, we are the bride..and Christ is the groom. Are we faithful wife, or a cheating, adulterous, fornicating wife? When we don’t serve Him, we serve that old nasty toothless lion..Satan himself. When we serve Satan, we are committing adultery and fornication. The lovely bride, so beautiful indeed to Christ as He looks down at her in her gorgous, white dress….longing to see her stunning face hidden behind that veil… that beautiful, beautiful bride, making her bed with a filthy, stinking, rotten, foul, unclean, covetous, pig as Satan…what a shame that we all are from time to time.
Let us all, including you Anne, hold out our hands together in agreement and show the world our engagement ring. Let it shine and let it sparkle in the light… aahhhh, look at how it glimmers! Look up, can you see? The groom, He is preparing right now as we speak to come and slip the wedding band on our fingers… let us be sure our hands are clean, and that our ring is sparkling, and that our gowns are spotless….or else when He arrives, we won’t be ready..and then we’ll miss out on our engagement.
Amen, and amen…. all of God’s people gather together, do not waste time… the time is near, the harvest is ripe… do not be left for the vultures. Stop arguing, and stop wasting time, and stop taking your eyes of the Son, Jesus; instead, get out now and tell the world…get out on the streets and shout as loud as you can so that all will hear, “Jesus is coming! Make straight your path, and get ready! Jesus is coming! The hour has arrived! Turn from sin and repent, because our Lord, our Savior, He is coming…. as he shouts from on high, “ready or not..here I come…” But in this case, don’t be hiding yourself…be seen…be ready… there’s not much time!
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Anne, I can give you a wonderful example here. If I come to you and give you a car for free, it is yours, and you owe me nothing; however, if you receive the car, you must take care of it or else it will breakdown and fall apart on you. You will have to get oil changes, and other maintenance. It was still a free gift, but it must be taken care of or else it becomes ineffective. God’s word says that “not everyone who says, Lord Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of heaven. I have found these days that people conform the Bible to what fits our lifestyle..we don’t always mean to, but we do. I have inadvertantly done so myself in times past. His Word specifically iinsturcts us over and over. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” “All fornicators, idolators, adulterers, etc. shall have their place in the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.” I think what everyone here is trying to say is that we all fall short from time to time, and when we repent, God forgives us. But if we say we’re sorry and we don’t mean it, He can’t forgive us because we’re not really sorry. If we’re really sorry, we earnestly make an effort to not continue in whatever it is we are doing. There is a big difference in sinning and living in it. When we continuously live in sin, we spit in Christ’s face and crucify Him over and over again as though His death meant nothing whatsoever. We take advantage of His death and the gift. We live in disobedience when we live in it. Living in it is a state of unrepentance. To fully grasp what I am saying, one must understand true repentance. If you go and you cheat on your husband, and on your own, you go to your husband and tell him what you have done, and you never do this thing again…you have truly repented to your husband. God is gracious enough He will forgive you for this, but your husband may not. But if you cheat on your husband, and then continue cheating over and over again without stopping the behavior, you are living in it. God can’t forgive you for what you’re not sorry for, nor can your husband. Part of the gift is that when we really mess up, things so horrible that humanity could never even look at us again, God will forgive us because we are “truly” sorry. So, He is loving and forgiving. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that when we’re not sorry, and we just keep on living in it, that it’s okay, and don’t worry about it. What would be the point of Christ’s death or any of it then? We could all just habitually live like the world then…why on earth would Christ tell us to be different if it made no difference because we could just live in sin regardless? Even Paul mentions that this is obsurdity. Do you now see my point? God bless you, and I hope you can really understand this. I fear for those who believe they are saved, yet still live like the world, and will be left behind, or wake up from the sleep of death to find out they didn’t make it.
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God bless you Faraz! I’m sure Mr. Winters is more than blessed by your comment. I will remember you and your people in my prayers constantly. Do you by chance speak any Lebanese Arabic? I only know almost 100 words, and that is all. A very complex language indeed. I worked for many years for some people who were Lebanese Christians and they taught me so much.
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Dear Brother,
I am Faraz Yousaf from Pakistan. I have studied your web site, and I found it the most wonderful site to get right to the True Word of God. My suggestion for you is to create your material in my language of Urdu and Punjabi also. It will bring lots of blessings of the Word of God for the Pakistani and Indian Urdu and Punjabi speaking people. For that purpose I as a translator will bring your material into Urdu languages and into Punjabi language as well. Although it will take your low expenses as well, as fund for the Word of God to reach out to the deserving people. I my self, work on a local radio station also. Many times it becomes difficult for us to keep doing this because of being minorities and because of the lack of the financial resources. I will wait for your response.
Sincerely,
Faraz Yousaf ( Pakistan ).
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@”I believe you are a genuine caring believer like Freddy
but worldly wisdom cannot understand the Truth of the Scriptures
1 Corinthians 2:9-16″
—————————————————————–
“….The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?
In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who
is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
–
– as the verse says.. No one understands the things of God except through the Spirit of God
——————————————————————
“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all
without finding fault, and it will be given to him”
– James 1:5
what I love about this verse is that this phrase “without finding fault”
people will offer us to be their teacher,
but they will first accuse and find fault in us.
@”sadly I continually read Blogs were people are rejecting Scripture to
hold onto what they have been taught or believe bt their own understanding
instead of going to our only Teacher Jesus Christ
——————————————————————
– I could’nt agree more
– to those who doesnt have wisdom like me, those who claim to be teachers
will point us to them who claims to be teacher, and have wisdom.
@”most will not admit they need God’s wisdom, it takes humility to ask for it
with all our heart believing we need it 100% and then faith to believe we have received it .
——————————————————————
– Such a pristine statement.
– not only they will admit they need God’s wisdom, but in their own eyes they
have wisdom and that they are better than the others.
– It takes a revelation to understand
Jesus has been (past tense) made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption
——————————————————————
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Thank Darrell, that’s what I was trying to say to Anne. We do not practice habitual sin or sin willfully, but we do stumble and fall from time time. If we could be perfect on our own , Christ died in vain and even though we have a new nature, at the same time we have the old nature i.e. the flesh to deal with. The Flesh waring against the Spirit. Have a blessed weekend.
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the comments on this blog have come into my feed which is fine, so I have seen the running dialog, and I just want to say that I am not sinless, in fact the only righteousness I possess is in Christ Jesus. The law demands perfection-not just about or close-perfection. That’s why we have Christ Jesus. Under the law, and there were many who tried to be sinless-but there was none, no not one. In grace we have the perfection God demands, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but do we still sin – you better believe it. That is why we crucify ourselves daily to the cross – Paul shows clearly that we still sin in Romans 7:15. I am a student of grace, moreover I am a recipient of grace. In http://darrellcreswell.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/disease-within-the-church-spiritual-narcissism/ I discuss the issue of my righteousness having anything to do with me – it doesn’t. We will only be perfected on that day that we join Him for eternity-my humble opinion. Blessings Darrell
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Dear Anne, I am not rejecting scriptures that is your accusation. I am simply stating that Christians are not sinless. We are forgiven sinners. We do not practice habitual sin or are engaging willfully in sin. There are many that abuse the grace of god and think that if they sin, the grace of God covers them. That is not what I believe and that is wrong, although some Pastors teach that to their flock. All I’m saying is that from time to time we fall short of God’s glory. All it takes is one wrong thought, a little white lie or whatever else of that nature. What was the symbolism of Jesus washing the disciples feet? Why do we pray, “forgive us out trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others? Why did Jesus commanded the seven churches to repent in His letters to them? Anne, as long as we are in these bodies we are not perfect. There is only One that is perfect and sinless, the man Christ Jesus. Now you may believe that you are without sin, good for you. I for one humble myself before Almighty God and confess that I am not perfect or sinless.
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Not to lean from me Freddy but to understand what God wants to tell you, I share the Scriptures that you are rejecting and there are many more, no Pastor, no body , no Bible Collage all the books and taps you have, can teach you what comes from the heart of God, when you come to the place when you can say I know nothing Freddy and you need God’s wisdom 100% you will start to learn … as for me, I’m a vessel, a cracked one but God is the Super Glue and He uses those the World thinks are foolish and not important, I fill the bill but I’m Proud He chose me, yes Freddy there is good Pride not just bad. God tells us to be in one mind Spiritually, not to agree to disagree, why do you think we have so much division in the Churches, it doesn’t work, the reason I said privately is because this is your Blog and you have the Authority as you just declared, but The Lord is my Authority and our Teacher.
Christian Love Anne
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Hi savedbygrace I believe you are a genuine caring believer like Freddy but worldly wisdom cannot understand the Truth of the Scriptures 1 Corinthians 2 :9-16 sadly I continually read Blogs were people are rejecting Scripture to hold onto what they have been taught or believe bt their own understanding instead of going to our only Teacher Jesus Christ and asking Him to lead them into all Truth, most will not admit they need God’s wisdom, it takes humility to ask for it with all our heart believing we need it 100% and then faith to believe we have received it . God keeps His promises He does not lie.
A link that may help – http://freedomborn.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/the-gaining-of-wisdom/
Christian Love Anne
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No thank you Anne, I don’t need you to be my teacher. I have studied the Bible in Bible college and I know what the Bible teaches. I’m in the men’s ministry at my church, I have studied many commentaries and attended many seminaries and your view differs from people like my Pastor Chuck Smith founder of Calvary Chapel and all the other pastors as well as John MacArthur, John Piper to name a few. I’m not sure which church you attend, maybe we have a misunderstanding somewhere. I can present you with hundreds of Pastors that would agree with me that no believer is sinless. We will not be perfected until we are glorified with Him. You would have to bring every thought under control, every single thought. You pride yourself on your “higher understanding” of scriptures. You come across as I have to learn from you and that you know more of the truth than I or many others. Pride btw is a sin. I don’t mean to cause strife between us but you commented on many post of mine and tried to add your views. Look we can agree to disagree on some things, but to say that I have to come to you privately to learn from you is taking it a bit too far in my opinion. Blessings and I will pray for you.
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Freddy I have no intention of arguing with you on your Blog but you are in error and are contradicting yourself because of reading the Scriptures out of context. I know if you say you don’t need Salvation because you have not sinned you are calling God a liar but as He tells us we do not continue to sin when we are Born again of His seed, you can’t have it both ways. If you want to understand more as I said to savedbygrace contact me privately if not then God bless you greatly and my prayers are with you.
Christian Love Anne
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Hi Anne,
If my comment have offended you, Please forgive me.
@”savedbygrace if you want me to reply to you in future refer to me by name please it’s Anne, ”
– thanks Anne. will do now
@”I don’t hide behind a Blog name I have no need to.”
– so sorry. I need to. please forgive me If this offends you.
@”Sorry you are not reading the Scriptures you are adding to them they did not have punctuation in the early Greek or grammar and there was no small particles and it was all written in Upper case.”
– ouch.
@”If your interested in learning more about Freedom in Christ Jesus my contact details are on my Blog About, ”
– I am interested, indeed.
– visited you site and i love this post
“We All Need A Friend” – I love the human and dog friendship
“Why Clean Your Monitor Screen ?” – i love this too. In fact im cleaning my monitor now
“About” – I love those dogs. theyre so cute
@if not I suggest you ask God for His wisdom with all your heart and then really believe you have received it instead of trusting in your own understanding or someone else’s.”
– as you are implying, I have no wisdom. but can you tell me exaclty
what are you trying to point to at?
– I have no idea what I am being accused of?
peace
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Yes, I am born again. Yes, I have the mind of Christ. I am a new creation in Christ. Before I was born again I lived a life of sin. I was mostly unaware of them because I was living in the world. Once I was born again, the Holy Spirit showed me what sin is. I know right from wrong and what is pleasing to the Lord and what is not.I see things from God’s Holy perspective and not from a worldly understanding. Every true believer is purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ. He has cleansed us from all unrighteousness and God sees the believer in Christ through His blood. I am justified because I have placed my faith and trust in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Have I put to death my flesh? I am murdering my flesh everyday, that is part of the sanctification process every believer goes through. God deals with every person in a different way. If I do something wrong the Holy Spirit will convict me and I can either rebel or conform. That’s where Rom 12 :1 comes in, the renewing of the mind, not to be conformed to the things of this world. It is not for you or me to judge who is saved and who is not . God knows His own and He deals with them as He desires. We all have to run the race and finish it. He is the author and finisher of my faith. Not me. Yes, I am part of God’s Holy Nation. My position is secured in Christ because of my faith in Him and His finished work on Calvary. I am saved by His grace. Do I stumble and fall from time to time? Yes, but if I confess, He is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I did not want this to turn into an argument, I just wrote a simple article about Grace.
I am not as perfect as you Anne, but I am not what I used to be and God works in my life everyday. I rest in Him and His righteousness and not mine. There are a couple of scriptures that come to mind:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men–extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.
This Pharisee was self-righteous.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1John 1:6-10.
The Apostle John was writing this to the believers not to the unsaved.
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savedbygrace if you want me to reply to you in future refer to me by name please it’s Anne, I don’t hide behind a Blog name I have no need to.
Sorry you are not reading the Scriptures you are adding to them they did not have punctuation in the early Greek or grammar and there was no small particles and it was all written in Upper case. If your interested in learning more about Freedom in Christ Jesus my contact details are on my Blog About, if not I suggest you ask God for His wisdom with all your heart and then really believe you have received it instead of trusting in your own understanding or someone else’s.
Christian Love Anne
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which sin are we talking about?
A. Sin the noun – that makes you a sinner
B. Sin the verb – the result of being a sinner
because when we are a new creation, born of God’s.
the “Sin (verb)” is not imputed to us, but rather has
been imputed to Jesus at the cross.
the “Sin (noun)” is changed to righteousness. We are called righteouss by faith.
We may sin (verb) everyday, conciously or sub conciously. willful or not willful.
but God doe’s not impute sin to us anymore.
if you are worried about being dirty…..
1 John 1:7–9
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
“Cleanses” The tense of the verb – is *present *active *indicative. It is continuously cleansing you, thus you can call yourself “clean” every nano second.
When Jesus cried “It Is Finished” – It is in “Perfect” tense. An Act done in the past that cannot be repeated.
So, we are forgiven ONCE AND FOR ALL. ALL SINS ARE FORGIVEN, PAST PRESENT, FUTURE.
But, when you commit sin you feel dirty. right? thats becuase we have no knowledge, that “the blood of Jesus CLEANSES us from all sin”.
we are always sin concious, where as the moment you sin, you are cleansed. and that sin has been forgiven already long before you commit it.
some might asked…
– so I can kill my boss at work and im still forgiven and cleansed
the answer is YES!
but the question is this.
– Are you a genuine Christian? are you truly a believer?
– I dont remember someone under grace who hates his brother.
– he who hates his brother, does not know love..
therefore it is an imposibility, to be in the light and actually go on murder spree.
peace to you all..
grace and peace
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Freddy are you Born again of God’s seed ?, and are you a new creation in Christ Jesus? have you put to death your flesh ?, has God cleansed you of all unrighteousness ? have you been perfected in Love ? do you still sin or do you choose to sin? I’m not talking about weakness and shortcommings, do you have the mind of Christ? is it True for you that no Temptation is greater then you can bear? have you been purified and made white? are you part of God’s Holy Nation?… when you can answer all these Freddy you will have no need to ask me my position in Christ Jesus, you will know.
Christian Love Anne
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I understand all that. Are you telling me that you have reached a state of sinless perfection? Are you saying that you live everyday without any kind of sin? I don’t mean outwardly. From what I perceive you saying is that you are completely free from any kind of sin i. e missing the mark. Did I get that right?
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The Scripture Freddy that I shared is very clear we do not continue to sin after we have been Born again of God’s seed 1John 3:9 the cannot in Greek means absolutly never, I did not write this God did, He also tells us to put to death our flesh nature that causes us to sin …Have you done this? we will not choose to sin if we have the mind of Christ… did He?
Colossians 3:4-6 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
2 Corinthians 7 1Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Romans 6:6- 7 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died ( this is not talking about death of the body but death of the flesh ) has been freed from sin.
We either believe the Scripture or we reject them to our peril, as I shared and it is clearly shown, Paul was decribing the battle we have with the flesh in Romans 7 but showed us how to overcome it in Christ Jesus in Romans 6& 8 and other Scriptures, we are not wrechared when we are Born again we are a Holy Nation a Royal Pristhood etc Also when read in context Romans 8:1 and the rest of the Chapter, shows that when we are saved our words and actions will show we are.
Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Christian Love Anne
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Thank you Anne, I was not looking at the “big picture” regarding salvation per say. I was pointing to the Grace of God. I could have written much more about Grace, justification, sanctification and eternal life. My goal was just to keep it somewhat short and not turn it into a Bible study or long commentary. One question though, the last two verses 1Jhn 3:9 and 1Cr 2:16. are you saying that we do not sin anymore or that we or you are sinless? In other words, I know that we are a new creation in Christ and we are declared justified before God. We all had to overcome certain temptations or sins, that what sanctification is all about. Yes, Paul wrote about the flesh waring against the Spirit. As long as we have these bodies we have to deal with the flesh. It’s an ongoing battle, the flesh, the world and Satan. Are you stating in your comment that you are sinless and have perfected yourself or did I misunderstood you?
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Amen Darrell. Nice to have you on my blog. Many blessings to you.
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Thanks be to God for His saving grace in Christ Jesus
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Hi Freddy when I want to sum up a Truth in Scripture I look at the big picture not just parts or I may miss out on some important Truth. Salvation is indeed a free gift we can not earn it and our past sins are forgiven when we come to heart repentance and believe in Jesus Christ who not only saves us from our past sins but also set a free from the slavery of sin so we don’t continue to sin, we will show in our lives we are saved by turning away from evil and doing good, as you can see in this verse we also are righteous ….1 John 3:7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. we are to put our evil flesh nature to death by the Spirit, Paul talks about the battle with it in Romans 7 but then shares how in Jesus he overcomes it in Romans 6 & 8, of course
When we are Born again of God’s seed we can longer sin 1 John 3 : 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. We also don’t choose to sin because we have the mind of Christ I Corthians 2:16, Judgment day is gone as far as our past sins are concerned God does not keep a list of wrongs.
Christian Love Anne
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Thank you, Grace and Peace to you.
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the awesome wonders of God’s amazing grace, Jesus.
– grace and peace
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