Good day, Mdm!
Last week, we talked about Law & Grace. The Law which was written on stone is cold.Although it is just, it cannot justified you before God. It is righteous but it does not empower you not to sin. The law, also known as the old covenant, focus is on you — Thou shall not... Thou shall not... Thou shall not...
It is all about your performance, your obedience, your works.
But under the new covenant or Grace, God says, “I will put My laws in their mind... I will be their God... I will be merciful to their unrighteousness... their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” It is no longer you working for God, but God working for you, in you, through you!
When we buy insurance, we want to know what we are buying into, isn't it? What is the coverage, the amount insured, the premium paid, terms & conditions, etc..And when something happen, we would refer back to our insurance to see if it covers the accident and to what extend it covers.
Likewise, as a Christian, we want to know what covenant we have with our God today This is important, if our concept of God is an angry God, then we will always feel fearful especially when we sin.
Let's take a look at the covenant in Hebrews 8 (AMP)
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will remember no more.”[c]
13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
From here, we understand that God find fault with the old covenant. This is because despite the goodness of law (do good get good, do bad get bad), men were unable to cope with the law. Instead of spending more time receiving God's blessing, man spend more time under the curse of the law. That also explain why when we flip to the last page of the old testament, God penned-off the word "curse."
And then, God introduce the new covenant, In this new covenant, God is merciful, God is gracious to our sins & God will not remember our unrighteousness deed.
What happen? Why is there a switch from old to new? Has God gone soft? Has God loosen His justice so that man can cope with His holiness? Why suddenly He become so merciful??
As much as we love this new covenant, has God bend His rules? If He does, He is no longer just. And if He is no longer just, He is no longer God. As a believer, we won't want a God who "happy, happy" turn soft or change His covenant, or else we will never have a sense of "security". We can never trust His words, let alone having faith in Him. Agree?
To really understand what this is all about, we have to go back to the beginning... Adam.
In Genesis, we know that Adam sin against God because he did not listen to God and ate of the tree of knowledge of good & evil. Sin entered the world and death become part of human life.
Today, we are associated with sin not because we sin but because of Adam's sin. No matter how many good works we do, it cannot change our status as a sinner. Just like a dog, no matter how many times the dog "meow", it does not change its status from a dog to a cat.
God hate sin. And because men have sin, none can come before God. In the old testament, sacrifice was the mean to atone (cover) one's sin and made him rigteous before God. In the Day of Atonement (Spiritual spring cleaning), the sinners would go through a sacrifical ritual to be justified (cleansed) before God. Such ritual involved sacrificing animals like lamb, the sinner laid his hand over the innocent animal (spotless, without blemish) and all the sins are transfered to the animal. At the same time, the innocence of the sacrified animal is trasnsferred to the sinner. The animal was then sacrified, blood shed and the sinner walked away cleansed by the blood, making him righteous before God.
If you want to have a more thorough understanding of this, go to Leviticus 16. But, I'll just highlight this verse Leviticus 16:30
30 For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord.
So as you can see, for a sinner to come before God, someone has to be sacrified, blood has to be shed. This is called sin offering. God is just. Once a sacrifice take the place of sinner, the sinner is justified righteous before God. The sin in the sinner are cleansed by the blood of the sacrifice. In other words, God cannot judge the sinner anymore because that judgement was done on the sacrifice.
With that understanding, we know in the new covenant, our sacrifical lamb is Jesus. He shed His blood so that our sins are forgiven. Today, we can stand righteous before God not because of our righteous deed, but it is through His sacrifice, our sins are judged. Today, we walk away sinless because our sins are bored by Jesus at the cross and in exchange we receive His righteousness.
"How can that be possible?" This is the foundation of a Christian. We believe when we were sinners because of Adam's sin and no matter how many good deeds we do, we cannot un-do the fact that we were sinners. "That's so unfair??"
Now that we are a believer, our standing before God is righteous in Christ. Our identity in Christ before God is righteous and no matter how many sinful deeds we do cannot un-do our righteous standing before God. "Are you sure?" "You mean I can go out and sin and still God consider me righteous?"
I believe this is the area most believer are struggling. Now, let put the two "Adam" together and compare...Adam & Jesus
We said that in Adam, we were sinners. No matter how many good deeds we do, we cannot un-do the status as a sinner.
Now, in Christ Jesus, we become righteous before God. And then, we sin. Does that make us unrighteous before God now? If it does, we are saying that Adam is more powerful than Jesus?? Because as a sinner, we cannot un-do our sinner status. But as a Christian, we can un-do our righteousness before God??? What Jesus did on the cross can be un-do and yet what Adam did at the Garden of Eden cannot be un-do. Something is terribly wrong here, isn't it? How can Adam's act be greater than the finished work of Jesus? If that's the case, we don't even need to have new testament in the Bible. God would have sent Jesus to this earth in vain.
The truth is Jesus's finished work redeem us from sin. Today, we do not need to do anything but to believe. "But, how can God forgive us and not be angry with us even when we sin after being saved?"
God cannot and will not punished us when we sin. If He does, He is saying the punishment He did on His Son at the cross is not enough. If He punished us, He is no longer just because He cannot punish sin twice (this is called the Law of double jeopady), once on Jesus and the other on us.
"With this established truth, isn't Grace make people to sin more since God no longer judge our sin as believer?" No, Grace is the antidote to sin. Grace will produce the fruit in us joy, peace, love.... Grace will empower us to overcome sin.
With this, let me stop here and leave you with this passage. This passage is the very foundational verses for us as a Christian. Please take time to slowly chew on it. Once this foundation is established in your heart, it will bring forth the truth, the faith, the right believing and right standing before our God. Only then, we can experience His unmerited favor and be empowered to live a victorious life!
Romans 5:19-21(NKJV)
19 For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam) many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience (Jesus) many will be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:19-21(AMP)
19 For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, [k]heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).
20 But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,
21 So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.
Shalom,
Bro
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