As a result of the holidays, it has been two weeks since my last post. Let me take a moment to review where we are in this series on Grace and Faith.
Grace and Faith
God’s grace is all about what He has given us as a free gift if only we would by faith receive it. The key is to recognize that faith does not create the hope of a good outcome. Grace creates the outcome and faith brings it into reality. We release our faith in what God, through Jesus Christ, has made available to us.
Grace means that we receive that which we don’t deserve, and at the same time give to the Lord that which we do deserve. We receive His righteousness or right standing with God the Father and give to Jesus the punishment we deserve. The scripture tells us that none of us are righteous in our own merit or behavior, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”! (Romans 3:23)
Exchange
This is where the idea of exchange takes place. By our faith in Jesus, we receive all the blessings and pass on to Jesus all of our sins and the consequences of our sin. Now what is important to understand is that we are talking about spiritual things, not necessarily natural things. The spiritual realm is much more important than the physical because the spiritual is eternal, the physical is temporal or temporary (2 Cor 4:18).
The Spiritual Kingdom
As Christians, we live in the Kingdom of God while still here on earth. Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in John, 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Then in John 3:5, “Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
His Kingdom is in us.
In Luke 17:20 Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Jesus took our sins and gave us His forgiveness
As we mentioned in the last post the first exchange of grace that we receive by faith, was that; Jesus took our sin and gave us forgiveness. The Apostle Paul states the following fact in 2 Cor 5:20-21, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
- Sin vs. sin? – the symptom of sin vs. the root cause of sin! Instead of covering over sin as in the Old Covenant, Jesus took our sins and replaced our sin nature with the Holy Spirit who is righteous!
An Exchange; Life for Death!
Today we will look at the second example of the gift of grace that we receive by faith and that is, Jesus took our death that we might have His life; “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom 5:10; see also Heb 2:9).
You see because we have been forgiven, we are reconciled with God. God’s intent is that we live forever with Him. That was His intention at the beginning with Adam and Eve. Remember Genesis 2:16 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” What did God mean when He said, “you shall surely die”?
We are Spiritual Beings
When God created mankind, He created them as triune beings- spirit, soul and body (Genesis 2:7, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 4:12). In the Garden of Eden before sin, mankind was to live in fellowship with God for eternity, but when Adam and Eve sinned death crept in. Normally when we think of death we think of physical death, separation from the body, but Adam and Eve continued to live until they were 930 years old, (Genesis 5:5). So, what did God mean “you shall surely die? I believe God was speaking of spiritual death or separation from God! After all, doesn’t sin separate us from God? We learn that from Adam and Eve’s behavior after they recognized their disobedience, they separated or hid from God.
When we say that Jesus took our death and gave us life, we really mean that, spiritually, we are restored or reconciled with God and will live eternally with Him in heaven.
Now, why does Jesus make this gift of grace available to us? It is because we agree with Him when He said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”. There is no other way. Others may claim they know the way, but you have decided and accept by faith that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
Because of our faith in Jesus and what He did for us, we can release the “fear of death” because it has been swallowed up by life in Christ which is eternal.
The Amplified Bible put it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:
- “53 For this perishable [part of us] must put on the imperishable [nature], and this mortal [part of us, this nature that is capable of dying] must put on immortality (freedom from death).
- 54 And when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this that was capable of dying puts on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the Scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly vanquished forever) in and unto victory.
- 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?
- 56 Now sin is the sting of death, and sin exercises its power [upon the soul] through [the abuse of] the Law57 But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory [making us conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Conclusion:
Our trust is in one who is alive, for Jesus rose again! Because He lives, we can be confident that we will live too.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.
