GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
JESUS IS ENOUGH TO BE FORGIVEN Colossians 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. FOR SANCTIFICATION AND REDEMPTION 1 Corinthians 1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
The post Jesus is enough for forgiveness, acceptance, redemption, holiness, justification, sanctification and righteousness appeared first on Forward Ministries.
Guilt is powerful, it will chart your course for you. It will cause you to repeat destructive patterns and make excuses for allowing sin in your life. If you have guilt or shame, that area of life is defining you. The way out is to live from a new identity that is not defined by the past. Have you ever been vexed with something? Meaning something has a strong pull within you even though you don’t
The post Guilt is Powerful. Discover the superior power of a clear conscience. appeared first on Forward Ministries.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes Romans 1:16a
Information in and of itself is not effective. You might learn something from gaining information but unless it touches your heart or you apply it to your life, it’s just information.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ was prophesied by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They all shared the same points about a coming new covenant and God’s messiah.
1. I will sprinkle you clean with fresh water
2. I will give you a new heart
3. I will put my spirit within you
4. I will no longer hold your sin/trespasses against you OR I will remember your sins no more
Through faith in the effectual power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, any person is washed clean from what separates them from God, forgiven, made into a new creature and engrafted into God himself in Christ.
Knowing that intellectually won’t help you much when you need to be free from guilt. Being able to quote the right scripture won’t liberate your soul from sin. But personalizing the cross and experiencing the exchange that too place on the cross in Jesus is power to your soul and empowering to your heart.
Learn to influence your heart with the truth. Learn to look at Jesus and what he did and assimilate that exchange into your heart, mind and soul for freedom from your past.
Try this exercise:
Say out loud, “I am righteous.”
Then notice how you feel.
Say again out loud, “I am righteous.”
Pay attention to what you think after saying that.
Say out loud, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.“
Do you hear a conflicting system of theology combating that statement? Do you have qualifying thoughts afterward? Like, “but I still sin.” If you think your righteousness depends at all on your behavior or ability to stay out of sin, then you are self-righteous. This doesn’t mean sin is OK, it just means Jesus alone is the reason I’m righteous.
You can walk yourself through many new creation identity truth’s just like this to see what you really believe. If your thoughts and feelings don’t agree with the truth statement you make, take some time to persuade your heart of truth just like I show you in the video on this page. The truth you experience in your heart will set you free!
For an additional meditative exercise to persuade your heart of the truth, go through Isaiah 53 and personalize every word…see yourself in the exchange and feel the freedom from guilt, shame and sin as you personalize the work of Christ.
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
The post We Are Changed by the Power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ appeared first on Forward Ministries.
The resurrection of Jesus multi-faceted but there are two main points I want to focus on in this article. The atonement aspect of his sacrifice and God’s testimony in Jesus of his will for us.
The obvious take away that we must personalize about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is the exchange of our sin for his righteousness, the trading of our sickness and disease for his healing, our shame for his acceptance and our death for his life.
But Jesus is also God’s testimony to mankind of what he wants for us. God did in Jesus what he wants for all of humanity. He set him free from death, he gave him eternal life after the resurrection, he gave him a place next to his own seat of authority in his eternal kingdom…and the list goes on. These are all things God wants for you.
God did not give us the example of Jesus for us to live up to, he gave us him as an example of what he wants to do in our lives. God knows we can’t be good enough, holy enough, righteous enough, heal ourselves, provide eternal life for ourselves…so he gave us those things in Jesus. The fact that God put all of humanity’s sin on Jesus and Jesus died with that in himself then God set him free from death because Jesus remained faithful to God and his promises is the evidence that God wants those things for us.
Take some time to look at the resurrection and all that Jesus endured as a promise to you of what God wants for you.
And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Acts 4:33
The post Death Can’t Hold You Down appeared first on Forward Ministries.
Why did Jesus really die? Was it to defeat sin? Was it to appease 
the wrath of an angry God? Was it so that God wouldn’t have to punish us because He punished Jesus? Was it to ransom us from the devil? Is God a child abuser? All these questions are answered within various theories as to why Jesus died. In this book, Jeremy looks at the four most popular theories: penal substitutionary theory, the moral influence theory, the ransom theory, and the Christus Victor theory. Utilizing the Christus Victor theory, he shows us how the death of God was a non-violent act from the actions of God, although it was certainly very violent from the actions of men.
Jeremy gives us a good solid understanding of the core teaching of each of them, contrasting the pros and cons of each one. His book clearly lays out a scenario in which the crucifixion of Jesus was not God pouring out His wrath on Jesus, nor God inflicting great punishment upon His beloved Son so that He wouldn’t have to inflict punishment upon humanity. His view is that God is a non-violent Father as expressed through the life of Jesus. It’s upon this non-violent view that Jeremy spends most of his time.
Don’t read this book if you are not willing to at least consider what he is saying. As a pastor, I have found that far too many Christians are close minded when it comes to looking at something that may go against what they have been taught all their lives. Most American Christians have been taught the Penal Substitutionary Theory and may have a hard time pulling away from that. As you read this book, keep an open mind and think about what Jeremy is saying, especially if you hold to any view other than the Christus Victor view.
Jeremy even explains his concept of why there is so much violence in the Old Testament. It is this subject here that I would love to sit down with him and have a conversation as I liked what he said, but I am not sure that I could totally put my views and thoughts in that same basket just yet. The violence of the Old Testament is still a concept that I am grappling with.
Overall, this is a great book. If you are looking to study the atonement and its differing views, then I would highly recommend this book. Jeremy is a great teacher and communicator. He has definitely done his research and is well versed in what he believes and why he believes it. He is definitely someone that I recommend that you follow. Through his books, blogs, and podcasts, I have been deeply challenged in my thinking, which, to me, is always a good thing!
You can find out more about Jeremy at his website: www.redeeminggod.com. You can purchase his book there or on Amazon.
Would you like to get a free 30 day devotional on Going Deeper in Grace? Sign up for our email list and it’s yours!