GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
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.
It was my dear friend and mentor Peter Lord who spoke of how some people spend their lives trying to make the perfect apple pie for God, only to discover that God doesn't even like apple pie. Of course maybe if Jesus had had apple pie on earth he would have liked it - but you get my point: it's about trying to do one thing really well, supposedly for God, without ever making sure it's what God wants.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day didn't catch the absurdity. They fussed about the disciples eating from the grain field on the Sabbath. Jesus reminded them; "And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless." Matthew 12:7
The mentality is still around. Many assume what sacrifice God wants, hoping that some personal deprivation will gain his favor. Too many have sacrificed their involvement in the marketplace where their heart and skills lie, to pursue vocational Christian ministry. They burn out or fall out when they discover that God never asked them to do it.
It is epidemic in every denomination of Christendom: we forget to ask God if He likes apple pie.
What does satisfy God's appetite? He loves mercy. It is His very nature. He loves to give us his unmerited love. Jesus made it very clear that He didn't come to call the righteous, but the sinner to Himself. (Matt. 9:13) The “righteous” (those deceived into thinking they have no need of mercy) don't want mercy. To the needy, though, it is a balm that heals the sin-sick soul. Nothing satisfies like mercy! Nothing transforms us like mercy. Those who are forgiven much are much more forgiving. Those conscious of being loved much are very loving.
Failure to grasp this eternal truth is at the root of all kinds of spiritual bondage. Some may still be functioning but are filled with angst about their imperfection. Others are completely dysfunctional because of misguided traffic in their thoughts. Either way the problem can often be traced to mistaken views of sacrifice. Trying to give God something He doesn't ask for takes the focus off of trusting Him as our Father who has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, our human representative.
Jesus' obedience, and the accompanying blessings in trusting His Father, have been transferred to us. He stood in our place and made a sacrifice we could not make. It is ridiculous for us to try to add to it or trust our own meager efforts to please God. He has another way, through Christ.
Millions could walk out of spiritual, emotional, and relational prisons today simply by accepting Jesus' sacrifice as fully as the Father does. He delights in mercy. He delights to find an acknowledged sinner upon whom He can lavish his mercy. If you know you are needy and incapable of doing anything to gain God's favor, then you qualify for the big prize, what God wants most to give: mercy.
There’s a story that John tells in chapter 6 of his gospel about Jesus feeding thousands of people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. After everyone ate, there were 12 baskets of food collected. Take a moment to imagine that, enough food to fit on a large plate fed thousands of people and then turned into 12 baskets. That’s our God! His idea of meeting your need is exceedingly, abundantly above what you can even imagine!
The next day, many from that crowd found him and asked for more food. He begins a dialogue where he tries to turn their thinking from carnal to spiritual. He uses their hunger for bread to present the idea that he can give them something that will give them life forever instead of for a day. When these Jews ask him for this bread he makes a confusing statement.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51
Say what, Jesus?
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. John 6:53-57
You’d think he’d explain the spiritual implications of this radical concept but he didn’t, he left that up to the Holy Spirit to bring revelation to those whose hearts were open to receiving him.
Read this entry from the Expositor’s Greek Testament.
He (Jesus) becomes as truly assimilated to the life of the individual as the nourishing elements in food enter into the substance of the body. The believer abides in Christ as finding his life in Him (Galatians 2:20); and Christ abides in the believer, continually imparting to him what constitutes spiritual life. For in Christ man reaches the source of all life in the Father (John 6:57),The living Father has sent Christ forth as the bearer of life. He lives, not equivalent to, through or by means of the Father, but “because of,” or “by reason of the Father”. The Father is the cause of my life; I live because the Father lives. The Father is the absolute source of life; the Son is the bearer of that life to the world. Every one that eateth Christ will by that connection participate in the life of God.
We understand that the body and blood or life of Christ are fed to us in our inner man, to our hearts from his spirit that dwells in believers. This spiritual life in us is not just a theological doctrine, it’s an actual force or presence that nourishes our emotions, our minds, our bodies and teaches us to think and see the world through God’s eyes. When we allow his spirit to be assimilated into every aspect of our being it acts just like physical food for the body, it brings life. As we learn to partake of the life of God flowing in us we can experience the same zoe (quality of life) that is in the Father.
Jesus says he lives because the Father lives. He understood that he was in the Father and the Father was in him. The same is true for us. Just like a branch of a tree receives the same nutrients that the roots of that tree draw from the soil, so do we draw life from God because we are in an eternal union with him in Christ.
Discussion questions:
Enjoy this free full length message on this topic:
Message Titles:
These are some of the most powerful and concise messages I have given on the subject of Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. I go into much detail about the old testament day of atonement sacrifice and how it points to Jesus.
To fully understand the depth of which Christ cleansed us in his sacrifice we must look at the type and shadow detailed under the Levitical priesthood. These messages will give you razor sharp understanding of the cross and overwhelm your heart with compassion for all that Jesus accomplished on our behalf on the cross, in the grave and in his ascension.
These are my messages from the “Three Days that Changed the World” conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with Dr. Jim Richards.
The post The body and blood (life) of Christ is real food for us appeared first on Forward Ministries.