Fellowship With The Word

Question for you. (You can stop and think). Does the grace of God cause you to sin or prevent you from sinning? Many believers have a serious problem because they're struggling with addictions and secret sins. Following the previous discourse, God's grace has been abused many times, leading to licentiousness, simply because of a misunderstanding. To appreciate God's grace, the first thing is to know what state humanity was in before. Paul captures it this way in Ephesians 2:1 NLT: "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins." Now, dead is a strong but very accurate word to explain the state of the man without Christ. The Greek for it is "nekros," and the The Passion Translation properly renders it as "a corpse." "...even though you were once like corpses, dead in your sins and offenses." Ephesians 2:1 TPT. So because of the plague of sin and disobedience, we became corpses. But this was the state in which God chose to express his love towards us. Apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:7-8 NLT: "Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." You can see that God's mercy found us in a hopeless and helpless state. Remember from our previous study that we said the grace of God is God's expression of love to humanity in Christ. The grace of God was not searching for the best of men to save. But the worst of them, of which we all were. So in the genius of God, when he saw the plight of humanity, he thought that the perfect solution to humanity's mess was the introduction of His grace. Let's see how Ephesians 2:4-6 (NLT) says it... "But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (IT IS ONLY BY GOD'S GRACE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus." When Christ brought salvation by grace, what happened was phenomenal. Again, in the genius of God, he abolished and rendered completely useless and idle the previous nature that caused you to sin in the first place. And he did this through his death. Please read this with great attention... "Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power? For we were co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin's power. Obviously, a dead person is incapable of sinning." Romans 6:6-7 (TPT) This is the reason Apostle Paul was shocked that anyone would even think that the grace of God could be the reason why someone would continue in sin. He said, "So what do we do, then? Do we persist in sin so that God's kindness and grace will increase? What a terrible thought! We have died to sin once and for all, as a dead man passes away from this life. So how could we live under sin's rule a moment longer?" Romans 6:1-2 (TPT) The message of grace should tell you that you died to sin when Christ died on the cross, and the fresh new nature of and from God causes you to live holy. If you don't know this, you'll still struggle with sin when it's already been settled in the mind of God. The grace of God is the message of life to dead men. It is sight to the blind eyes. It is light to those in darkness. It is what brings salvation and teaches us to depart from all ungodliness (Titus 2:11-13). It is what builds men and introduces them to the inheritance which is the Holy Spirit. It is what granted you access to all the wealth of God at the expense of Christ. Just one message! Prayer: Father, your grace is priceless. No wonder it is free. I could never earn it, deserve it. No one could. I acknowledge the depth and extravagance of your love in making me a partaker of your divine nature and causing me to escape the corruption in this world through lust. I love you, Lord.

The Message that Builds Men (Pt 2)