The grace of God

The grace of God is as vast as God himself and something that I`ll never be able to comprehend fully. Grace has been extended to us through Jesus and is more powerful than anything else that we can experience as it expresses the very essence of God's love toward us. I pray that everyone will come to freedom by knowing what grace has done for them and who they are in Jesus.
Paul the apostle says that in Jesus we are free from condemnation being that we are no longer subject to the demands of the law or effects of sin. Being free is a powerful reality that the new covenant Christian needs to fully experience as it has by the grace of God been secured for them. I will deal longer on the Christian's relationship to the law as I think this is a confusing area in most Christians lives and also believe that most Christians understand the significance of Jesus dying in our place. Taking the sinful state of mankind on God has forgiven us for every sin we have or will ever commit and says he has nailed the list of charges against us to the cross of Jesus that through his blood they are taken away.
Colossians 2:13 NKJ
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses

Colossians 2:14 NKJ

having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross

So we are free from sin and any judgement coming by Gods grace sending Jesus to die in our place that we would be called the righteousness of God in Him. We had nothing to do with this as at the time we were enemies of God. Therefore salvation is entirely of God not of human merit.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJ
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him


So totally forgiven are we that the bible says we are justified so we can consider ourselves as if we had never sinned ever.
Romans 5:1 NKJ
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have* peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ


Not only that but we are also considered to be sanctified which means set apart or holy.
Hebrews 10:10 NKJ
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.


Forgiven, free, righteous, justified and holy, do you get the picture now, you are nothing like you once were so why is it you still tend to act like it. I would like to suggest that it is simply that we don`t know who we are in Jesus and consequently have not had our minds renewed which is the basis for real transformation.
Romans 12:2 NKJ
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Not knowing our identity is the fundamental factor that keeps us from experiencing the freedom that Jesus wants us to enjoy and so I want you to know that we are not only righteous but according to the bible we are no longer under the law code either.
The whole purpose for the law being given was to magnify our sin. You see until there was a law telling me that something was wrong to do I was ignorant of my sinfulness. But once the law came to my attention now my sinfulness was apparent. Not only that but now that it was forbidden it somehow became very interesting to me and even desirable.
Rom 7:7,8 NKJ
I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.


So although sin has been dealt with through the cross of Jesus, unless we understand we are no longer under the law because we have died to it we will continue living as before, still trying to measure up to an old covenant standard. Anyone who try's to keep the law to please God after becoming a Christian is saying that Jesus died in vain.

Galatians 2:21 NKJ

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

Galatians 2:16 NKJknowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified


This idea that we have died to the law is not entirely clear to most of us in that when we become Christians we don`t drop dead obviously so what dies. The Christian perspective and understanding of a person is that he is essentially a spirit that has a soul and lives in a body. The soul breaks down into three further components which are the mind, will and emotions. Since the soul and body stay the same at conversion the belief is that at conversion its our spirit that dies and gets replaced by a newly created spirit which is joined with Gods Spirit.
Ezekiel 11:19 NKJ
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them..
1 Corinthians 6:17 NKJ
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.


For a new Christian to hope to keep the law is ridiculous as this is the very reason God had to send Jesus as our sacrifice for sin. Only Jesus could keep the law perfectly which qualified him to be our savior and when we accepted Him as our savior God takes our life and puts it in Jesus on the cross putting it to death. At this point we have died to the laws jurisdiction over us and then God includes us in the resurrection of Jesus giving us new life completely free from the law. Our spirit has been newly created and is fully righteous. Our ties to sin and the law have been severed thru death and we are alive to God.
Romans 7:6 NKJ
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.


The reason we can hope to live separate from the laws guidance and not go off the rails spiritually is that we trade one tutor, we were never going to please, the law, for another one who is already pleased with us through Jesus. The Holy Spirit becomes our new tutor and convinces us of his path of righteousness for us from within.
John 14:26 NKJ
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you

summation

So If we are free from sin and no longer under the law then we are no longer under any condemnation either as these two elements were making us guilty.

I don`t know about you but I`v felt guilty in the past based on my inability to perfectly keep the law after I was saved. I was taught that keeping the law was a requirement that proved my love for God. The bible however teaches that Jesus who lived a perfect life thereby fulfilling all the requirements of the law offered his life in our place as a sacrifice for all the sins of mankind. Because God loved us so much He accepted that sacrifice, and although the bible states that we deserved to die for our sins He declared us not guilty of sin and pardoned us, forgiving us completely. This act of God toward us is called grace as we did nothing to deserve it. Because of God's grace, we are now able to live free from any penalty. To experience this we only have to believe it to be true and accept this free gift from God. God's grace is bigger than all our sins and it is only because of God's grace that we can respond to God at all. The sheer magnitude of his love for us in removing everything out of the way that made us feel condemned and fearful before Him is what softens our hearts and allows us to respond. Now that I have responded to God He makes it clear that he is my friend and since Jesus has fulfilled the law's demands completely satisfying God's just demands it is no longer necessary for me to. My job is to simply believe I am forgiven and let Jesus live his life in and through me. As Jesus does this my experience is going to be that I will be keeping the law not by trying to meet its demands but by surrendering my will to His daily. The Life of Jesus satisfies God and produces Love, joy, peace , patience, kindness, goodness,gentleness, faithfulness and self control in us. We are subject however to Satan's attempts to derail us spiritually and our old sin patterns or self sufficiency better known as the flesh are present so we must look to Jesus to be our life now as He is our only hope for a victorious experience. I no longer experience any condemnation as long as I am trusting in Jesus for the victory and not my own self efforts.

Romans 8:1 NKJ
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,* who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:8,9 NKJ
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

John 6:29 NKJ

Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."