Even now, Christ does not condemn you for your sins (John 3:17)

Believers in Christ, are you struggling with sin, addiction, bad habits, sickness and oppression? Our Saviour Jesus came to save you from those very things and will never use them as an excuse for not helping or blessing you. He will never ask you to go and clean yourself up before He washes you clean. How could He when the reason for His coming was to save you from those very sins and addictions? He came to save, not to condemn (John 3:17).

Would you refuse to pay your kids' school fees because they performed poorly in their exams due to playing video games when they should have been studying? No! You'd coach them and take out the things that cause them to underperform without punishing them with sickness, constant koboko or a wicked lesson teacher! How much more our Father in heaven!

The worst thing you can do to yourself after you mess things up is promise our Heavenly Father that you will "not do it again." This is boasting in your own strength and ability to save yourself. If you can stop sinning all by yourself, then you don't need Jesus as your righteousness. Peter loved our Lord so much. But he depended on his own love and ability to not deny Jesus. He ended up denying Jesus three times. Thank the Lord for Peter's restoration. He will do the same for you! That's His way! Trying to keep the law in order to get right with God only leads to more sin (Romans 7:5). The letter kills!

In the days of the old testament, the tablets of stone on which the law was written was placed inside the ark of the covenant and covered by the mercy seat. In order for you to reach the law, you need to move the mercy seat out of the way. Once a year, the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial animal on the mercy seat to make propitiation for the sins of Israel. The set up was a shadow and type of which our Lord Jesus is the substance. Believers, Jesus is the real Mercy Seat - the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2)! His blood was shed for us as a once for all atonement for sin, not like the shadow where one sacrifice was not enough.

Trying to keep the law as a means of getting right with God (which no one can do according to Romans 3:20) is like reaching for the tablets of stone in the ark of the covenant. You need to get the mercy seat (our Lord Jesus) out of of the way first! No wonder Paul said in Galatians 5:4 "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

This has direct repercussions as seen in 1 Samuel 6:19 which tells us what happened when the people of Beth Shemesh looked inside the ark of the covenant:

"Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter."

Believers, the letter (law) kills but the Spirit gives life. In order to look inside the ark of the Lord to see the law and the other items of man's rebellion against God (Aaron's rod and the manna), the mercy seat has to be moved out of the way. Just looking in was what killed 50,070 Beth Shemesh men in one fell swoop! They lifted the mercy seat and the law cried out against them because none can be made righteous by law-keeping! No wonder Paul said in Galatians 5:4 -"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

You can't say "I will do my best and Jesus will see that I have tried and do the rest." To get to the two tablets of stone (the law) in the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat (Christ) needs to be removed, even if it is just one law that you keep.

Believers, our righteousness is a gift from God, purchased with the blood of Jesus. Nothing we do or don't do can make us right with God. Jesus already made us 100% righteous by taking our place on the cross! It is a finished work. His righteousness is a gift to us- Romans 5:17. By the same token, nothing we do or don't do can make us lose or right standing with God because we did not earn it to begin with. Christ paid for it with His blood.

Romans 3:20 says "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." But many of us still think along the lines of "do good, get good; do bad, get bad." This isn't a life of rest, thinking that something bad will happen to you because of what you did or didn't do. This is the Law. We are of faith. And the law is not of faith. Jesus is Grace and Truth - the antithesis of the law. We are not under law but under grace where we get the good we don't deserve and escape punishment for our sins! Jesus was punished for our sins! Why do we think we have to bear the punishment a second time? Why do we think that we need to neglect our bodies or do things before our Heavenly Father can bless us when Romans 8:32 says He gives us all things FREELY with Christ?

The gospel isn't another bondage to fear (law). It is a place where we call God "Daddy." He is our Daddy and His greatest desire is for us to prosper and be in health, even as our souls prosper.

But His grace is not a license to continue in sin. It is the key to right living! Because the Holy Spirit transforms us (2 Corinthians 3:18), we find that the law is fulfilled in us, but not by us. We do right by accident! Nothing to do with our efforts, all to do with our Saviour Jesus. This is illogical by human reasoning and rightly so. Our Christian life is a mystery and not man's common sense! The bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:21 "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."

Pastors and leaders, are people saying the things that were said about apostle Paul of you? Are they wrongly accusing you of preaching that it is okay to sin because of the grace that we have through Christ? Are you preaching the gospel that Paul did in Acts 13:38-39 -

38“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. 39 Everyone who believes in Him is made right in God’s sight—something the law of Moses could never do."

Are you preaching that all it takes to get right with our God is to believe in Jesus? Rejoice if this is you! This is why Paul uttered the famous words "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..." Back then, as it is today, preaching God's grace was something that religious people who preached that you had to keep the law before God can bless or deliver you frowned upon!

Here is a warning from the word of God for such preachers of the law, those who say " Yes, we are saved by grace but we still have to obey the Ten Commamdments":

40 Be careful! Don’t let the prophets’ words apply to you. For they said,

41 ‘Look, you mockers,

be amazed and die!

For I am doing something in your own day,

something you wouldn’t believe

even if someone told you about it.’”

Believers, let's beware of feeding on the different gospel that Paul spoke of in Galatians 1. In Christ, our Heavenly Father will never ask you to do certain things, "play your part" or be a certain way before He saves and blesses you. Romans 8:32 clearly states that "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" FREELY! He gives us all things freely and not because we "sowed a seed." Only when you know that you receive freely can you give freely.

All you need to do to be saved is to believe on our Lord Jesus Christ and even our believing is by His grace, according to John 6:44 - "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;..." This salvation covers being saved from hell to heaven, deliverance from molestations by the enemy and deliverance from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin.

YOU WILL NOT CONTINUE IN SIN. THE HOLY SPIRIT TRANSFORMS YOU, NOT MORE RULES AND REGULATIONS.

In summary, when you work, Christ rests. When you rest, Christ works. Grace (Sarah) does not need the law (Hagar) to bring up its children. Grace is enough!

Our Heavenly Father loves us so much. Believe Right and you will Live Right!