Our performance of the law to get right with God gets us nowhere

Believers, let's focus on our Saviour Jesus and not our performance. Performing in order "get right with God" or earn His blessings is what puts believers out of fellowship with Christ - 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."

No one is justified (made righteous) in God's sight by obeying the law. Galatians 3:11: "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident,..."

In order to be righteous by keeping the law, one has to keep ALL of them- and no one can! Failing in one area makes one guilty of the whole law (James 2:10) plus Galatians 3:10 says "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse;..."

Since law and Grace don't mix, it's either

1. One receives God's gift of righteousness in Christ and be righteous 100% no matter what they do or don't do and get to live right through Christ or

2. Keep the law/do good things to get right with God/receive from Him and be counted among the wicked and also be subject to the curses of Deuteronomy. 28

You see, like the Pharisees that wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery, there will always be something that keeps you from casting the first stone if you depend on your good works to get right with God. And that one thing is all it takes to be subject to the curses of Deuteronomy 28.

Even the good that we do to get right with God are filthy rags according to Isaiah. Only God's gift of righteousness in Christ will do. It is a gift. It has nothing to do with what we do or do not do. We did the crime. Jesus did the time! God is a just God and will not demand payment or punish us for our sins a second time.

But God's grace is not a license to sin. It is the key to living a holy life. As the righteousness of God in Christ, there is no condemnation for us. It is this Christ-given gift of "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "Go and sin no more."

This is where many pastors and leaders miss it. They're looking for the logic in it. They feel they have to give people rules and regulations in order to keep them in check and stop them from sinning, even preaching that it is sin that prevents believers from being blessed by God.

But human logic can't deal the gospel! See 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."

Nobody was born-again when Jesus walked the earth yet the tax collectors, adulterers, sinners and outcasts were the ones that could receive from Him. The "holy" Pharisees could not because they relied on their performance to get from God. Today, believers who rely on their obedience or performance to get right with God or receive from Him fall from grace and cannot benefit from Christ's sacrifice - Galatians 5:4

As believers in Christ, we are not under law but under Grace. It is the grace of God that teaches us to live right (Titus 2), not the law, which kills. We are like Isaac. We don't need Hagar (the law) to help raise us. Sarah (Grace) is more than enough.

Believers, let's focus on Jesus and not our abilities. Without Him, we can do nothing. When our eyes are on Him, we are transformed by His Spirit that dwells in us, and become righteous through no effort of ours, as it is written in 1 Cor 3:18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

When you look at the reflection of yourself in the mirror of your life, see not your flaws (no one has it all together!) but see by faith the perfection that Christ has made you to be, and be transformed by the Spirit. "As He is, so are we in this world."

Confess your righteousness in Christ with your mouth and see His salvation in those parts of your life that make you feel ashamed and worried. Say "I am the righteousness of Christ Jesus" out loud, even in the midst of those particular sins. Remember, "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:10.

Salvation here includes deliverance from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin!

His righteousness is a gift. And His gift of no condemnation makes us go and sin no more.

Believe Right and you will Live Right!