God justifies the ungodly

Believers, Grace, in the person of our Saviour Jesus Christ, saves from sin. See Matthew 1:21- "And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The One who works His salvation into you will work it out for you. According to Philippians 2:13 "...it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

When you no longer cover yourselves with your own righteousnesses (your own righteous works geared at pleasing God or being "good") which Isaiah 64:6 says are like "a menstrual rag" and believe/depend fully on His righteousness and His strength, you get to do His will. You get to give because He will make a cheerful giver of you. You get to love because you see how much He loves you! Nothing to do with our efforts at being good; all to do with His Spirit transforming us. And on the last day, you will ask our Lord Jesus Christ when you did all these things because you won't remember; you won't remember because it is your nature to do His will. You won't remember because He is your strength and you have no power of your own. Christ does it all.

Believers, let's not be found among those who will remember casting out demons in Jesus' name, etc and expect to be given the kingdom of God because of their works. Such will be turned away by Jesus because the Lord was neither their righteousness nor their strength. He never knew them (Matt. 7:21-23.) They are under what Paul referred to as "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation." They are operating under the Law where there is none righteous and there is the curse (Galatians 3:10.)

Let's not be found believing that our strength is in some 21 days' fast done to receive power to fight the enemy that Christ has already disarmed and made a public spectacle of for us (Colossians 2:15) or our abstinence from food in order to be closer to God who gives us all things freely with Christ. See our Saviour's words in Matthew 10:8-

"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."

But some want you to believe that receiving and giving in Christ is not "freely." These same people condemn others from the pulpit, put fear in your heart and make you feel that YOU (not Christ in you) have to fight your battles by doing certain things like bringing your photos and sand from your office for "deliverance" in order to be free from judgment and to make it to heaven; but look at the story of the salvation of all who came to Jesus in the gospels- none of them had to go and fast first or do anything at all before going to Him for help, even the woman caught in adultery who deserved to die according to the law was given the gift of no condemnation and saved from sin and judgment!

Jesus Christ "the same yesterday, today and forever" did not come to condemn the world; He came to save and without ANY terms and conditions like fasting before you can receive from Him. See His utterly gracious attitude towards the despised sinners and tax collectors in gospels. He healed, delivered and saved from death all who came to Him. Only believe. The battle is the Lord's.

By all means, fast, but not to accomplish a work that Christ pronounced "Finished" when He hung on the cross for you and I and definitely not to get God to bless you. See Romans 8:32- "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?"

Our Abba Father gives us ALL things FREELY with Christ and not because we fasted. Imagine a child skipping breakfast to get his mom who would do anything for him to buy him something that he really wants. If he needs to skip meals for whatever reason, his mother will arrange it. With Christ, we don't GIVE to GET; we GET to GIVE.

By Grace, watch what you are hearing in your local church. Is Christ at the centre? Is the message about what you must do by your own power or what Christ has done? Is Christ rightly portrayed as the One who FREELY heals and saves all who come to Him from sins, condemnation and judgment (no questions asked as He did in the gospels) or is God portrayed as a hard Taskmaster Who will tell you to first save yourself from your sins and then go and fast or else He will let the devil have a go at you, a believer in Christ?

The love of God and sacrifice of Christ to make us righteous is seldom revealed in many sermons - but this is our salvation and the crux of the gospel! Rather, the power of the devil to catch you because of sin is magnified!

Believers, let's not remain under the only weapon that the enemy can use against us - the Law! You can never do enough! You will still fall short of God's glory if you do as these people say. There will always be something for you to keep doing or bringing - your son's picture today, sand from your office tomorrow, relocating from your apartment because it is haunted, endless deliverance services when all you need to do to be saved once and for all is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Free indeed. He will help you!

Our works can never justify us in God's sight (Romans 3:20.) He gave up His Son to make us righteous. In Christ, we get to start from the finish line. We don't work our way up to perfection. We are complete in Him. His Spirit transforms us to the image of His glory, from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18.)

Believer, all have sinned. Stand before God as one who has even just a tiny bit of righteousness from obeying the law and He will be to you the Righteous Judge that "will by no means clear the guilty," and the wages of sin is death.

But stand before Him as a sinner through and through, without an iota of righteousness of your own and looking to Him for Salvation; He will be your Justifier. See Romans 4:5-

"But to the one who does not work [that is, the one who does not try to earn his salvation by doing good], but believes and completely trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God)."

God the Righteous justifies the ungodly who believe and completely trust in Him. Let's not follow after the example of Eve who thought she could be godly (be like God) by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (a picture of the law.) Just like the tree, the letter kills. The good that one does under law kills just as fast as the bad. Let us eat freely from the Tree of Life and live forever. How do we do this? Remember Genesis 3:22-

"And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Notice the words "eat" and "live forever"? Now see what Christ says in John 6:51-58:

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world...54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day...58...He who eats this bread will live forever.”

His body broken to make us whole. His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus Christ "The Lord our Righteousness" is the Tree of Life. With Jesus Christ the Tree of Life as our righteousness and strength, we get to live forever.