Grace 101, week 1, the gospel by Tricia Gunn

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

Week 1, The Gospel Introduction and Romans 3:19-24 Purpose of Grace 101: to Unveil Jesus Grace 101 is a study covering key passages in Romans, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Hebrews. The goal of Grace 101 is to discover verse by verse what Jesus Christ has done for us and who we are in Him. It’s a discovery of the love that God has for us and the transforming power of that love. He created us so He could enjoy us and love us. And when we experience His love for us, we love Him back as a response, not a duty. The cross - the simplicity of the Gospel - is the power for our salvation, our peace, our healing, our protection, and a blessed life - free to enjoy God and people. When we behold Jesus in all of His goodness and His love, we experience true joy, and we find out who we really are. When you find Jesus, you find yourself because your life is hidden in Him. When we see Jesus, we are transformed into His image with from glory to glory, and that glory transforms the world around us. Grace 101 is about reigning in life victoriously and effortlessly and living out of the overflow of His grace!

The Veil 2 Corinthians 4:3 - But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.. Paul said the “Gospel is veiled” to those who are perishing. We all know people who are perishing - not just unbelievers. Believer or unbeliever, many are perishing from destructive lifestyles, depression, disease, and many other issues of life. Unbelievers are perishing because they simply do not know Jesus or have the light of life. If there is a perishing person, the Gospel is being veiled somehow. The next verse tells us WHO has put the veil there: 2 Corinthians 4:4 - ...whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Satan is the one who blinds the minds of the unbelieving! Why is the devil blinding their minds? Because he’s so afraid that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ will shine on people! If the Gospel was unattractive, the devil wouldn’t be working so hard to blind people’s eyes to it. What we have is so attractive: Jesus is so attractive! If the true Jesus is preached, people will just run to Him and enjoy Him forever! Jesus is the very image of the Father. The devil wants you to think that our Father is a mean judge who is angry with you. God is not angry with you and never will be!! Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). As many as touched Him were made completely whole (Mark 6:56). ALL! Not just those who repented. Not just those who confessed their sins. Not just those who were at peace with all men. Not just those whose marriages were perfect. Not just those who ate organic food and exercised and went to their annual check up. Not just those who obeyed their parents. Not Just those who gave the temple tax. Not just those who behaved themselves.

Grace 101: Introduction and Romans 3:19-24

That’s the Father’s heart! The compassion and love that Jesus demonstrated when He took children in His arms, protected the woman caught in adultery, defended the woman with the alabaster box, healed the man with the withered hand, delivered the demoniac, and calmed the storm is the same compassion and love that the Father has for you today!! 2 Corinthians 3:14-17 - Until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read [the law], a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. When we turn to Jesus, the veil of condemnation is removed. We are His bride, and He lifts the veil and says to us: Song of Solomon 4:7 - “You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you.” Pray, “Lord, open my eyes to see You throughout the scriptures. Speak to me through Your word!”

The Gospel Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. The Apostle Paul said he wasn’t ashamed. Obviously he had been accused of being shameful for what he believed. It’s so simple: our efforts have no power to save us, and our efforts have no power to keep us saved. That certainly was a scandalous idea to embrace in the religious system of his day. What Paul was saying is that the POWER of God, “dunamis” in the Greek from which we get the word dynamite, is in the Good News. What is the Good News? The Good News is NOT that you hear about Jesus, you believe in Jesus, you love Jesus, you serve Jesus, and you die for Jesus. That’s not the Gospel. It’s not even close to the Gospel. The Gospel is that Jesus knew YOU, Jesus loved YOU, Jesus came as YOU, Jesus died as YOU, Jesus rose as YOU so you can be as He is in perfect union with God. That’s the Gospel. Jesus served you. He came down, stooped down, and made you one with Him. The Gospel which says that the blood of Jesus saves us, paid our debt, made us righteous before God is the power for our salvation. Believing by faith that you receive His righteousness is what saves you. And “salvation” is the Greek word “soteria” from the verb “sozo” which encompasses much more than salvation from hell. The Gospel is also the power of God for your healing, for your wholeness, for your mental soundness, for your prosperity, and for your deliverance from every demonic force. Jesus is our all in all. His blood has paid the debt for our sins and put us in a position the receive all of heaven’s goodness. We are co-heirs with Jesus! (Romans 8:17) If believing the gospel is the power of God to our complete wholeness, we must concede that if there is some area of our lives that is lacking, it may be because we don’t believe it’s that good - which means we don’t believe HE’s that good. Grace tells us that when we fall flat on our face in our failures and sins, Jesus’ perfect performance on our behalf gives us the freedom to stand back up, brush ourselves off, look to Him, say thank you, and keep on moving forward. The church is not for perfect people. God’s throne is called grace. Grace is unmerited, undeserved favor. So if you think you deserve it, you can’t receive anything from God’s throne of grace. However, this amazing grace is only for those who believe: those who put their full hope, trust, and confidence in it.

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

Romans 1:17 – For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Start by faith and end with faith. The righteous shall live by faith. You’ve got to believe that you are righteous. Why must it be by faith? Because every day you will look into the mirror see evidence to the contrary. That’s when you need to believe you are righteous by faith.

The Great exchange Jesus became sin at the cross apart from any sinful actions or deeds. Once you received the free gift of righteousness, you became righteous apart from anything good that you had done. You are righteous not because you do righteousness. He took your sin. You took His righteousness. He did no sin. You did no righteousness of your own. God treated Him as if He was a curse because He received your sin. Today you receive His righteousness and God treats you as righteous. The blood of Jesus gives you eternal forgiveness and has met all the claims of God’s holiness. His righteousness is ours as a gift under the New Covenant of grace. 2 Corinthians 5:21 - For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus Christ is the plumb line in your life. Ask, “Does this apply to Christ?” If the answer is yes, then it applies to you. “Does that apply to Christ?” If the answer is no, then it doesn’t apply to you. It is a very simple thing, but in our heads, we want to do something to be righteous. However, if we do ANYTHING to be righteous, then we are saying, “Jesus, that’s great! Thanks for dying for me on the cross! But it’s not enough. For me to be righteous in Your sight and for You to be happy with me and bless me... • • • • • • • •

It’s Your cross PLUS me giving ten percent of my gross income. It’s Your cross plus me reading the Bible. It’s Your cross plus me attending prayer meetings. It’s Your cross plus me fasting. It’s Your cross plus me eating right. It’s Your cross plus me loving others. It’s Your cross plus me serving others. It’s Your cross plus me behaving perfectly.”

No! Jesus said, “It is finished!” Hebrews 4:10 - For he who has entered His rest has himself also CEASED FROM HIS WORKS AS GOD DID FROM HIS. What does it mean that the work is finished? It’s a spiritual truth that will change your life if you understand it. When our eyes are opened to what Jesus has done for us, we will do all those good things without effort. We will do them out of the overflow of a heart of gratitude. We won’t have to. We’ll want to! There are more than 1000 imperatives in the epistles written to the church, but until we understand grace, they will be a burden, not a joy! We must understand grace first!

Balance of grace and truth 3

Grace 101: Introduction and Romans 3:19-24

We hear about the need to “balance grace and truth.” What this means is that grace and truth are polar opposites on either side of a see-saw, and we need to make sure we keep them balanced. In other words, truth is synonymous with law, and we need the law to make sure we don’t sin because grace doesn’t do anything to keep us from sinning. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? If we completely remove the law, people will just go crazing and do whatever they want. We need the law as a reminder of what we should and shouldn’t do. Right? Actually, no. That goes completely against scripture, and believing that is why so many Christians are suffering. What is the “main idea” of the Bible? What did we think the Bible is all about? Telling us how to be a better people? If that’s true, then why do we need to be better people? Is it so we can be acceptable to God? Is the Bible good instruction or Good News? Yes, the Bible has some very good instruction, but if we think the purpose of the Bible is to tell us how to be better Christians and what will happen to us if we don’t follow those instructions, we put ourselves in bondage again to the law. 1 Corinthians 15:56 - The strength of sin is the law. If the strength of sin is the law, then it follows that the strength of holiness is GRACE. Titus 2:11-12 - For the grace of God has appeared [grace is a Person!], bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness Grace is actually our teacher to instruct us to deny ungodliness. The law will not lift a finger to help us live holy lives! The more we know about the amazing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the more we will reflect His glory in godly living.

Grace and truth came Rightly dividing the word of truth is so important because what you believe about Jesus is everything. Start with this: GRACE and truth are one entity with God. John 1:14, 16-17 - The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of GRACE AND TRUTH... 16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but GRACE AND TRUTH came [grace is a person!] through Jesus Christ. [Now truth is on the side of grace, not on the side of the law!] In God’s mind grace and truth are one. Even in the Greek grammatical structure, these two words are joined as one singular idea. The verb “came” is a singular verb in the original Greek. In other words, it would be like saying in present tense “grace and truth COMES through Jesus Christ.” They both exist as one in Jesus. When you touch grace, you touch the truth. You cannot separate these two. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ who came to establish a New Covenant with better promises. The cross changed EVERYTHING. Everything!! The old has gone, the new has come. It’s time to take off our Old Covenant lenses and see life through the reality of the cross...or perhaps some of us need to wipe the Old Covenant scratches off of our New Covenant lenses.

Two covenants • • • •

Two covenants: the law and grace. Two deals cut: one with the people, one with God’s Son. One kills, one gives life. One is all about man’s lack of faithfulness and goodness, one is all about Jesus’ faithfulness and goodness.

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

• • • • •

One shines the light on sin, one shines the light on the perfection of God’s Son. One was given to bring out man’s sin, one was given to make man holy. One condemns, one justifies. One brings sin consciousness, one brings Jesus consciousness. One covers sin, one takes it away!

As believers in Jesus Christ, we cannot condone sin. In fact, we must be for the law for the purpose that God gave the law. The law is holy, just, and good, but it cannot make you holy, just, and good. The purpose of the law is to point out sin, not remove it. It’s to bring sinners to repentance, but the law is useless to believers. Galatians 3:23-26 - But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 1 Timothy 1:8-9 - But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person [and you have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus!], but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners. The law diagnoses our condition as sinner before we are saved, but it cannot cure the condition. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can give us the righteousness that God desires, and it can only be received as grace - completely unearned, undeserved, unmerited. And after we are born again, if we do ANYTHING to maintain righteousness through working for it, it’s religion. Worthless to God. Filthy rags.

The mixture Today no one preaches pure law. It’s a mixture that is preached. It goes something like this: “Do your best, but if you fail, God still loves you. Now get back up and do better. Here are 7 steps to help you. Come back and report on your progress.” After you fail and come back, you hear, “God still loves you and He will forgive you if you ask Him to. Now get back up and try again. Here’s a book to read and a conference to attend and a Bible study to join and a few more folks to keep you accountable...” It’s deadly. Galatians 3:3 - Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? [the flesh is our self-effort] Wherever there is the very deadly cocktail of law and grace, there are a few things it will produce:

• hidden sin (it’s there! You just can’t see it!) • self-righteousness (people striving to “get right” with God) • pride and arrogance • burn-out • competition and comparison • loss of love patch-work theology (messages that take a little of the old, out of context, and mix it with the new, out of context) • Feelings of rejection from people and from God However, at the same time, in the church we have been hearing and even saying wonderful things such as the following:

Grace 101: Introduction and Romans 3:19-24

• Jesus came to shine a light in our darkness, not on our mistakes. • Jesus came to remove sin, not to expose it. • Jesus came to set you free, not to make you sorry. • Jesus came to say that He’s enough, not that we aren’t good enough. • Jesus knows you and loves you anyway. • Religion is spelled “do”, Christianity is spelled “done.” Our spirits cry, “YES!” That’s the truth! But what do we mean? How radical is grace after all? Why doesn’t our experience line up with those statements? It’s because of the mixture of law and grace. It’s religion.

Religion Religion is man’s attempt to make himself right before God. Religion operates through guilt. Dependency on guilt is what keeps religion alive and well. It’s like a drug dealer giving an addict a small dose of the drug to keep him coming back for more. Even those that teach the Gospel often use guilt - without even realizing it. The result is a feeling in the people that they aren’t quite right with God. There is a carrot on the end of the stick that says, “Just do one more thing for God, and He’ll be pleased with you.” Or they will to look to their pastor or Bible study leader or mentor as God and try to please him. Without guilt, much of what we call the church would fall like the tower of Babel and go bankrupt because guilt makes people work, and guilt makes people give. We all think we are against religion. We love to think of ourselves as pure grace and no law. We say we hate legalism. Here’s a litmus test of pure grace: if there is burn-out, there is guilt. If there is competition, there is condemnation. If there is jealousy, there is shame. If there is hidden sin, there is law. If there is fear of man, there is insecurity, dishonesty, idolatry, control, manipulation, and a focus on perception at the expense of reality. If there are fears of ANY kind, there is law. If there are doubts, there is a misunderstanding of the goodness of God. This is not pure grace. If you have experienced these things, you have taken on works that God didn’t design you for. Or others have put ill-fitting burdens on you out of their need to fulfill their agenda, and you accepted because you sincerely believed that it would make you closer to God and you’d be “a team player” in God’s kingdom. It all starts very subtly and sounds very spiritual. Following are typical sentiments commonly expressed in Christianity today:

• You need to get right with God. (Truth: If you are saved, you are already right with God by the blood of Jesus. You couldn’t do anything to make yourself righteous. It’s a gift. Romans 5:17, Ephesians 2:8, Romans 5:9)

• Ask the Lord to forgive you. (Truth: He already forgave you. You have forgiveness of sins. You’re not trying to get it. Just thank Him for forgiving you. He’s not going to the cross again. The debt has been paid. Once was enough. Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:13)

• Ask the Lord to cleanse you by the blood of Jesus for the sins you have committed recently; for instance, in preparation to receive the Lord’s Supper. (Truth: If you are saved, the once for all sacrifice of His blood was enough to cleanse you and keep you perpetually clean before the Father. His grace is greater than all our sin. Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 10:2, Hebrews 10:12)

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

• Let’s cry out to the Lord for the windows of heaven to be opened over us! (Truth: The veil has been torn through the cross. The windows of heaven have been opened up over us. The question is do we believe it? Matthew 27:51, Romans 4:6-8)

• Show the Lord how much you love HIm! Serve Him with all your heart and He’ll be pleased with you! (Truth: He loved you before you ever did anything for Him and He won’t be impressed with your attempts to prove your love for Him. You don’t need to prove anything. Jesus did that for you. And Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve us by being the sacrifice for our sins. Now we minister to others out of that overflow because we are compelled by the love of God. 1 John 4:19, Matthew 5:16, Matthew 20:28) Be careful not to take on the doctrines of men, no matter how spiritual they sound. Law is “do good, get good.” Self-righteousness. Grace is “Jesus took the bad that I deserve and I take the good that He deserves.” Grace is the unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor of God.

Romans 3:19-24 3:19-20 Romans 3:19-20 - Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the KNOWLEDGE of sin. What was the purpose of the law? To bring out sin and make everyone guilty. Here are some other translations of the phrase in Romans 3:20, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin”: • NIV - through the law we become conscious of sin. • NLT - The law simply shows us how sinful we are. The law serves only to make us see that we are sinners before we are saved, but God wants us to be conscience that we’re the righteousness of God. In Hebrews we read that if the Old Covenant law worked, we should have no more consciousness of sins: Hebrews 10:2 - For then would they [the blood sacrifices of the law] not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. People think God wants us to be conscience of sin so we will stop sinning. He doesn't actually. That’s why He took the law away at the cross. Colossians 2:14 - 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. On the cross Jesus took away the law that was hostile to us. In that way, He took away satan’s power to accuse us and He made a spectacle of satan. He openly displayed His triumph to everyone! Christ’s triumph was in taking away the charges against us and not only that, He took away our sin:

Grace 101: Introduction and Romans 3:19-24

John 1:29 - Behold, the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world! Under the New Covenant we have this wonderful promise: Hebrews 8:12 - I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. We talk about the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sins. But what does the Bible say? What sins will the Holy Spirit convict of?

Holy Spirit Before Jesus went to the cross, He prophesied about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He said, John 16:8-11 - And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The Holy Spirit convicts of three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. It’s vital that we understand WHO He is convicting. The word in the Greek for “convict” means “to convince as in a court of law.” What are we being convicted of? So there there would be no misunderstanding, Jesus clarified it:

• “Of sin, because THEY do not believe in Me” - This is talking about unbelievers. Unbelief is the sin. • “Of righteousness, because I go to My Father and YOU see Me no more” - This is talking about the believers. For the believer, He convicts (convinces as in a court of law) YOU of righteousness because “you (not THEY) see Me no more.” Jesus was prophesying of the coming New Covenant reality of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in believers. The Holy Spirit is in the believer’s life to convict us of righteousness. What is Jesus doing at the Father's right hand? He is always living to make intercession for us with His work for us. His nail pierced hands and His blood mediate for us, declaring that we are righteous, acquitted, deserving of our inheritance and every blessing in Christ. He is the anchor for our souls, and the Holy Spirit is here to remind us of that truth. So what is the Holy Spirit doing? He's helping us to overcome our unbelief. He's helping us to believe we are the righteousness of God. He's helping us to see that the accuser, the devil, has been condemned and triumphed over at the cross. He is the comforter, and He guides us into all truth. If I'm sinning, how will I change what I'm doing? My new nature will know when I’m not walking in consistency with the nature of God, and the Spirit of God operating in my new nature will lead me into truth and right behavior. Grace empowers us to live right.

• “And of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” - It’s not believers being judged. It’s the devil being judged. The Holy Spirit convicts you of the victory you have over the devil because you are righteous through the blood of Jesus. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would come and go because the people were not washed by the blood of Jesus. He couldn’t come inside because they weren’t clean on the inside. The blood of bulls and goats covered their sins until the true Lamb of God would come to take away all of our sins. So the Holy Spirit did not indwell the people of the Old Testament. He would come on three sets of people: the priests, the kings, and the prophets. But He would come for an assignment and then leave. David would pray, “take not Your holy Spirit from me” because David was under the Old Covenant. When you draw near to God, come with an assurance that His desire is not to remind you of sins. An evil conscience tells us that we’re not worthy to be in His presence. Take those thoughts captive! (2 Corinthians 10:5) It’s not your obedience that puts you in a position to approach God. It’s the obedience of

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

Jesus Christ - even to the point of death. (Philippians 2:8) Never fear that God is angry with you or that He would ever leave you. (Isaiah 54:9) He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5) He will abide with you forever. (John 14:6) Knowing you are righteous is the key to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Every time you hear the words, “I love you,” that’s the Holy Spirit. Every time you hear a reminder that you are righteous, that’s the Holy Spirit. Always question a voice that brings condemnation, doubt, or fear. If there is any anxiety or lack of peace, it is not the voice of the Holy Spirit! It is error to say that the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. How could He when the Bible clearly says that He remembers our sins no more? (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:17) If the Holy Spirit were convicting us of sin, it would be like HIm going before the Father and saying, “Your Honor, I think the evidence shows that this man is guilty. I ask that You sentence him to death. You Yourself said, ‘The wages of sin is death.’” If that were the case, the Holy Spirit would be our prosecutor, not our Advocate! Take heart in this promise: Revelation 12:10 - Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. Poor Job cried out Job 9:33 - If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together! In the Old Testament there was no mediator in heaven that could bring them together, but today we do have a Mediator and it’s Jesus! The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Grace!! And He testifies of Jesus, not of sin! The knowledge of sin brings condemnation and death. When you see “the law”, think of condemnation. When you think of grace, think of righteousness. Opposites. There is nothing wrong with the law. It’s a mirror that shows you that you’re ugly. But don’t break the mirror! It’s not the mirror’s fault. It can only show you your sin. You can’t take the mirror and clean your face. The law can’t cleanse you. It can only show you that you need cleansing. It was designed by God to bring out your sin. God never designed the law to bring out the best in man. The law cannot make you holy. It can only show that apart from Christ, you are hopelessly shut out from the presence of a holy God. But hallelujah! The Good News: Romans 10:4 - For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. When God looks at you today, He does not see sin between you and Him. It’s taken away! The Greek word for sin is “harmartia”. This word means to miss the mark and fall short. Jesus took away our “missing of the mark”. Jesus took the arrow and shot the bull’s eye! Then He took the second arrow and shot the first arrow and split the first arrow and got the bull’s eye again. Then He took another arrow and split the second arrow that split the first arrow and got the bull’s eye again! And again and again. Jesus ever lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25). His intercession is His work of redemption. His intercession is His blood. Every beating, every scourging, every drop of blood spilled was an arrow shot

Grace 101: Introduction and Romans 3:19-24

perfectly for you! He set all the record of law-obeying to your account. You are redeemed from missing the mark! If you try to make the bull’s eye yourself, it’s nothing more than self-righteousness. Do you know where self-righteousness got its start? In the Garden of Eden with the first two human beings. Genesis 2:25 tells us that Adam and Eve were naked, but not ashamed. However, God gave the rule, “Don’t eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”, and they disobeyed, realized they were naked, and then they were ashamed. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represents the law. What came in? Consciousness of sin. Why? Because by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). Consciousness of sin produced condemnation which produced self-righteousness – fig leaves! When they were conscious of their sin, they hid from God. God said, “Adam, where are you?” And he came up with the great idea of covering himself with fig leaves. Adam was trying by his own righteousness to stand before God by covering himself with the bloodless religion of fig leaves. Long before Adam and Eve experienced sickness, poverty, and death, they first experienced condemnation. Condemnation is the root of every problem in this world. Long before the devil could enforce all the rest of his evil, condemnation came in - a conscience full of sin. This is the purpose of the law. What does it mean to be “under the law?” Can we still be under the law? In a manner of speaking, yes! It simply means you are trying to be right with God and receive the blessing of God by your own efforts.

3:21-22 Romans 3:21 - But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is REVEALED, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, If you're a witness in a court of law, you're just an observer of the facts. The Holy Spirit is your advocate that testifies that you are righteous, and the law and the prophets are witnesses to the fact that you are the righteousness of God apart from the law. They didn't make you righteous. They're simply witnesses in a court of law. They stood aside, having failed to give you righteousness through a weak and useless system of the Old Covenant (Hebrews 7:18), and in this holy court of law they are witnessing that you are the righteous apart from your performance. The gift of the righteousness of God (not the righteousness of man!) is revealed faith to faith (Romans 1:17). You start by grace through faith, and you continue by grace though faith. Now we can boast in only one thing: the law of faith - faith in the fact that we live everyday in the reality of Christ’s obedience which makes us righteous. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Colossians 2:6) How did you receive Christ? By grace through faith. So that’s how you walk it out every day until you go to heaven. The righteousness of God is “revealed.” That’s why we need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Paul prayed for the Ephesians: “...making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him...” (Ephesians 1:16-17) Grace doesn’t make sense to the natural mind. All we understand is deductive reasoning which says, “Do good, get good.” It takes the Holy Spirit to understand grace.

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

3:22 Romans 3:22 - ...even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. The righteousness of God is a gift the must be received. It must be BELIEVED to be received. This word “believe” is “pisteuo” in the Greek and means to put your full hope, trust, and confidence in. In John 6 we see a question that gives that gives the simplicity of the Gospel. The disciples had just seen Jesus feed the five thousand. They thought, “Wow, this guy is the real deal. We’re in!” They asked Him an excellent question, the question that we all ask: “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” (John 6:28) Isn’t that what every Christian wants to know? Everyone knows they haven’t done right by God because they know what they’ve done that week! So they go to church and ask, “Pastor, what do I have to do to do the works that God requires of me?” Often the answer will be “DO this and then DO that, and then DO that....” But here is Jesus’ answer: “This is the work of God, that you BELIEVE in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:29) Our job is just to believe. We’re not to attain or earn. Just believe. Nothing in Christianity is earned. It’s only accessed through faith. Here’s The Message translation of Romans 3:22: Romans 3:22, The Message - The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. When you were first saved, this revelation came to you. Do you remember it? All of your sins were forgiven. What joy and relief that brought you! Instantly the lure and power of sin was broken. What could compare with the joy of knowing Jesus and His own love demonstrated in this: “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)?

3:22-23 Romans 3:22-23 - For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God... Another way of saying this is “all have sinned and FORFEITED the glory of God.” When God created man, He crowned him with glory and honor, and then gave him authority over all the works of God’s hands. God made man on the 6th day after He created everything else because He wanted a companion, not a servant. He made man to be the beneficiary and the object of His love, friendship, and care. He wanted man to enjoy the creation and to be the king over it. Genesis 1:26 - God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Man was created as the crowning achievement of all of God’s creation, and everything was put under his feet.

Grace 101: Introduction and Romans 3:19-24

Psalm 8:3-8 - When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, And the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. But then there was an enemy: the devil who entered the snake in the garden and tempted Eve. Adam allowed the snake to deceive his wife. Did you know Adam was with Eve when she ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? (Genesis 3:6). Evil reigns when good men keep quiet! He should have told the snake go. He had dominion over every creature including satan, but instead he chose to abdicate his authority, and as a result, man fell. When God crowned man with glory and honor, it wasn’t like a tiara on his head. The word “crown” in the Hebrew is a word that means covering over the entire body. Adam and Eve’s whole bodies were covered in the brilliant light of God’s glory. This glory was the goodness of God in the widest sense. This was their clothing. They were naked in the sense that they didn’t have clothing like we wear, but they were clothed in God’s radiant glory. All other creation has natural clothes that come from the inside - fur, feathers, rugged skin. Only man got his clothing from the outside. When Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were “naked” (Genesis 3:7), it was because the glory and honor of God had left them. Now the authority and power they once had over creation was gone. The animals who had once bowed to them, now had power over them. Even their bodies began to decay and grow old. God never intended for man to grow old and die. Now man doesn’t even have dominion over the smallest organisms like viruses. Man forfeited his glory and his honor when he chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree didn’t have good fruit and evil fruit on its branches. It had one fruit. If they ate that fruit, they ate the knowledge of good and evil at the same time. What is it to know good and evil? It’s to know the law. The law is knowing what is right and what is wrong, and trying to do the right. But the problem was that the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56) Sin is empowered by the law, but falling into sin was never the goal of Adam and Eve. Their goal was seemingly much more “noble”: to be like God (Genesis 3:5). The problem is that the law can do nothing to make you more like God. Why? Because you were already made in the image of God. To do your best to try to become more like God is to try to become something that God, through the blood of Jesus, has already made you to be. You are a human “being”, not a human “doing.” Adam and Eve had their own righteousness, which they could give away. Today we have Christ’s righteousness. It’s a righteousness that cannot be lost because it’s not our own. It’s as eternal as the perfection of Jesus. The only way we could lose it would be if Jesus sinned. In Hebrews 2, we find that passage from Psalms 8 inserted, but in this case it is referring Jesus being crowned with glory and honor on our behalf. Adam gave the authority away, but Jesus got it back for us! Hebrews 2:8-10 - For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory...

Grace 101: Week 1, “The Gospel”

The first step in a revelation of the amazing grace of Jesus Christ is an understanding that we have all sinned and forfeited the right to the goodness, the approval, the acceptance, the blessing, and even the love of God - even though He loves those who will never love Him back. But hallelujah for the next verses in Romans 3:

3:24 Romans 3:24 - ...being JUSTIFIED freely by His GRACE through the REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus... Whenever you see the words “just”, justifier, “justify”, “justification”, “righteous”, or “righteousness”, it’s all from the same Greek root which means righteousness. Righteousness is a Greek legal term that means “acquittal.” Literally it means, “clearance of all your guilt.” We have been cleared of all the guilt of our sin freely! That word “freely” means “undeservedly.” We have been cleared of all the guilt of our sin undeservedly through the undeserved, unmerited, unearned favor of God! That’s Good News! That’s grace! And this clearance of our guilt came through the “redemption” that is in Christ Jesus. This means that we were released from the debt of our sin and delivered from the penalty of breaking the law through Christ’s payment of His own blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness - no payment of the debt for our sins. (Hebrews 9:22) The word for forgiveness of sins in the Greek is “aphesis” which means “let go”. God let go of our sins. He didn’t hold it against us. Here’s Romans 3:24 in The Message: Romans 3:24, The Message - Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. It’s all about Jesus! Colossians 2:13-15 - And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him [JESUS!], having forgiven you all trespasses... At one time we were dead. Dead is dead. Rich or poor, moral or wicked - we were still dead without Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live. He made us alive by forgiving us ALL our trespasses. It does not say we were only forgiven the trespasses we committed before we became Christians. It doesn’t say that He only forgives the trespasses that you confess. It says ALL. Your past, your present, your future sins are ALL forgiven. Even when you lost your temper this morning, it didn’t slip past the eyes of the Lord. The sins you will commit next month and next year - God took EVERY sin and He put it on Jesus. If you aren’t forgiven of ALL, you aren’t forgiven at all. John 3:16-17 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.