Grace 101, week 2, he will never count your sins against you by Tricia Gunn

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

Week 2, He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You Romans 3:25-4:8 Introduction scriptures (from the podcast of the teaching): 2 Corinthians 4:16 - Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Isaiah 61:1 - “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Luke 4:18- “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind...” Ephesians 1:17-18 - 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, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Hebrews 4:15 - For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 1 Peter 5:7 - ...casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 3 John 2 - Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. One of the primary goals of Grace 101 is to remove from our consciences the pressure to serve God out of a need to be loved by Him and blessed by Him or to be approved of by others. It seems in the church today that the emphasis is on doing something for God. Do, do, do. But we’re not human doings. We’re human beings. God wants us to BE before we DO. Be what? Be His sons and daughters, not His slaves. What is the key to BEING? Receiving. We receive. He gives. Acts 20:35 - He [Jesus] said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

Jesus will always take the position of “more blessed.” The lesser is blessed by the Greater. Jesus is the blesser, and He wants us to be the blessed. But so often we want to take the role of the blesser instead of the blessed. What do we have to give to God, that He hasn’t already given to us? Matthew 20:28 - The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself, and then He washed His disciples’ feet. But Peter resisted. John 13:8 - Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Jesus wants to serve you. Will you allow Him to minister to you? The more you take from Him, the more it delights His heart. Perhaps the first and greatest thing to receive is peace - peace for your conscience that gives you assurance that He loves you unconditionally. On your worst day, in your most selfish moment when you aren’t thinking of anyone but yourself, even while you’re in the act of sinful behavior, He still loves you. Nothing can ever separate you from His love. Ever. In Romans 3 and 4, we’ll learn why this is true...

3:25 Continuing from verse 24 in Romans 3 from the last session: Romans 3:24-25 - ...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus 25 whom God set forth as a PROPITIATION by His blood, through faith,... God set forth JESUS as our “propitiation” before the eyes of the entire world. What is propitiation? It means the Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins. “Through faith” in Him we are cleansed from our sin and reconciled to God. The word propitiation is the word “hilasterion” in the Greek, and it literally means Mercy Seat. Jesus is our Mercy Seat! For context we will look at the Mercy Seat of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God set up a system by which atonement (covering) could be made for the sins of the people. Animal sacrifices were made by the priests on a daily basis in the outer court of what was called the “tabernacle”, the place of worship while God’s people wandered in the desert. Later the Jews would have a temple in Jerusalem where they would make the sacrifices. Once a year on the Day of Atonement the high priest of Israel would go into the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle where the presence of God was. This was a room in a small “tent” inside the tabernacle. He would sprinkle the blood of bulls and goats on the Mercy Seat. If the sacrifice was acceptable to God, then the High Priest would be acceptable. And as the high priest went, so went God’s people. Therefore, the sins of the nation were covered for another year, and they would be blessed as a nation. The Mercy Seat was a lid made of a slab of pure gold. Formed from the same piece of gold there were two cherubim on the sides of the Mercy Seat facing each other and looking down on the Mercy Seat. Their eyes represented the eyes of God, and they were the guardians of God’s holiness and righteousness. Each year the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat for the eyes of God to see.

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

Why? Hebrews 9:22 - ...without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The Mercy Seat was a lid for a box, called the Ark of the Covenant, which housed three items. These items symbolized man’s failure and his rejection of God (Hebrews 9:4): • two tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Commandments, representing man’s rejection of God’s perfect standard (Deuteronomy 31:26) • Arron’s rod that budded which represented their rejection of God’s authority when the Israelites murmured against Aaron as their high priest (Numbers 17) • the golden pot of manna, representing the rejection of God’s provision (Exodus 16:32) All of man’s sin was represented in the box - his breaking of God’s righteous standards, his pride, and his complaining. However, God covered man’s sin with the Mercy Seat on which the blood was sprinkled. God did not want to see man’s sin. He wanted to see the blood. Today, not only is Jesus the Mercy Seat, it’s His own blood sprinkled there! The law brings the knowledge of sin, so for anyone of us to “lift the Mercy Seat” and see the law (the two tablets of stone) brings condemnation and shame. The Mercy Seat is higher than the law. To go back to law, you must fall from grace. Galatians 5:4 - You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Jesus, our Mercy Seat, is higher than the law. Mercy triumphs over judgement (James 2:13). God’s throne is called mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:16). Mercy is the hand that holds back the bad we deserve. Grace is the hand that gives us all the good we could never deserve. You are safe and secure in His hands. And His blood doesn’t just cover up your sins, it removes them! “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus’ blood is far superior to the blood of bulls and goats which only temporarily covered. His blood is eternal. Forever you are accepted, loved, and blessed! Now to finish verse 25: Romans 3:25, cont. - ...to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,... To show that He is a righteous God, our Father delayed the punishment of the sins of all the people of faith who lived before the cross. He was being completely fair in this because He was looking forward to the time when Jesus would come and take away all of those sins. The New Living Translation says it like this: Romans 3:25, NLT - This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past...

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

God passed over sin and allowed sin to be atoned for by the blood of animals for thousands of years (from Adam to the time of the cross). Prior to the cross, Old Testament believers were "on credit." Sin, whether it was Adam’s sin nature that every human was born with or the individual sins that each person was liable for under the law, had not been paid for yet. Even so, the people received some of the benefits from what had not historically yet taken place (the cross). It’s like buying something on a credit card: we enjoy the purchased item even though we have not paid for it yet. Old Testament believers looked forward to what God would someday do, and believers today look back at what Christ has already done. God lives outside of time, but He chose to enter time on our behalf to save us! The cross is the climax of all of the history of man. Everything points to Jesus and His amazing grace!

3:26 Romans 3:26 - ... to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might BE JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER of the one who has faith in Jesus. God is righteous in making the sinner righteous. God’s very character and His word are at stake when He says He has made you righteous. If one sin was left unpunished, then God would not be just. God can’t just be merciful and not righteous. Jesus was brutally punished for every sin that we have ever committed or will ever commit. All the wrath that we deserve fell on Him. On the other hand, we simply cannot be punished because it would be unjust for God to punish the same sin twice. It would be unrighteous for a Holy God to put all our sins and judgement on Jesus, and then put it on us. It is precisely because God is holy that there is no judgment or condemnation on us in Christ today! His character, the bond of His word, and His integrity are our eternal security! The word “justifier” in Romans 3:26 is translated as a noun, but it is actually a verb in the original Greek. It’s the verb “dikaioo” in the present active participle meaning that God is the one that is doing the justifying, and He is continually doing it right now. If God is justifying you, who can condemn you?! No one! Do you sometimes feel like you don’t have a single thought that isn’t contaminated with the flesh? Do you feel like even the good things that you do are tinged with selfish motives? Our Justifier has justified us. In heaven there it no record of your sins, and on earth He continually justifies you when you sin. Our Father loves us extravagantly. Our Savior has given us amazing grace. Our Helper, the Holy Spirit, offers us unhindered, intimate fellowship. Our Lord is with us when we fail. He will never leave us. Knowing that, what other response would we have but to worship and adore and love Him? When we ponder what God has done for us, sin loses its power in our lives. Sin can be seen for what it is: a destructive and even devastating force. If you think that sin is a small matter, look at the cross because only the cross can give you a true estimate of the horror of sin. Jesus, who had no sin in Him, chose to become our sin and go through all of the terrible sufferings and anguish as our sacrifice. Sin is terrible. For those who think that grace is a license to sin, it’s impossible to look at the cross and Jesus’ heart so full of love for us and then respond by wanting to sin. All of our sins were punished in the body of Jesus on the cross, so God will not punish us for our sin today or ever. However, we all know that there are consequences to sin, and we have all experienced even devastating consequences to our own sins or the sins of others. Sin makes you stay longer than you want to stay, go further than you want to go, and

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

costs you more than you want to pay. Please don’t think that grace makes sin light. When we are believers, we cannot sin and it not affect our conscience. The fact that your conscience is troubled by sin gives evidence that you are born again. No true son or daughter of God will sin and feel no hesitation in their conscience. However, falling into guilt, condemnation, and shame will only serve to strengthen the power of sin. (We will discuss this in more depth in our study of Romans 7) To really appreciate grace, you must understand the extremity of God’s hatred of sin and the extravagant love of God for you and me. But why does He hate sin? Because He loves us! Until you understand these two things, you can never understand grace. Even talking about sin will bring condemnation on many. When we hear the slogan, “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin,” often in our conscience we still hear that God hates us when we sin. The point is not to see our sin, but to see Jesus who took it away because of His love for us. The mercy and grace of God are continually at work in our lives. Mercy will guide us out of every situation we find ourselves in because of sin. God is merciful to deliver us safely through even the most serious of consequences by the promptings of Holy Spirit. Additionally, over time, the more we behold Jesus and the more steeped we are in His amazing grace, we will be able to look back and realize that those sinful tendencies that we used to struggle with have fallen off like dried leaves! Mercy sent Jesus, but the cross demonstrated that God is just. This is a legal term. He is a righteous Judge who saw us with a problem - sin. And He removed the problem so that we could live the abundant life. That’s real love. In the courtroom of heaven and earth, justice was served once and for all. Jesus cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Every judgement of God fell on Jesus. Every curse, all the condemnation, all the poverty, all the sickness, all the separation from God the Father, and all the darkness fell upon Jesus for all our sins! Not for His sake, but for ours! In John 12 there is a very famous verse that we commonly use for evangelism. Jesus said, John 12:32 - “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” However, if we read that verse in context, we will see that this verse is in a passage where Jesus is talking about the cross and absorbing our judgement: John 12:31-33 - Now is the JUDGMENT of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [peoples] to Myself.” 33 This He said, SIGNIFYING BY WHAT DEATH He would die. When Jesus talked about being lifted up, He was talking about the cross. In the verse where He says, “I will draw all peoples...”, the original Greek text does not have the word “peoples.” It simply says, “I will draw ALL.” All of what? You find it in the previous verse: judgment. In the verse after, we clearly see that Jesus was referring to dying our death on a cross. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, He was like a lightening rod that drew ALL of our judgment! And because of His precious blood, there is no judgment coming our way. Jesus is the only person who qualified to take the penalty for us. Do you know the value of God’s beloved Son?

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

If you know the value of Jesus’ blood, you can step into the place of perfect light - God’s presence because the light will not show your sins. The light will only show the perfection of Jesus’ work and your righteousness in Him.

3:27-31 Romans 3:27-28 - Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. What Paul is saying in verse 31 is that it’s only by faith in Jesus Christ that we truly uphold the authority of the law. Why? Because only Jesus Himself could fulfill all of the requirements of the law. He kept the law to its intended standard without compromise. And now, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s righteousness is ours by faith. We live and breathe and have our being in Him. He lives His life through us! Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. The greatest holiness that we can have is faith. Faith for what? Faith to believe that we are righteous in Him. God calls us the “righteousness of God in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Righteousness is the condition of being acceptable to God, perfect in His sight. In 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul says that for those who are “in Christ”, Jesus has become for us “righteousness.” He is our righteousness because we are in Him!

4:1-3 In the first few verses of Romans 4, Paul continues his teaching on righteousness by mentioning two important men in the Old Testament: Abraham and David. Abraham is the father of our faith, and David looked forward into the future to a time when we would be justified by faith. In the scriptures we see the statement, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” This sentence is repeated six times in the Bible. One of those is in Romans 4:3. Romans 4:1-3 - What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Here is Romans 4:3 in The Message: Romans 4:3, The Message - “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.” In Bible studies we have heard of the “Abrahamic Covenant.” The covenant that God made with Abraham was an extrinsic covenant made outside of him, but he was the beneficiary. This covenant is the mirror covenant of the New Covenant of grace cut between God and His Son on our behalf.

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

A covenant is an agreement between two parties. There are two types of covenants: conditional and unconditional. A conditional covenant is an agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfillment. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party has to fulfill the requirements of the covenant. This was the type of covenant that the Israelites agreed to at the foot of Mount Sinai when God gave the Mosaic law which included the 10 Commandments. God’s people foolishly said, “All that the Lord has commanded we will do.” (Exodus 19:8 and 24:3) An unconditional covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has to do something to fulfill the covenant. Nothing is required of the other party. The Abrahamic Covenant was an unconditional, everlasting covenant of grace that came 430 years before the Mosaic Covenant of law and couldn’t be nullified by the Mosaic Covenant (Galatians 3:17). Why? Because it was not made with man. It was an unconditional covenant that God made with Himself. God made promises to Abraham that required nothing of Abraham, but to BELIEVE. (See Genesis 12:1-3 and 15:18-21) Covenants are sealed in blood, and there was a ceremony to seal this Abrahamic covenant in blood. It is recorded in Genesis 15, and it shows the unconditional nature of the covenant. In those days both parties of a covenant would pass between the pieces of animals. In Genesis 15 we see God alone passing between the halves of the animals. God appeared as “a smoking oven and a burning torch” and passed between the pieces. God alone bound Himself to the covenant with all its promises of blessing. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Abraham so that he would have nothing to do with the enactment of this covenant. Fulfillment of the covenant fell squarely on God alone. In the Abrahamic Covenant there were no “if” clauses, and as we will see, we are included in this covenant! In Genesis 12:3 God told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In Genesis 15, God reveals more of His promise, and then we see the first place in scripture that the key to RECEIVING the promise is given: Genesis 15:5-6 - He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. The word for “number” there is the Hebrew word “caphar” which means to declare, to recount, to tell a story. Before the Bible was even written, God put the Gospel story in the sky in the constellations. It began with Virgo, the virgin (Mary) and then ended with Leo, the Lion of Judah (Jesus). The details are fascinating when you study the scriptures regarding the stars that God placed in the heavens. Today this has been perverted into astrology, but God is the one who arranged the stars in the sky. And Abraham looked at it and believed the same Gospel that you and I believe. “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” In Genesis 22 we see a reference to the “stars of the heaven” and the beautiful shadow of our heavenly Father giving His Son, His only Son, the Son that He loved for us (See Genesis 22:2). It’s the story of Abraham offering his son Isaac, his only descendent and heir of the promise. God’s response to Abraham: Genesis 22:16-18 - By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” What is obeying the voice of God? It’s simply believing what He says.

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

The “sand on the seashore” are the natural Jewish descendants of Abraham, and the “stars of the heaven” are all of us who are Abraham’s spiritual descendants, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Galatians 3:13-14, Paul says we have been redeemed from the curse of the law that the blessing of Abraham might come on us and that we might received the promise of the Spirit. Later in that same chapter, Paul says, Galatians 3:29 - If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Are you a Christian? Well, then Abraham is your father in the faith. If that’s so, shouldn’t you know who your father is, what he did, and what you’ve inherited from him? Shouldn’t you know your roots? We are blessed like Abraham was blessed, and we receive the blessing of God in the same way: by believing that we are righteous before God. It’s that simple. The Abrahamic Covenant was ultimately realized in the New Covenant made in Jesus’ blood. You may have been taught that “you need to make a covenant with God,” when actually, it was God who made the covenant with His Son. Your only part is to receive the benefits of this perfect eternal covenant. Have you tried to keep your “covenant” with God and failed miserably? Rest assured, the New Covenant is “foolproof,” and you couldn’t break it if you tried!

4:4-5 Abraham was blessed by God, and the way he received the blessing was by BELIEVING that he was righteous before God. Romans 4:4 - Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. Do you see how radical this righteousness of faith is? If you’re working for it, it becomes a debt, not a gift. If the blessing of God is a reward for good behavior, then we get the credit for earning it. Then we have to concede that the flip-side is also true: we will lose the blessing of God by bad behavior. If the blessing of God is truly a gift, then Jesus gets the credit, and we can’t lose it even when we fail. Which system do you want to be under? Law or grace? John 1:17 - The law was given by Moses, but Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You cannot go about establishing your own righteousness and then submit to the gift of righteousness. (Romans 10:3) You can’t believe that you’re righteous by what you DO and still believe you’re righteous as a GIFT. You’ll never be grateful to God! Some of us are very strong-willed. We can last decades striving to maintain our righteousness and do it our way. However, even the the hardiest human stock has its breaking point. We will either break in our morals, in our emotions, or in our bodies. The sad thing is that the more we try, the harder it is to just let go because we have invested so much energy in it! Romans 4:5 - But to him who does not work but believes on Him who JUSTIFIES THE UNGODLY, his faith is accounted for righteousness. For him who DOES NOT WORK FOR IT, it is given to him as grace! Abraham is a perfect example of someone who was not justified by works. On two occasions he lied about his wife being his sister and was willing to let Sarah be taken by two different kings to be in their harems. He had a noble reason for

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

it: to save his own skin! Abraham wasn’t a model of integrity. He was a model of someone living under the grace of God. You can’t find one time that God punished or even rebuked Abraham. The Bible calls Abraham “God’s friend” (James 2:23). In fact, God defended Abraham. He prevented the kings from touching Sarah, and He caused Abraham to walk away with great wealth: “livestock, sliver, and gold” (See Genesis 12-14, 20). In the “hall of fame of faith” in Hebrews 11, you don’t find any record of his faults. God does not record failures in heaven. What does He record? Hebrews 6:10 - God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

4:6-8 Next, in the context of God counting Abraham righteous by faith, Paul mentions David: Romans 4:6-8 - ...just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness APART FROM WORKS. 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” In verse 6, the word “blessedness” is actually in the plural in the original Greek. It’s “blessednesses” because is more than one blessed state that is described here. The first blessed state is that our sins are forgiven. If you are forgiven by God, you are blessed! He’s got you covered because He covered the charges against you. Most evangelical Christians can accept the first “blessed,” but it’s the second “blessed” that many of us are not comfortable with. Here is the second one: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” The first one says are debt has been paid. The second one says that all of the record of our debt has been removed. In other words, God has removed the record of all our sin!!! God does not impute sin to us because the Lamb of God has taken the sin away! But do we sin? Yes. This passage does not say you are blessed because you don’t sin. It says you are blessed because WHEN YOU DO SIN, God does not impute it to you. It only makes sense when you know that you have sinned. “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin” was written for people who don’t have it all together. Would you agree that if you sin and God never counts your sin against you, you are truly blessed? Some other translations of Romans 4:8: • NLT - Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin. • The Message - Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate. Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score. • NIV - Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them. It is doubtful that any of us could ever get to the point where we could give each other the forever gift of not counting our faults against one another. We can’t say to each other, “Whatever happens, I won’t count it against you.” We may be able to say, “Whatever happens, I will always love you,” but none of us can give the non-imputation of sins 100%. However, this is what God has done with us, and with the unfolding of this wonderful revelation of grace, we will be transformed into the very image of Jesus. The

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

result will be that we will find less and less fault with each other. In Christian circles there is a wish that many of us have expressed regarding those who have offended us: “I want to see him as God sees him.” The first step is to see ourselves as God sees us. We treat others the way that we think God treats us. The more we realize that God does not count our sins against us, the easier it will be to forgive others. Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Another reassuring truth comes in the “shall not” of verse 8. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord SHALL NOT impute sin.” There are three Greek words for negative assertion. “Ou”, meaning “no WITHOUT conditions.” “Me”, meaning “no WITH conditions.” When these two are combined together, “ou me”, it’s the strongest negative assertion there is in the Greek language. It means “by no means, never will it happen.” In the entire book of Romans there is only one place where “ou me” is used and it’s in Romans 4:8: “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not [“ou me”, by no means, never] impute sin.” God has not lowered His standards in the New Testament. He is still God. The reason why God will not impute your sins to you is because God imputed your sins 2000 years ago to His Son when Jesus hung on the cross. He found fault with Jesus for all your sins! Sin cannot go unpunished, so Jesus took your punishment. Stroke by stroke God caused the curse of the law to fall on Jesus. That’s why we are redeemed from the curse. And because He has punished Jesus for your sins, God will never by any means impute sin to you. Isaiah 53:3-6, 12 - He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all... 12 He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. In the context of this detailed description of Jesus’s work on our behalf, in the very next chapter of Isaiah God swore that because of that great act of intercession, He will never be angry with us again. Isaiah 54:9 - For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. If you read somewhere or hear that God is angry with you, please know that it is not true. The accuser of the brethren, satan, wants you to believe that. Imagine the harshness of the law which said that when you sinned, it was counted against you. The full force of the law would crush any one of us. Imagine the severity of the consequences for missing the mark as Jesus described it: Matthew 5:28 - “I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:22, The Message - I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder.

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

If God Himself imputes sin to you, how can you even stand before the devil? You wouldn’t stand a chance against the devil’s schemes. On the other hand, we tend to fear the freedom that comes with the idea that are sins are not counted against us. Won’t we all just go out and take advantage of a license to sin? On the contrary. Grace will lead us out of sin! Actually, the law itself will bring out the worst in us! The strength of sin is the law. Guilt leads to an identity as a sinner, and you will live out whatever you think you are. The only time that grace becomes a license to sin is when you separate grace from Jesus. What we believe is so important. Charles Spurgeon said, “A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life.” If you believe correctly, sin will lose it’s power in your life. David looked down the corridors of time and saw the future generation of people post-cross and resurrection whose sins would not be counted against them, and he envied us! All our sins were given to Jesus as a free gift, and along with it came the full force of holy wrath against our lawlessness. All of His righteousness was given to us as free gift, and along with is came peace and all the blessings of sonship. This is the truth to rest in. To end this session we’ll look into a man’s life who didn’t have it all together, but was restored by the love of Jesus who didn’t count his sins against him.

Peter’s restoration We all know the story of Peter’s denial of Jesus before He was taken into custody to be hanged on a cross. Peter had said to Jesus in the presence of all the other disciples: Mark 14:29 - “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” Luke 22:33 - “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” John 13:37 - “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” After he had denied Jesus three times with cursing and swearing (Mark 14:71), he wept bitterly (Matthew 26:75). Can you imagine how it must have felt to have denied Jesus? What could be a worse sin than that? Maybe Peter was thinking of these words of Jesus: Matthew 10:33 - “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” But maybe Jesus was thinking of Peter when He said, Matthew 12:32 - “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him.”

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

Jesus restored Peter, and the story of that restoration is a beautiful one that we can all learn from. In one of the few recorded encounters of the disciples with Jesus after the resurrection, we find that seven of the disciples had returned to fishing. None of them knew what would be next for them. Jesus appeared to them by the side of the lake, cooking breakfast for them. When Peter saw Him, he jumped into the lake and swam to shore to be with Jesus. What happened in Peter that enabled him to go from the shame of denying Jesus to the freedom of diving in after Him? Unlike Judas who had also betrayed Jesus and then attempted to pay for his failure by taking his own life, Peter stayed with Jesus. Peter knew that Jesus had the words of life. He had said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) In a couple of places in scripture we see that Jesus had a private meeting with Peter on resurrection day: Luke 24:33-34 - So they [the two from Emmaus] rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon [Peter]!” 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 -...Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas [Peter in Aramaic], then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren... When did Jesus meet with Peter? How? It’s not recorded for us because this was a private meeting. When you fail, know this: God does not want you to try to pay. He wants to restore you. He wants to meet with you one-on-one and remind you that He paid the price for you. Jesus restored Peter privately and then He restored Him publicly. In John 21, we see Jesus restoring Peter to his public ministry. The following passage is from the Wuest expanded translation which brings out the beauty in Jesus’ words of love to Peter. John 21:15-17, Wuest - When they had breakfasted, Jesus says to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you have a love for Me called out of your heart by My preciousness to you, a devotional love that impels you to sacrifice yourself for Me? Do you consider Me more precious and thus love Me more than these?” Peter said to Him, “Yes, Lord, You know positively that I have an emotional fondness for You.” He says to him, “be feeding My little lambs.” 16 He says to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you have a devotional love for Me called out of your heart by My preciousness to you, a love that impels you to sacrifice yourself for Me?” He says to Him, “Yes, Lord, as for You, You know positively that I have a friendly feeling for You.” He says to him, “Be shepherding My sheep.” 17 He says to him a third time, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you have a friendly feeling and affection for Me?” Peter was grieved that He had said to him a third time, “Do you have a friendly feeling and affection for Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, as for You, all things You know positively. You know from experience that I have a friendly feeling for You.” Jesus said to him, “Be feeding My sheep.” Jesus entrusted him again. At the end of the day, it’s never about our love for the Lord. It’s about His love for us. When we know that, our faith is restored. Faith works by love - by knowing how much He loves us. We know that God used Peter on the day of Pentecost to preach and 3000 people were saved. God used Peter to be the apostle that led the early church.

Grace 101: Week 2, “He Will Never Count Your Sins Against You”

The key to restoration is knowing and believing that the Lord loves you. How do you know? The cross: Romans 5:8 - God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In the heart of every believer is a desire to serve our heavenly Husband, Jesus. The more we know of His great love for us, the more we want to serve Him and His body, the body of Christ. However, the DOING of the work can quickly become the main thing and we switch from DOING because we ARE loved to DOING because we WANT TO BE loved. Let’s keep the main thing the main thing: receiving His love and knowing that whether you lift a finger for Him, He has set you apart for Himself, He will never forsake you, and He will never count your sins against you. Colossians 1:19-23 - God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. 23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.