Nov 12 2024 24 mins
Summary:
Grace is such a vast subject that no one can really get a hold of it. More than anything, it is the Goodness of God. By grace, Jesus shed His blood for our sins- past, present and future, so that we can have a relationship to the Father, just like He does . That doesn’t mean that our sins go unchecked- there are still consequences to our actions, but grace covers them so that we can still relate freely to our Father.
One of the greatest risks for all of us is the sin of pride. For anyone who is “going after it”, pride will be an issue at some point, so we need to try to keep one another “in check.”
Show Notes:
Paul went back to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and teachers concerning the Gentiles having to keep the law of Moses. It was determined by all that they weren’t required to keep it, and did not have to live under the restriction of it. But the Judaizers in Corinth were trying to get the Gentiles to submit to the law.
Paul told the Galatians to “stand fast in your liberty” and not get entangled in a yoke of dead, legalistic, rules-oriented religion, because that wasn’t what it was about anymore. It’s about having a relationship with the Father, through Jesus.
Especially in the Bible Belt, people still think, “I have to go to church, or I’m not right with God. I have to pray a lot or I’m not right with God”. That is not how the Father thinks.
Paul had a right to brag and boast about what God had shown him. So, to keep him from slipping into pride, the Father gave him a thorn in the flesh to buffet him. That’s grace. Pride is coming to all of us if we don’t keep an eye on it.
Quotes:
I have experienced a lot of grace, but it’s such a vast subject that you never really feel like you have a handle on how good and how deep this subject of grace really is.
The old covenant was the 10 commandments, and then they added over 600 more laws. These laws help people about how to deal with their neighbors, how to deal with people and even not to eat. They covered just about everything.
The new covenant took the place of the old covenant. The new covenant is a covenant of grace, and before Jesus shed His blood, He kept all the facets of the law, because you and I couldn’t do it.
Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin. He took on all the sin that would ever be committed before, during and after Jesus, so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ. He took on Himself what we had coming, and in turn, we got what He had coming; grace, life, favor, blessing, relationship with God, all of that. This is what I call the Divine Swap.
References:
Galatians 5:1
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Takeaways:
Grace doesn’t give us a license to go out and do whatever we want to do. Consequences could follow. Grace gives us the liberty and ability to become Christ-like in everything we do. Grace is what gives us life, favor, blessings, and a relationship with the Father. It simply transforms us so that we can all say, “When I am weak, then I am strong”.