663. Reigning in Life

When the focus of our belief in God is merely built upon good and evil—trying to avoid evil and working at doing good—it will not set us free, nor will it help us to do what is good and right. Instead our mindset should be on the person of Jesus Christ and God’s love and grace. Once we begin to understand that we died and were raised with Jesus Christ—and have received His life in us—we can begin to experience the gift of righteousness that will allow us to be more aware and conscious of what He accomplished on our behalf. A deeper revelation of the gospel and the finished work of Christ will help us to escape whatever bondage empty religion will try to burden us with.



   

498. Freed from Religion into Something Much Better!

Galatians 5:1 says that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, and that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be put back into the bondage of what we’ve been set free from! What is it that we’ve been set free from? We’ve been set free from religion (religious rules and laws that could never provide life). Jesus didn’t come to give us religion or to make us religious. He came to free us from religion, and in doing so God has given us something much better! He’s given us His life. He put Christ in us, as our life.

Rather than being guided by rules and religion, we’re now led, guided and accompanied by the Holy Spirit in us. We were given the Spirit by grace through faith, not by our own works, and we live our daily lives in Christ in the same way – by grace through faith, apart from our own works.


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424. The Nature of Grace: Christ Is Our Life

Much has been said about accepting Jesus Christ into our lives, yet the gospel declares that He has accepted you into His life. Our past life does not exist before God because that person died at the cross with Christ. The pure nature of grace that brought salvation apart from works is often frowned upon by those who can't pull away from the magnet of self-righteousness. Why? They stumble over the idea that grace is sovereign. Grace has no fulfilled conditions on man's part to wait for and it can and often does place the worst deservers in the highest favors.

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423. The Nature of Grace: Grace Does it All

God has blessed us beyond measure with His grace, and He Himself has made us worthy and accepted by Him. When it comes to living in this grace, rather than asking God to "bless our efforts," we trust instead that God does it all (it's His work that He does in us) and He willingly and gladly invites us to come along with Him and take part in what He's doing! Knowing that God's grace is completely underserved by us, and that we can't do anything to make ourselves worthy of it, really does bring about a sense of restful humility.

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422. The Nature of Grace: God Acting Freely

What was the reason for God to give you His Spirit? "We have been given the Spirit who is from God so that we may know and understand the things freely given to us by God." (I Cor 2:12). No requirements, promises or obligations to fulfill. His extension of unconditional grace towards us originates from His nature of love. Grace is uncaused by us as recipients. The act of grace in our lives is rooted completely on the one who gave it, not on the receiver.

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421. You Are in Christ, Not the Flesh

Regardless of whatever struggles you've had physically, with the body or even the mind, the scriptures declare as believers in Christ we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. That doesn't mean we won't be challenged with opportunities to do wrong. But we're under grace and not works of the law. The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. God has equipped us with His Spirit. Stop trying to battle the flesh and allow Him to do it for you.

Just as we did last week, we wanted to refer again to a couple of previous podcasts in which we talked about "the flesh," as these episodes may be helpful in understanding more about where we're coming from this week:
Episode 405. The Destruction and Removal of Sin
Episode 406. What is the Flesh? (The Good, the Bad, the Ugly)

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170. Feelings of Guilt and Condemnation Are Not From God

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A continuation of the chat from last week. If you're feeling guilty and condemned for your sins, it's not from God! In Christ He has taken away your sin completely - which removes all guilt and condemnation. "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (see Romans 8:1). The law made people guilty before God (Romans 3:19), but those in Christ "have been set free from sin" (Romans 6:22) and have been "made free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). The only thing that has made this possible is the Blood of Jesus. We can't add anything to what Christ has already done! His sacrifice was a one time sacrifice, sufficient for all of our sins - past, present and future!