A New Bible Series
“Understanding
The Gospel Is As Simple as A,B,C”
The Law Versus
Grace # 2
Grace
Let us now talk about grace which is really just the opposite
to the ‘works of the law” in keeping the Mosaic Law.
1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Gal
1:15 But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
16
To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
q The apostle Peter tells us that grace is brought to us whenever the Lord Jesus is revealed.
q In Galatians one fifteen and sixteen the apostle Paul defines grace as God revealing His Son in him, so that the very Person of Christ might be preached to the lost.
q
Finally
in Galatians two, twenty and twenty-one, grace is defined as Christ living in us,
and we living our lives in accordance to His life.
What is grace? The one definition that is used mostly in
our Christian circles for grace is, “God’s unmerited favor”. I believe though, that true grace must be
defined as something more than that.
Watchman Nee, the great Chinese apostle, has given to us what I think is
the most accurate definition of the law and grace. He stated, and I paraphrase; the law is defined as us trying to
please God, by doing everything through our own efforts, plans, and ideas. Grace on the other hand, is God doing
everything in us, and for us, through His superhuman energy. Grace is something
that belongs to God, because it is associated with the person of Christ, and
His revelation. Grace is exerted or comes forth every time that Christ is present.
The more is the presence of God, the more that we will see Him act, and bless
us on our behalf through His grace
1
Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of
God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly
than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me.
Notice Paul’s use of vocabulary in First Corinthians, as he describes grace to us. Though he labored in the gospel, he was not the one laboring, but it was the Person of Christ laboring in him by His grace. Grace then is the power, the superhuman effort, the spiritual gifts, and the glory of Christ all laboring in Paul, by Christ Himself.
By the abundance of the revelation of
Christ within us is the abundance of grace or the superhuman labor of Christ manifested
in us and for us. This is why I always
stress that Christianity is the revelation of the Person of Christ. It is
really very elemental. The more the presence of Christ within us, the more that
He will influence us, or the more that His influence will affect us. The revelation of Christ can only be brought
by the work of the cross. The less that
we become by the death of self, the more that He is revealed. You can see why I
am so concerned about the present state of the church, where the cross of
Christ is not being preached.
John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
the Rhema words
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works.
q
How then can
the Lord Jesus be revealed in our lives
so that He can labor in us and for us through His grace? Please look with me
now at John fourteen and ten.
q
The person
of the Lord is revealed both through the logos (written word) and
the rhema (the moment to moment spoken word of the Holy Spirit,
given to us by Him as the circumstances warrant it.).
q
The grace of
God laboring within us always carries with it a rhema word. The rhema word is the product of God working
within us, and also instructing what He wants from us, so that He can be manifested
without, or to the world. This is the
key to any Spirit led ministry in the power of God!
Rom
10:6 But the righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into
heaven? (that is, to bring
Christ down from
above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ
again from the
dead.)
8
But
what saith it? The rhema word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the rhema word of faith, which we
preach;
Romans
ten, six through eight are some of the most vital verses describing the
revelation of Christ, grace, and our walk of faith. If we closely examine what these scriptures are telling us, we
find the following. The reason why we
do not need to bring Christ down from above, neither do we need to bring Him up
from the dead, is because the rhema word is near to us; in our mouths and
hearts. In other Christ is not far,
Christ is near, because the rhema word is near. The rhema word is the revelation
of Christ in the progression of time.
God’s
grace is also activated by the rhema word. The rhema word reveals the person of
Christ and what He desires. The revelation of Christ will manifest His
activity, hence His grace. As we obey the rhema word, it will automatically
activate this grace, because Christ is always faithful to fulfill his own rhema
words.
The
“righteousness of faith” is another huge subject that we cannot speak about
today. In a very simplified way let me explain. God’s righteousness is His
acts, works, and deeds as manifested to the universe. The Lord’s righteousness
is really His grace in action or the labor of His grace. It is the product or the end result of His
grace. “The righteousness of faith” is the righteousness of God that is
released through our faith. Each and
every act of faith on our part however, must always be initiated by a rhema
word. Every time that we step out in faith, it must always be upon a foundation
of the rhema word. Even when we have the written word to support all of our
plans and intentions, we must have a rhema word to give us the timing of God,
in carrying out His written word. If we are to see the Lord mightily work in us
and for us, it must always come upon the basis of a rhema word that releases
God’s righteousness and manifests the Lord Jesus. This is the rhema word of
faith spoken about in verse eight.
Rom
6:13 Neither yield ye your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Grace is also the end product of the cross of Christ.
The “work of the cross” is simply to quite and stills the life of our mind, will,
and emotions, (the soul), by setting it free from sin, hurts, and demonic oppression. Our soul life must become stilled and quieted
so that we are able to hear the “still small voice” of the Lord in our spirits
through the rhema word. We call this the
“dying to self”. Only those that have
died to themselves, are those that “alive from the dead” through the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The greater the ability to hear the
rhema word of God, because our soul lives have been quieted through the death
of the cross, the greater will be the revelation of the Lord in our lives. As
the Lord reveals Himself, so does His grace laboring in us, become a reality to
us.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over
you: for ye are not
under the law, but under grace.
Verse fourteen of Romans six is a tremendously
significant verse in our victory over sin. Paul declares to us in this verse
that sin will not have dominion over us because we under grace. The more then
the person of the Lord Jesus is revealed in us, the less will be the dominion
of sin. The “works of the law” would have
had never given us dominion over sin.
In fact it would had brought out more and more sinfulness in us as we
miserably failed to overcome.
How does grace achieve fore us the victory that
eludes” the works of the law”? The
answer is revealed for us in Romans eight and two. You will notice that there
is also another law mentioned here. The
“law of sin and death” resides in us, this we know
already. This other law termed as “the law of the Spirit of life” resides in Christ. The second law can be deribed as that
whenever we yield to, and are led by the Spirit of God; the same Spirit of God
will release to us the “God kind of life” which is eternal life.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
This
law, which releases to us the eternal life of God, is stronger and more
powerful than the law which releases sin and death! Hallelujah! This is how
sin is overcome. Our own efforts will only bring out more sinfulness. The
revelation of the Person of Christ, and the law of the spirit of life dwelling
in Him, in conjunction with His grace laboring in us, will set us free.
Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom
5:17 For if by one man’s offence death
reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift
of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Romans five and seventeen tell us the following; through the sinfulness of Adam, sin and death reigns in humanity. Those that receive Christ however, reign in this world because of the “God kind” of life released in them. The condition for this to happen is by us having an abundance of grace that labors to bring the righteousness of God into us. This is what frees us. Abundance of grace is the result of the abundance of the revelation of the Person of Christ.
Rom
5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the
offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans five twenty and twenty one tells us quite the similar thing. The reign of sin results in death. However, through the Lord Jesus Christ, righteousness laboring in us through His grace, reigns to produce eternal life in us. Here we see the actions of “the law of the Spirit of life” once again. Whereas sin may abound in any individual, the grace of God contingent upon the revelation of the Person of His Son will always superabound, thus defeating the law of sin and death.
Galatians 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
(Greek:
The effectiveness and usefulness of the Person of Christ in your life
has been made void, if you seek to please God by “the works of the law.” You have fallen from your position of grace.
How
can we then as twenty first century Christians relate to the ‘works of the
law’? Because much of our Christianity, especially in the United States, has
been robbed of the basic understanding of the cross, the revelation of the
Person of Christ is of little importance to us. Without the Person of Christ,
there is a deficiency of the rhema word, and the grace of God. Many believers, and many churches do not
depend therefore upon the Holy Spirit for the carrying out of their activities.
Church programs, agendas, outreaches, and personal activities are executed upon
what appears right, noble and good. On
other occasions, we “perform” in our Christian activities as we try to please
our Heavenly Father, in the same way that we once tried to please our earthly
one. We also execute our activities out
of a sense of guilt and duty. These “works
of the law” in our churches labor to produce powerlessness, ritualistic church
services, Christian boredom, and the term which I coin so often, “sowing much
and reaping little.”
Rom
10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
q Romans ten and four tells us that within the Person of Christ resides the aim, the purpose, and the completion of the Mosaic Law. Christ, as the end of the Law, has satisfied the Father completely, in that He has fulfilled the spirit and the heart of the Mosaic Law perfectly and forever. We need not fulfill the Mosaic Law today because of this. We need not to do the “works of the law” as well. All we need is the revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ, in who dwells the fulfillment of the totality of The Mosaic Law. If we obey Him fully, all that God had intended for under the Old Covenant as well as the New Covenant will be perfectly accomplished within us.
Romans
7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are
become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth
fruit unto God.
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
q
We must
continuously yield ourselves to the cross of Christ so that the Son of God may be
revealed in us through the rhema word of God.
Romans seven, four and six tell us that we are dead to, and thus are
free from the law. What God is telling us is that we must no longer follow Him
by what appears to be right, logical and even of a worthy cause outside of the
voice of the Spirit. A dead man cannot
respond to sin because he is dead. We
cannot respond to the law, because we are dead to it. Our only response in this
life must be to the logos, and the rhema word in conjunction with the voice of
the Holy Spirit, which gives us God’s direction and timing.
q
We are dead
to the law and are now married “even to him who is raised from
the dead”. The one raised from
the dead is the revealed person of Christ within us laboring by His grace, to
produce His righteousness in us. This
is our life, and this is how we bear lasting fruit unto God. God Bless You, Jose Alvarez
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