Works versus grace has been a long-held debate among people inside the walls of church buildings. Such a discussion is supremely important, because it strikes at the heart of our union and relationship with God. Are we saved by works which we perform, or is salvation purely an act of God’s grace? Or is salvation some kind of synergy between our God’s grace mixed with our works?
Your response to this question will change absolutely everything about your relationship with God, how you interact with Him, and what you can expect from Him.
Today we will be exploring the most important aspect of our relationship with God, salvation, to answer the question of whether salvation is earned by our works, or is received as a gift from God.
Righteousness – it’s one of the main focuses of the Christian life, and many people are constantly striving towards the goal of being righteous; or being more righteous. There are entire books, study guides and conferences all centered around living righteously, and learning how to be more righteous.
There are countless numbers of Christians today who are on a quest to “better themselves”, to be more righteous, and be more like God and please Him. I used to be one of those people, as well. I know exactly how it feels, and it seems right; it seems like a very good thing. You may even be asking right now “why wouldn’t that be a good thing?! We need more righteous people, who want to please God!”
And I do agree that it is a very good thing for people to be righteous, and of course to please God – we all want that. However, the question isn’t really whether that’s a good thing or not; but rather how do we accomplish it?
You see, no-one is questioning the importance of being righteous, but rather where we diverge is how to be righteous. Because when you ask this question, most people immediately jump to their own works and performance, and what they need to do for God.
So today, we will be examining what the scriptures actually say about how to be righteous; and the answer may surprise you!
On several occasions, I have been in conversations where I have bluntly asked someone, “are you righteous in the sight of God?”, and then the person in question would hesitate, they would pause, and consider their life and their behaviors, and then with shakiness in their voice answer “I think so...”. This reveals the fact that when it comes to righteousness, such people as the ones I have spoken with, really have no confidence at all in their righteous standing before God; and it’s precisely for this reason that they aren’t standing on the proper foundation… they aren’t standing in Christ, but instead are looking at their own behaviors and performance and judging their righteousness and their standing before God based on that, instead of on the finished work of Christ.
This has a more damaging effect than you may imagine at first, because righteousness by faith in Christ is at the very core of our new identity, and it is very important to successful spiritual warfare; to the utilization of our power in Christ. As we studied last week, God has given us power; He wants us to have it and make use of it… but we will never have success, unless we stand on the proper foundation, and approach from the correct perspective.
So today in this study, we look at the importance of knowing, truly knowing beyond doubt that you are righteous.
I invite you to perform a little experiment... the next time you’re in a Church-building, or a Christian setting, listen to the things that the people often say about themselves. You'll usually hear things such as:
- Oh, I’m just a sinner saved by grace.
- I’m a work in progress.
- I’m a piece of metal that’s being refined.
And there are other things as well, but these are the most common phrases that I often hear. And with each of these phrases, there is one common point in all of them – that the work isn’t finished yet.
People are going around constantly telling themselves and others that, well no, Jesus really hasn’t finished the work yet… that it’s still in progress. This is what most people actually believe, and it saddens me, because it’s really not the truth.
What I want to share with you today in this study, is what the scriptures actually say regarding your status right now as a child of God, washed and redeemed by His shed blood and broken body for you. And that in-fact, it is okay to admit the truth of what He has done for you.
Jesus is perfect. As believers that statement might not be too surprising. Most Christians would say “Amen” to it, and agree with the statement without thinking twice. Yet in practice there are some areas where we don’t take into account just how very deep His perfection runs. For example, let me ask you a simple question: If you could obey the Law of Moses perfectly, would you be righteous?
Most of the Christians that I have discussions with, would answer “yes”, and indeed many are trying to do exactly that… they are trying to continually improve their behavior to align to what they call the “moral law” (even though the Law of Moses really has no divisions or separate categories).
Additionally, many of the Christians that I speak with, believe that this is all that Jesus did; they believe that the reason Jesus was the perfect sacrifice was because He simply kept the Law of Moses perfectly.
And what I want to share with you today, is the fact that Jesus’ perfection is so much deeper than that! I want to expand your vision and broaden your horizon to see much more of His perfection than what is generally seen. And as you see the perfection of Jesus today, you will be able to more fully appreciate what He has accomplished for you.
People often ask me why I talk so much about our identity in Christ. I have been asked on more than one occasion, why I don’t talk about something “more relevant”… and each time I respond the exact same way: I say, Sir / Ma’am, there is nothing more relevant than the Gospel of Jesus Christ; there is nothing more relevant than the truth of what He has done and of who we are in Him. That is the very truth that makes us free.
Now there have been some I have said that to, that had their eyes opened, and suddenly realized what I was saying – and there have been others I have said that to, that have snickered and became offended and went off in search of whatever trending topic was going on for that week, but the truth remains, that a vast majority of Christians in the world today are still living weak and powerless lives, with more defeats than victories, and it’s all because of a simple lack of understanding regarding the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s all due to ignorance of what Jesus has really done, and who we are in Him; and so that is what I want to share with you today.
All across the world, good and honest believers have this idea that they must work at “doing good”. They must struggle and strive to “do the right thing”, to make God happy or to prove their love for Him, or whatever the underlying motivation may be; it leads to the same place: a merit-centered, man-centered mentality which is not focused on God, but is focused on self-performance and behavior.
Many believers think that if they themselves or their fellow brother or sister in Christ is failing in a particular area of behavior, that it is due to some sin in their life, or that they are just being lazy and they need to try harder. But is this what the scriptures actually say?
In this study today, we will be taking a look at what God has to say on this very subject, and how God’s diagnosis of the problem of wrong behaviors is not what we might expect. As you see this truth, it will give you a new mindset regarding this issue, and a new confidence in your relationship with God as well.
If you have been a believer for some time, you have probably heard about the wonderful promises of God… and even if you have not believed for very long (or at all) you probably still know that such promises exist at-least – or have some level of awareness of them. It's impossible to keep a secret on such an amazing truth as the promises of God. Promises of blessing of every kind. Starting first and foremost with salvation, and touch absolutely every area of life from health, wholeness, healing, provision, wisdom, peace and every thing named or unnamed… regardless of what it is, there is a promise from God about it.
However simply knowing that such promises exist, does very little good if we do not believe that they are for us, or know how to receive them. You may be surprised to learn that there is a growing number of believers who think that the promises either aren't for them, or that it's wrong to receive them. You see, the enemy knows that the promises of God are too big to keep secret, so instead he just keeps people in confusion about them. So that's why in this study today, we will be taking a look at how Jesus is our legal right to the promises of God, and how we can receive them without any doubt.
Today, I am going to share with you a secret. It has been said that “the best place to hide is right out in the open”, and this secret has been right out in the open all along. This secret is that Jesus is the solution to every single one of your problems. Now you may have heard this before, but for one reason or another you have had limited success in seeing your problems being solved by Jesus. This has actually been a common complaint among believers for a long time, and there are many different theories why; but the Bible has one single reason, or more accurately, one reason expressed in a variety of ways throughout the Bible.
So today we are going to study exactly what this reason is and how to apply it in our daily lives Once we see this truth from scripture, and truly embrace it, that is when we will release more of the miracle-working, delivering power of Jesus into our life, and chains will be broken as a result.