This
week, we continued the series, “No Condemnation.” Specifically we
discussed the importance of receiving grace so that we are empowered to live by
the Spirit. In Romans 7:21-23, Paul
illustrates what we have referred to as the “three-vote proposition” or the
battle that goes on inside every believer. In verse 22, he refers to his inner
being (Spirit) that desires to do God’s will in all things. Then in verse 23,
he laments that the members of his body (Flesh) wars against his mind (part of
the Soul) to make it do what it wants.
That
is the battle that we continually fight. The spirit is always in line with God
and His Word. The flesh is always interested in what it wants and rarely lines
up with the Word. The soul is where the battle is waged. The mind has been
conditioned to live by law. It is human nature to not only want a list of rules
that we should live by, but also to then despise the rules and break them. Remember what it said in Romans 6:12 –
that we should not let sin reign. As long as we have a physical body, we are
going to sin. It is inevitable. However, be LED by the spirit to keep that sin
from ruling your life.
Part
of that sinful nature is the desire to justify self by rules and law. We base
our righteousness on whether we think we’ve done “good” or “bad.” But that is
not how God is looking at it. He looks at you and judges your righteousness
only on the blood of Jesus and whether you have wholeheartedly received that
gift. Living by this grace is the ONLY
way you will truly overcome sin in your life. God still hates sin. In Romans
8:3, Paul says that God has condemned sin in sinful man. He did not condemn
man. He never has. In fact, read Genesis carefully and you find that God cursed
the serpent and that the land was cursed, but he never cursed Adam. God does
not curse and has never cursed His children!
Actually, all the blessings written in Deuteronomy 28 for fully
fulfilling the law are ours in Christ Jesus.
Instead,
He established a plan where He would take on the form of man, shed blood and
die in our place for sin so that the curse of sin would not make us cursed.
There is a legal term called double jeopardy, which means you cannot be tried
for the same crime twice. If you have been found not-guilty, you cannot be
tried again for that same crime. Jesus already took the punishment for your
sin. You cannot be punished again for that sin.
I
am not saying there are no negative consequences for sin. That would be denying
obvious truths. If you sin, it produces horrible things in your life and
negatively affects others, but that is not punishment from God. That is,
instead, the actual reason God hates sin so much – because of what it produces
in this earth.
Let’s
say someone owed me $1000. The relationship between us would be strained. That
person would never feel comfortable around me. They’d probably avoid me if they
were unable to pay the debt. What if then someone else comes along and pays me
$1,000,000 to cover that debt. If the one who owed me did not know about it,
they would still avoid me. Even though their debt were paid, their belief would
still separate us. Also, that person
could know about the payment, yet feel that the payment was not legitimate
because they did not pay it themselves. It was their debt, and they need to
pay. Sure, I got far more than what they owed me, but they think I must still
look down on them because THEY never paid me back.
I
think many Christians live this way in their relationship with God. They may
believe in what Jesus did, but they still feel like they owe God because they
did not pay the debt that they owed. God got his “blood,” but I didn’t shed it.
So they still live as one in debt to God – estranged and separated. Well, Jesus didn’t only pay a million for
your thousand in debt. He paid trillions. Was that a gross overpayment? It only
is if you look at it from man’s perspective. If you look at it from God’s
perspective and the way He values you, it is not. God has made a tremendous investment, and he
desires a return on His investment (ROI for you business folks). He needs you to receive His investment of
grace so that it will empower you to be used by Him to expand His kingdom.
Living by law and self-righteousness neglects that gift and gives God little,
if any, ROI. If all we do is receive salvation so that we can go to heaven when
we leave this life, we have given God ZERO ROI. We must receive His grace and
be used to change the world.
In
service last week I did an investment schedule to illustrate this idea. Note, we
are NOT equating grace and the blood of Jesus with dollars and cents! I am
merely using numbers we can relate to in order to illustrate a point. Imagine that God invests a trillion dollars to
pay your $1000 debt. That seems like overpayment, but God is a shrewd investor.
You see, if you choose to become good soil by receiving the gift of grace you
could produce 30-,60- and 100-fold return. It can be argued that the 30-fold is
actually exponential, but for the sake of simplicity we’ll call it 30x or 3000%
(I’m figuring our production conservatively at the bottom end of the
multiplication range God gives at 30 instead of 60 or 100). So the model is
$1000 (the initial value of the trillion dollar investment) invested at 3000%
compounded annually.
After
the first year, that investment is worth $31,000. After the second it is
$961,000. But by year seven it is worth over $27.5 trillion (making profit by
year 7, the year of completion), and by year ten over $819 quadrillion! God
wants that ROI in your life. Receive His grace and become good ground!
To
listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
