August 26, 2018
The battle with sin is over. The battle of your old man (the past) has already been won.
So it’s really important for us to understand that, because the gospel announces that the determining factor in my relationship with God is Jesus’ work for me, not my work for Him.
It’s His performance for me, not my performance for Him. It’s His obedience to God, not my obedience to Him.
Gal. 3:1-3
3 What has happened to you Galatians to be acting so foolishly? You must have been under some evil spell![a] Didn’t God open your eyes to see the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion? Wasn’t he revealed to you as the crucified one?[b] 2 So answer me this: Did the Holy Spirit come to you as a reward for keeping all the laws? No, you received him as a gift because you believed in the Messiah.
3 Your new life in the Anointed One began with the Holy Spirit giving you a new birth. Why then would you so foolishly turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own works?[c]
It’s all about Him, what He has done. It has nothing to do with us at all, nothing. There is nothing whatsoever about the gospel that encourages us to focus on ourselves, nothing.
This is why I preach Relational before Functional.
The Christian life is about embracing your Identity not trying to fix your behavior.
I love to ask people “how is your relationship with God?” The answer amuses me.
the gospel is the good news that our relationship to God has nothing to do with our performance. It has everything to do with Christ’s performance for us.
The gospel tells us that God’s acceptance of us is not gained by our successes or forfeited by our failures because it’s not about us at all. Its about Him.
Let me close it it off with this statement – Jesus restored to PERFECTION the broken relationship between us and the Father…
Rom. 5:1 (Nkjv) therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom. 5:2 (nkjv) through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of god.
Heb. 12.2 (nkjv) looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.