The Doctrine of Grace

[saint701]

Hello All,


Blessings!

Grace, it seems, has been the most misunderstood doctrine in the New Covenant God has given us in the blood of Jesus. Though elaborated on by Paul in his various letters, and envisioned by him in the Book of Hebrews, darkness over the eyes of many has kept them from understanding it. While Paul tells us grace is not a license to sin and that continuing in such will bring death, the concept of life through grace has long been a mystery to many.

Let's begin with the sin that brings death. The sin that brings death is that of a servant of God, who, after reaching the maturity of a complete spiritual understanding with accompanying powers and gifts, longevity of service in the house of God, and complete understanding of Satan and the deceitfulness of sin, decide to again take the devil as their master. Such tell Jesus to go away, reject grace, and count the blood of the everlasting covenant an unholy thing.

MOST CHRISTIANS NEVER, AND I MEAN NEVER MATURE TO SUCH A POINT AS TO BE ABLE TO DO SUCH AN INSANE THING! Not withstanding, apparently some have. I won't elaborate on that as here it is our focus to understand what grace is, the abundance of it to us that believe, and what the power of it is on our behalf.

First of all, as with faith not being separate from grace, neither is the grace of God separate from the blood of The Everlasting Covenant. The problem with man in the Garden of Eden was not that they would continue in sin, but that the price of sin had to paid in order for their conscience to be cleansed from the guilt sin produced. Sin demanded that the price of death be paid for the guilty. Adam and Eve were guilty. They could no longer fellowship with God because of the fear of Him their guilt produced.

Now comes the death of Jesus on our behalf. Through His death we realize at some point the price of our own sin has been paid for, His blood is applied to our conscience, and we are healed from our sin. The weight of our guilt is purged from our conscience by that blood, and our spirit then lifts into the light of God, out of the darkness of sin that it was in. We may or may not be born again at this point. Such depends on the strength of our believing and our understanding.

At this point, where grace is concerned, a baby Christian thinks this is wonderful...and so they travel on for a while, then they slip up, their conscience becomes guilty before God again, and they don't know what to do because they think that BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT only applies to their past sins. Well, if THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT only applied to those sins before we were healed, it would be called the The Blood of The Covenant that lasts 30 days, and the Apostle John would have wasted our times with his scriptures for babies that their sins are forgiven, and for the rest of us that if we confess our sins He is not only faithful, but also justified in forgiving us and cleansing us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.

Again, coming to grips with the grace God has given us in the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant and receiving forgiveness is in direct proportion to our faith. If we do not believe we can be forgiven, it is not until such light of believing of faith is grown to in us that we will confess our sin before God and believe we have been cleansed.

So Paul tells us about such grace, and such news was so overwhelmingly wonderful to the hearers, they could scarce contain themselves from the excitement in that day when such grace was declared, so much so some said, well then, man am I ever going to sin it up big time. And I am sure some did, but that kind of life puts you right back in darkness and all the time things just go down hill until one figures out sin doesn't work out.

Grace, then one learns, was not given to continue in sin. Grace, one learns, was given because God knows we will sin. We will sin because we still live in a physical body that has not been regenerated as has our spirit. As young Christians we are still carnal. Even though healed and most likely born again of the Spirit, we are still most prone to attempt to act out of our flesh instead of our spirit. And when we act out of our flesh we will sin at some point.

But the BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT still has its power. The blood of Jesus is in us and will cleanse us when we sin if we will confess our sin. THE LAW OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS HAS SET US FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH! The law of sin and death has been satisfied by the blood of Jesus, so that when we sin we can point to it before the Father as satisfying the demands of the law so that He may give us the grace of His forgiveness.

But should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Of course not! There is the other side of grace, the power side of grace given us for the growth of our spirit, that our spirit may be completely formed in the likeness of Jesus in us, and help us grow to live all the time in love, power, and do right things!

Such is the next post, The Grace Given Us By God To Do Right.


Blessings!
Love, In Christ Jesus, Saint701.

[morningrain]

Hi Saint,

You're right grace isn't a license to sin, yet at the same time we are still yet in the flesh, so as much as i don't want to, i still sin. Sometimes i find myself doing something and the Holy Spirit convicts me and lets me know i'm wrong in doing whatever it is. Sometimes i go to do something and the Holy Spirit convicts me before doing that sin and i'm able to stop in my tracks, rethink what i'm doing. I'm able to come before the Lord and ask for forgiveness. The verse that brings comfort when when i see i've done something wrong and then guilt over takes me because i've grieved the Lord with that sin. Rom 5:20, "...where sin abounded, grace did much more abound"

Blessings to you Saint and all!
angel