Hello beloved one of God, I hope you’re fine by God’s grace.
Today (just as every other day) is a wonderful day to talk about God’s grace.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that in the Christian faith we have a certain number of key words and key phrases which we know and share and believe in, but more often than not we haven’t really made them personal or tried to understand what they really mean at a deeper level for us.
For example, in my case, the phrase “Jesus paid it all”, I know it’s true, I believe it, but I had never really understood the implications of this phrase.
That’s why today, we’re going to discuss on the song “Jesus Paid It All” by Kristian Stanfill.
At the same time I’ll use this opportunity to give you my takeaway of the latest sermon in the church I worship at; Elevation Church preached by Pastor Steven Furtick “Danger in The Distance” in his latest series “Savage Jesus”.
As I say to my friends, this sermon changed my life. It changed my perspective about God, I thought I knew God’s love but I realize I still have a long way to go to understand the length,breadth, depth and height of His love and grace.
To be honest, I’ve never been pro-teachings on grace. Not because I don’t believe in God’s grace but because I thought that it would encourage peope to continue to sin. It’s only last year when I heard a sermon at Elevation Church preached by Pastor Perry Noble that I learned this:
“Some people aren’t comfortable when we talk about God’s grace because they don’t think they need it”
-Pastor Perry Noble
You’ll understand in a few lines why this was true about me. Anyhow, with time I really learned this, not only do we all need God’s grace, but we need to be reminded of His grace everyday. It’s knowing that He’ll forgive you which will make you come back to Him for forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration.
The devil wants you to believe that you’ve messed it up so much that you’d better continue to dwell in sin since “you’re already going to hell” and “God will never forgive you“. But the message of The Cross, the message of grace is not to scare you away from God because of the guilt and shame due to your sins, which anyway can’t make you change, but to tell you that Jesus says
“Yes I know what you did, you weren’t even born when I already knew what you would do, and that’s exactly why I took your place on The Cross and died for your sins, so that you could come to Me to receive forgiveness”
God knows it all, nothing is hidden from Him.
You know that sin which you’re just from thinking about when you read “God knows it all,nothing is hidden from Him” ?
He knew that sin too, and He died on The Cross for that. He had that sin in mind when the nails were going through His body, and He decided to stay on that Cross till the end of His mission because He wanted you to be saved from your sins.
When we say that Jesus paid it all, it really means that the chastisement for our sins, He took it on Himself.
Normally, it was I, chief of sinners who should have been on that Cross, who should have had those nails go through my body, and my blood spilling, because of my sins. I totally deserve to be punished for all of my sins. Those I commited in the past, those I commited let it be 10 years ago, or yesterday, or today, and for the sins I will commit in the future, that punishment I indeed deserved it.
But Jesus Christ took it on Himself to go on that Cross and pay the punishment for my sins. He took my place. The punishment which was mine, He took it for me. He paid for all of my sins (past, present, future).
Romans 3:24-26 NLT
Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
1 Peter 2:24 NLT
He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Isaiah 40:2 NIV
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord ’s hand double for all her sins.
There’s one thing I’ve learned at The Cross and through out reading The Bible.
If you turn to God for forgiveness, He’ll never chase you away. Even if you were wrong, even though you deserve what you are going through as normal consequences of your sins, even if you’ve tried and tried to change and failed but this time around you still want to repent, even if it’s not going as you planned, if you turn to Him for His mercy, He’s never going to chase you away if…
Now you ask yourself, why is there a condition? But watch this:
He’s never going to chase us away if
1 John 1:9 NIV
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
The only condition is that you seek to find remedy for your dysfunction not in other dysfunctional systems (addictions, more sin, anger, guilt, shame blaming others, suicide etc.) but in Him. Those things cannot save you from sin, only Him can.
This is a clear contrast with:
1 John 1:10 NIV
If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word is not in us.
Have you seen the difference between the two? One confesses his sins to God (sins which God already knows by the way, but you need to confess them to go through the process of healing), but the other one claims he has not sinned.
This is funny because for a good number of years I thought that being a Christian implied that I did not sin anymore. As such I would never perform check-ups on myself to evaluate at which level I sinned and fell short of God’s glory, instead, I thought that I was perfect and that “admitting that I had sinned was admitting that I was wrong, and saying that I am not a Christian”.
Through this verse I learned that being a Christian doesn’t mean you’ll never sin, and it doesn’t mean either that you have to deny it when you sin so that you can save your “good image of perfect Christian in your own sight”.
Being a Christian means you believe that Christ died to take away your sins, as such when you sin you’re not hopeless anymore, you can turn to Him and confess your sins, and receive His forgiveness.
The greatness of a Christian thus is not in acting strong/perfect but in breaking down your heart in humility before God, admitting your weakness.
Let’s go for a little illustration:
Luke 18:9-14 MSG
He told His next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
Remember the leprous man who got healed by Jesus in Mark 1:40, though normally according to the law he was defiled and shouldn’t have drawn close to Jesus? Do you know why Jesus healed him?
Mark 1:40-42 NLT
A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, You can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” He said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.
“His humility made him irresistible, he made it impossible for Jesus to refuse to heal him”
-Pastor Steven Furtick
Luke 14:11 NLT
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Isaiah 42:3a KJV
A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench:
Psalms 51:16-17 NLT
You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
It demands more courage to admit your status before God as a sinner who needs Him, than it takes to remain at the surface level with God while pretending to be perfect.
You’ll enjoy your relationship with God better when you accept to be vulnerable before Him.
The person who wears a mask with God and with everyone and who prefers to close his eyes to not see his sins and think he is perfect is in fact not as bold and courageous as the person who decides to accept that God’s Word may search his heart and that God’s Holy Spirit may convict him so that he can confess his sins.
The masks we wear with God are often due to our own insecurities, we doubt that He can accept us as we are.
Let me tell you, He has already accepted you as you are.
It’s now your turn to turn to Him and receive His grace.
“The danger of isolation is greater than the risk of intimacy with God”
-Pastor Steven Furtick
Exercise
- Beg God on your knees today for a sin (or sins) which you committed and which you’ve not confessed to Him yet
- Believe in and receive His forgiveness once and for all for those specific sins
- Walk free from guilt, shame and condemnation
- Decide to be intimate with God whatever happens, to always turn to Him with a broken and contrite heart no matter the sin which you commit in the future. Keep in mind that the same God who forgave you today is The One who will forgive you tomorrow
- Listen to “Jesus Paid It All” by Kristian Stanfill.
Prayer
Father Lord God Almighty, next time the guilt and shame due to my own sins isolate me from you, speak to my soul to remind me that You are Willing to forgive me, and it just takes some steps for me to come to You to receive Your grace for free, in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen
It’s Now Your Turn
Please leave a comment to share how grateful you are of God’s forgiveness.
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Thank you so much for reading, you are blessed and highly favoured.
God bless you
Victoria Eyog
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