As believers in Christ we are free. But why and how? Let me be clear where we stand.
People are made right with God FOREVER when they put their faith in the finished work of Jesus. PERIOD. This is the grace and goodness of God to permanently cleanse a soul by simply believing on/trusting/relying on Jesus- Salvation is a free gift by faith alone. That means there is no necessary life change or behavior change or law following attached. It is an unconditional gift with no strings attached. It is not a temporary righteousness conditional upon how we respond to it. Its eternal SALVATION…NOT eternal PROBATION. It’s a free gift. You don’t give someone a gift and then say I’ll give it back based on how you act with it. Then it’s not a free gift, but a conditional work contract. We are saved because Jesus Christ finished the work of purifying a human being once and for all. Everything required through the law to make a person 100% right with God was done through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Your ascribed holiness, your standing of godliness has nothing to do with your behavior, but the behavior of Jesus. This is important to understand. Repentance is when someone changes their mind about how to be right with God. They changed their mind about who God is. He is not a task masker that is requiring people to obey in order to be right, but he has made righteousness a free gift by faith. And so now we truly are free. We are free because we can choose to live good or live bad with no threat of hell. That is ultimate spiritual freedom. If I tell you that you can leave but I’ll shoot you in the face, is that really a free choice? God has truly given us the freedom to live the way we want to live no matter what we do because Christ finished all the requirements for our righteousness. So is God encouraging sin now? What?! NO! He is encouraging real family relationship with Him that doesn’t involve fear of death; the threat of hell. Will people take advantage? ABSOLUTELY! I don’t know one believer that hasn’t advantaged from the Father’s grace. So, if hell, God’s anger, God’s wrath and judgment are no longer motivators and have been taken out of the way, how then does a person find the motivation to walk in love?
Good question!
We are now motivated to love others as we GROW in God’s radical unconditional love for us; WE don’t do good works of love in order to prove that we are saved, but BECAUSE WE ARE UNCONDITIONALLY AND PERMANENTLY SAVED. Do you think this is simply a play on words? No. We live right because we’re constantly looking at Christ , and how he has perfectly loved us . We do not live right because we are trying to stay on God’s good side or keep our part of the salvation deal. We have ZERO role in the salvation deal. We should not talk about salvation and godly living in the context of proving anything. Because then we have people become focused on their works rather than the work of Christ-the unconditional love of Christ that saved them. They think that if they are not behaving well enough then they are demonstrating that they’re not saved. Well then who are they truly putting their faith in at that moment? So, we here preach the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a free unconditional gift given by faith through grace. it is God’s goodness to give people heaven and righteousness for free by faith in Jesus- without any work.
Key Verses listed below
Romans 4:5
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness
Romans 3:22,24-25
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. [24] … 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. [25] 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.
Galatians 2:16
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
1 John 4:18-19
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. [19] We love each other because he loved us first.
Coming to the knowledge of the grace of God is what changes our lives, it’s our teacher. Right believing produces right living: Titus 2:11-12 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodli… See more
We do not add any good works to the finished payment of our sin, it is done and completed, God the Father was satisfied on Jesus’ vicarious atonement on the Cross, we do good works not to be saved but to give honour,glory and to please God.
The is to ABIDE! Perhaps a good read of John 15, in the words of Christ himself to his disciples, will bring light into this darkness. Saved FOREVER, is true, for as long as you ABIDE in Christ in a saving and obedient relationship with him. He is t… See more