The miraculous transaction of receiving Jesus as our Lord and savior, opens our lives to the fullness of God’s grace. There are two aspects to this transaction, the first, negative, the second, positive.
The negative one is the one that always surprises religious people. It consists of two plain words, stop working.
To him who does not work, his faith is credited as righteousness. So, the first thing you have to do is stop trying to earn God’s favor, because God can never give it to you on that basis, because it’s a false basis and God is a God of truth. You never will earn it. That’s the negative.
The positive is receiving Jesus. As many as received Him, John says, He gave them the right to become the children of God. And then it says, In Him dwelt grace and truth, and we have received of His fullness, grace for grace.
In other words, once we receive Jesus into our lives and yield to Him, then for every problem there’s a corresponding grace in Jesus.
The problem of timidity is taken care of by the grace of Jesus’ courage.
The problem of anger is taken care of by the grace of Jesus’ gentleness.
The problem of lust is taken care of by the grace of Jesus’ purity.
In other words, in place of our problem, there is a grace of Jesus which is manifested forth out of our lives as we receive Him and then yield to Him.
We need to learn what follows after this initial transaction, how we must learn to rely on God’s grace in our daily living.
For most of us, that has not been an easy lesson, learning to rely on God’s grace. Our temptation always is to begin in God’s grace, get a little bit pleased with ourselves and think we’re doing fine and we can handle this, and now I’m really mature. And then without realizing it, we cease to rely on God’s grace. And what happens?
We’re in trouble because we’re back again in our own carnal nature with all its inadequacies and failures. So, I want to suggest to you three simple successive steps that help us to keep relying on God’s grace.
Step one, affirm Christ living in you. Declare Jesus living in you.
Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
So, I’ve been crucified with Christ. I’m no longer alive. It’s Christ now living in me. I don’t meet life’s problems as my old self. I meet life’s problems as a person in whom Christ is living, and He has become my life. You need to affirm that.
You need to keep affirming it every time you’re under pressure and you think you can’t handle it, you say, It’s not I who live, but Christ who’s living in me.
It’s very important that we say it our loud with our mouth, that we actually verbalize our faith. That’s what’s called in the Bible confession, saying the same thing with our mouth, as the Bible says, and as we believe in our heart. Don’t just leave it in your heart, say it with your mouth.
Then the second step is a negative one, put no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians 3: 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
the people who call themselves the circumcision in Paul’s day, regarded themselves as the people of God, the people who had it all.
And Paul says that isn’t the way it is. He says this is the mark of the true circumcised people of God. And he gives three characteristics.
First, we worship God by the Spirit. We’re not bound to some earthly place of worship, because our worship is in spirit and in truth
Second, we glory, we exalt, we boast in Christ Jesus. We don’t boast of our own human righteousness. We don’t boast of our parentage, of our denomination, of our good works, but we boast in Christ Jesus.
Thirdly, we put no confidence in the flesh. We deliberately say that we do not rely on our own ability, our own strength or our own righteousness.
Paul goes on in that passage to say, If anybody could have relied on the flesh, it would have been me. He said, I was of the people of Israel, descendant of Abraham, tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, in regard to the keeping of the law faultless.
But he said, I have renounced confidence in all of that, because it can’t do for me what the grace of God can do.
God is jealous of His grace. If you want His grace, you’ve got to rely on His grace entirely. You cannot mix grace and works. That’s a principle that runs through the New Testament. So, it’s important that you say, I don’t rely on my own good works. I don’t rely on my own ability. I don’t rely on my denomination, my church, whatever it may be.
I rely on the grace of God in me. I rely on Christ’s all-sufficiency.
Philippians 4: 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
I can do everything. Is that conceded? Is that proud? No, because of the words that follow, through him who gives me strength.
He’s already affirmed, it’s not I who live, it’s Christ who lives in me. And now he says, with Christ living in me, I can face every situation, every problem, within the will of God.
Wherever God places me, I can handle the situation, because it’s Christ in me who gives me the strength. I can do everything through Him.
Don’t keep talking about your failures and your inabilities, because you’ve renounced them. You’re not relying on them, so don’t keep worrying about them.
Be positive in what you say. I can do everything through Christ in me who gives me the strength.
First, affirm Christ living in you. Second, put no confidence in the flesh, in what you are by nature. And third, rely on Christ’s all-sufficiency.
Keep focusing on the positive. Keep focusing on Jesus. Don’t go back and yield to the flesh.
When you talk about your own failures, it really indicates that you were, to some extent, trusting in your own ability. Renounce them both.
One of the devil’s strongest weapons against most of us is discouragement. When we get discouraged, then the enemy can do almost anything he wants with us.
And so, if you should be discouraged at any time or be tempted remember when we are weak, we are strong.
2 Corinthians 12: 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore, Paul goes on, I will boast more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I take delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
So, when you feel weak, don’t be discouraged. In a certain sense, it’s good to feel weak. Why?
Because when you feel weak, you’re going to rely on the grace of God. As a matter of fact, God’s grace is more easily manifested in those areas of our lives where we see our weakness than it is in those areas where we think we can handle the situation by ourselves.
So, there’ll come times when you feel so weak, so incapable. Don’t worry, don’t give up. Just rely more on the grace of God, because God’s grace is offered to the weak.
Just say, as Paul said, all right, I’m weak. That’s true. But when I’m weak, then I’m strong.
And if you fail, don’t get discouraged, because our faith is still credited to as righteousness, even when we fail.
Romans 4: 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Even when you’re not doing the right thing, if you don’t give up believing and trusting God, your faith is still credited to you as righteousness. It’s a credit. It’s not something you actually have, but it’s a credit.
So many things that we buy, we buy with a credit card. We don’t have the cash, but we offer the credit card. Well, God has made His credit card available to you through your faith. So, when you can’t face the situation and you fail, just stretch out the credit card and say to the devil, whoever it is, my faith is still credited to me as righteousness. God accepts responsibility for me even the way I am.