57. Reminders of What God Has Done for Us Through Christ

I'm part of a fairly new Facebook page called Religion Free Movement on which various grace teachers share nuggets of grace, and start conversations that help us to build one another up in the love and grace of God.  I recently asked the group to "remind me of what God has done for us through Christ and His mercy and grace," with the intentions of using their comments to make an uplifting, encouraging podcast.  Well, here is the podcast with all of the encouraging comments about what God has done for us in Christ!

By the way, if you're not a part of this group on Facebook, feel free to join, and invite friends as well!


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48. I'm Not Ashamed That I'm Righteous Apart from What I Do

Paul boldly declares in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..." Why is he not ashamed?  What is this gospel (good news) that he is not ashamed of?  Many people don't know what he is truly talking about, because they quote Romans 1:16 without quoting the next verse along with it.  To many believers, being "not ashamed of the gospel" means "not ashamed to stand up for righteous, godly living.  While there's nothing wrong with that, that's not the gospel!  Paul explains in Romans 1:17, "For in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith..."  He goes on to explain in Romans 3:21-22 that this righteousness of God comes apart from the works of the law.  It comes "through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."

This is the gospel (good news) that Paul is not ashamed of.  He had formerly been quite proud of his own righteous performance, but then when the revelation of Jesus and the gospel came to him, he counted his own righteous performance as dung and rubbish so that he could be found in Christ alone.  He had formerly persecuted the church for saying that righteousness came from God apart from the works of the law, and now he himself was being persecuted for preaching that.  Paul was preaching the gospel - God's righteousness given freely as a gift to all who believe - and he was making a bold, unashamed stand for it.


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44. Saved by Grace Through Faith Apart from Works

We are saved by grace, through faith, apart from works.  If our works have anything to do with it, then it's no longer grace.  When we were saved, we were saved despite having had bad works.  Now, we still have bad works sometimes, but those bad works don't "unsave" us.  Otherwise, it would no longer be grace by which we're saved.  We're saved either by grace or works, but it can't be both.


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40. Our Promises Are No Guarantee, But God's Promise Is!

Salvation is not based upon our works, abilities or promises to God. What we have in Christ is a surety and a hope and a steadfastness that is not based upon ourselves, but rather is based upon God’s promises and His works. If our salvation has anything to do with our works or promises, then it cannot be of grace and it cannot be of God’s promise. God, who cannot lie, made an oath to Himself, and this oath is our guarantee. Our promises to God are no guarantee! God’s oath, however, is where our hope lies. This is a hope we can cling to with certainty. "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast."


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33. The Gift of His Grace

Everything that we have in Christ is the result of the gift of God's grace. Apart from Christ we were all sinners, and even our righteous deeds counted as filthy rags to God. But God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. God Himself has justified us by the gift of His grace.


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31. Grace Makes People Free

There are many reasons why people preach and teach the gospel of God's grace and peace, and why people want to evangelize the church with the message of God's grace and peace. One of the big reasons is this: It makes people free. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, and yet many believers are bound up and are far from free in Christ.

Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the weekly Growing in Grace podcast that I do with Mike Kapler. The reason we've continued to do it each week is because it continues to help people find and stay in the freedom of Christ. Over the years we've received many emails and comments from people, sometimes simply asking questions about grace and other times pouring out their hearts and souls to us. Here I share a couple of these emails, as they go to show the bondage that people have found themselves trapped in through what they've been taught in the church, and then the freedom that they've found through hearing the good news of God's grace and peace!


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29. Be Who You Are

God has created you as a unique individual! He created you to be who you are, not who others are. As individuals, we belong to God and we belong to each other, so when each of us is who we are, it all works together!


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Here is the written blog post for this podcast: Be Who You Are.

25. Change Your Mind (About God)

If you go about your life with a guilty conscience towards God, or afraid of Him, or feeling as if He's against you in some way, or is withholding His goodness and love from you because of things you've done... this is the result of a mindset that isn't based on the truth of the gospel.

The good news is that you don't have to be perpetually stuck with those feelings and with that mindset. God has given us something called... "Change your mind." :)


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24. Life Has Always Been By Grace

From the very beginning, God has always intended that people live by His grace. Adam believed the original lie that led him away from trusting in God's life and grace, and even though today we've been redeemed through Christ, many of us still believe the lie that life can be found in anything other than God's own life and grace!


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23. Giving Up the Law to Gain Christ

As a followup to the last podcast, I talk about a specific example that Paul used to show that he had to die to the law in order to have Christ. Under the law, sin increased, and Paul used the example of one of the Ten Commandments, "You shall not covet," to show how the law did absolutely nothing to help him stop coveting, but really only produced in him "every kind of covetous desire!" (Romans 7:8)

Law causes a sin revival. Grace causes a revival of life and righteousness!


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20. How Can We Give What We Don't Know We Have

The truth is that we are unconditionally loved by God. And we long to love others with the same love with which we've been loved, but how can we do that if we aren't truly rooted and grounded in God's love for us? Father, let us know your great love!


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14. Grace Is About Much More Than Sin

Many people think of grace only in correlation with the forgiveness of sins. But as wonderful as the forgiveness of sins is, grace has to do with far more than that. In fact, grace has a lot more to do with things other than sin than it has to do with sin! Grace is the essence of our entire life in Christ.


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6. Grace for the Moment

Jesus told us to not worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own! We can live today, today and we can live tomorrow, tomorrow. God's grace is sufficient for today, and God's grace will be sufficient for tomorrow, and grace for right now is all we need to be concerned with.


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