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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50. If You Think You Can Keep God's Law, You've Watered It Down

There are many people who say that as believers in Christ we are to keep God's law, including the Ten Commandments and many other Old Testament laws and commandments. In this podcast, I make a bold statement: God's law is not doable, and anybody who thinks they can actually keep God's law has watered it down to a point that may seem doable to them.  They have effectively changed God's law, making it into something that is not!

You see, the standard of God's law is not just that you "do your best" or "try hard" to keep it or parts of it, but rather than you keep it perfectly - and not just some laws, but all of it, in its entirety. You must keep it perfectly. So if you think you can actually keep the law, or even "do your best" to keep it, you've watered it down into something that it's not.

I encourage you to accept God's free gift of righteousness, that comes by grace, through faith, apart from His law, and give yourself over to His life in you, rather than making it about your own efforts.


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49. Faith in Christ Means You Have Rested from Your Works

There's nothing you can do to get yourself right with God or keep yourself right with God. There is no work that you can do to earn or maintain righteousness. The only way to be righteous is to receive the free gift of God's righteousness, by grace, through faith. Faith in Christ means you have rested from your works.


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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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39. We're Righteous Through Christ's Performance, Not Ours

On a recent Growing in Grace podcast (#603) we talked about how believers are identified as righteous apart from their behavior. Faith-based righteousness isn't a matter of pursuing righteousness through what we do, but simply through believing what Christ has done.  Here I share a snippet from that podcast in which I talk about this.  We've been justified, cleansed, made righteous and made holy (sanctified) through the blood of Jesus, not through our own performance.  Do yourself a favor, and spare yourself the anxiety, depression and fear that can result from thinking that it's up to you to gain or maintain a certain level of righteousness.  Believe instead in the finished work of Christ.


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37. To Attempt to Be Righteous Is to Be Ignorant of God's Righteousness

On this week's Growing in Grace podcast (#586) we talked about How to Be Righteous.  Hint: It's not about what you do!  Here's a snippet from the podcast in which I brought up how Paul talked about those who were ignorant of God's righteousness.  How were they ignorant of God's righteousness? They attempted to be righteous by their own works, as opposed to receiving God's free gift of His own righteousness.


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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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28. Cleansed Once and for All

Do you think that there's something that you need to do to keep yourself cleansed from all sin? Is there even anything that you can do?

What about Christ's perfect sacrifice? Was it enough for some of your sins? Or for ALL of your sins, once and for all!


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