Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Last week I presented the need for leaders to inspire those they lead to find their life in Christ. Our focus should not be upon a day that is yet to come. Our focus should be on each, and every day to come. We live in the light of Day found in Christ. We have eternal life, and we are no longer children of darkness, but children of light.
Jesus came as a man to free us from the life of the flesh and empower us to live as a dwelling place of God by His Spirit. Our freedom from the life of the flesh is given to us by Jesus in His judgment of sin upon our cross at Calvary.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We are justified to live. This was the gift of God’s mercy through the man Jesus, the Christ. His gift of mercy justified us to live, even though we were bound to death in our sin. This was the power of the first coming of Jesus as the word in flesh. His death upon the cross grants us mercy and that mercy justifies us to live, but it is His grace that empowers us to reign in life.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
We are justified to live because of His blood, but we are saved by His grace. This is not just a salvation of heaven, but an increasing glory of a heavenly influence of salvation in our lives. We shall overcome all wickedness through Him. Our thoughts, reasoning, desire, imagination, and emotions are being empowered by God’s grace working in our hearts and minds. Holy Spirit in our lives gives us the salvation of Jesus to our spirits, souls, and bodies in this world and all that is to come. This is the power of God’s grace working in and through us. It is the power of God’s manifest presence in or lives. It is the proof that there is no gap, no separation, between us and God when we boldly come to the place of His presence because of His mercy, we find the power of His love towards us as a giver of grace.
Romans 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
God’s mercy reconciled us to God as our Father, but God’s grace empowers us to live as sons and daughters of God who have been reconciled to God. Grace is the evidence that God is in our lives. We must choose to receive God’s mercy and embrace His grace to live with a culture of grace among the kingdoms of the world.
To experience God’s justice system, we must first acknowledge the old one. The way to God’s grace is through God’s mercy. Mercy is found in the testimony of the cross of Calvary. Each of us must receive the first coming of Jesus to receive the salvation that comes by His presence abiding in us in our world. Mercy ends our old life of the flesh and without mercy we are still bound to an administration of death. We must come boldly to the throne of Christ to receive the end of our old life of flesh and discover our new life empowered by God’s grace.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Mercy is obtained by an acknowledgement of mercy given. God loves us, but we don’t deserve His love. To think we deserve His love is an injustice in the covenant of law and conscience. The justice system of grace is available for all, but we must first receive the end of the justice system of law and conscience. That requires God’s mercy, and it can only be obtained through a revelation of the cross. We must receive His first coming into our lives as a judgment for sin to receive His full coming of eternal life in every measure of our lives.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
We are justified to find our life in Christ. The sacrifice of Jesus put away our sin. His death is our death, and His life is our life unto salvation in all things. As leaders we lead others in joining their lives to Christ in all things. This is our salvation to the generations to come for the glory of God.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
