Abraham and Grace

I grew up in the church. I first went to church when I was two weeks old, and, no, I don’t remember going at that age. I do remember that as I got older, I found church boring and confusing. I found it boring because I was being told to do things that I knew I couldn’t do and thus I quit trying. I found it confusing because it seemed to me that I was told that I needed to do everything perfectly but then grace was sort of thrown in and I didn’t get it.

I didn’t get how all the commandments in the Mosaic Law lead to grace in Jesus. Then I studied Galatians and found out that they really don’t.

In Galatians Paul shows us that grace in Jesus flows not from the law given to Moses but to the covenant that God made by promise to Abraham.

Romans 8:16-17

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

When we surrender the authority of our lives over to Jesus’ authority, then we become children of God. As children of God we have the Holy Spirit in us and He gives us the understanding that, as children of God, we are heirs. This means that every follower of Jesus is a child of God and an heir of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing and living as a child and heir of God.

But what does it mean exactly that we are heirs of God?

Galatians 3:29

And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Paul connects our standing as heirs of God with Abraham and the promise that God made him.

Genesis 12:1-3

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God makes some promises to Abram:

Abram will become a great nation

Abram will have a great name

Abram’ s friends will be blessed and his enemies will be cursed

Abram will be blessing to every person on earth

Notice two things about this promise:

God out of His sovereign grace chose Abram from every person on earth to make the promise to and to bless all the people on earth.

God makes the promise to Abram and put no conditions on the promise.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing God’s unconditional promise.

The promise given to Abram and the covenant God made with Abram were based on grace. God chose Abram based not on anything Abram did but on God’s desire to chose Him. God makes promises to Abram that were unconditional because God required nothing from Abram to fulfill the promise.

The covenant that we have in Jesus is by grace. The covenant is based in Jesus’s finished work on the cross. It was initiated by God.  It is based on what Jesus did. It is unconditional.

Our covenant of grace through Jesus flows out of the covenant God made with Abram based on His promise.

The Mosaic covenant was based on following the law. The law was not given for salvation because the law cannot save a person. The law was given to show us who God is and to set apart a people, Israel, to be a special people to bring salvation to the world, and to show humanity’s sinfulness.

Our salvation does not and cannot come from the law. Our salvation comes by grace based on what Jesus did just as Abram’s relationship with God came out of grace based on the promise of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about trusting the gracious promise of God fulfilled through Jesus.

Grace is greater than the law.

In Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                Joe

Grace, Grace, Grace!

It has been an enlightening experience over these last several months to study the grace of God. In studying grace, I have come to see how important grace is, how extensive grace is, and how much grace humbles us as human beings.

In the study of grace, God has shown me four important truths.

Truth #1: My efforts at saving myself or of making myself righteous are of no value.

Isaiah 64:6

But we are all like an unclean thing, all our righteousness is like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Our human efforts at being righteous are like filthy rags before God. Filthy rags are useless. Filthy rags cannot make anything clean just as our efforts at being righteous cannot make us clean or righteous.

We are made righteous by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was 100% righteous and when we accept Jesus’ death on the cross to pay for our sin, then we receive Jesus’ righteousness. Jesus who was righteous became guilty of our sin and we who are sinful got Jesus’ righteousness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is relying on Jesus’ righteousness, not my own efforts to be righteous.

Truth #2: I can do nothing apart from Jesus.

John 15:1-5

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

In my own natural desires and in my own natural abilities I can do nothing of eternal importance. It is only when I am connected with and abiding in Jesus that I can produce eternal spiritual fruit. I cannot produce love or joy  5:22-23. Neither can I be used by God to minister to or help others apart from abiding in Jesus. Producing spiritual fruit is all by the power of Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is abiding in Jesus and, through abiding, producing godly fruit.

Truth #3: I cannot fulfill the law.

James 2:10-11

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

For me to be able to use my ability to obey the law as my basis for salvation and righteousness, I have to keep all the law all the time. Jesus is the only person who has ever kept all the law all the time. I can’t and you can’t.

God declares us righteous based on Jesus’ righteousness and based on nothing we have or can do.

Paul tells us in Romans 2:13 that it is not hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. It is not just knowing the law but doing the law that can make us righteous, and we have to keep all the law, which is humanly impossible.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on grace not works to make us righteous.

Truth #4: Grace provides us with all we need for a life lived in relationship with Jesus.

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

Salvation is based in God’s grace.

A daily relationship with God is based in His grace.

Our eternal life with God is based in His grace.

GRACE, GRACE, GRACE

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                           Joe

Grace Does It!

Why did Paul, Peter, John and the other New Testament writers write so much about grace? Why is grace so important?

First, only grace can bring forgiveness of sin.

Galatians 2:15-16

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law.

Forgiveness of sin or justification does not come by doing what the law says. The reason it does not is because the works of the law would have to be done perfectly all the time. You cannot do most of the law or do works of the law most of the time. You have to obey the law 100% and do it 100% of the time, in other words perfection.

Zechariah 4:6

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of Hosts.

Forgiveness of sin does not come by any form of human effort. We are born with a nature or tendency to sin. We need a change of nature to enable us to not give in to the temptation to disobey God. The change comes because of God’s grace through Jesus ignited by faith.

The law or human effort cannot bring forgiveness of sin, only grace can.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on grace to bring forgiveness of sin.

Second, grace is what makes us righteous with the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake He made Him sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

We are not born righteous so we have to be transformed into righteousness. Jesus was completely righteous because He never sinned. He never did anything that was not the Father’s will. Through Jesus’s death on the cross, He made His righteousness available to us. It is God’s grace that makes Jesus’ righteousness available to us and faith that makes it the reality of our lives.

Only the grace of God through Jesus makes us righteous.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving God’s righteousness through grace by Jesus’ death on the cross.

Third, it is grace that gives us the desire to do God’s will and the power to do it.

Philippians 2:13

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.

My natural desire is to do my will. Grace changes my mind and thus my desire to do God’s will. Grace also gives the empowering to do God’s will.

In Acts 1:8 God sends the Holy Spirit to His people. The Holy Spirit comes by the grace of God. The Holy Spirit brings desire and power by grace.

Grace gives desire and empowering to do God’s will.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is desiring what God desires and being empowered to do what pleases God by grace.

Fourth, only by grace can we really come to know God and have a love relationship with Him through Jesus.

Luke 10:22

All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Sons chooses to reveal Him.

Knowing the Father is not discovered; knowing the Father is revealed to us by the grace of the Jesus.

We are finite beings, God is infinite. We don’t have the mental or spiritual ability to know or understand God without His grace revealing that truth to us.

Grace allows us by God’s revelation to know Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Wall is by grace experiencing the person, power, and love of God daily.

By Grace Raising the Roof and Remove the Walls,

                                        Joe

Grace Changes Like Nothing Else Can

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 8:1 that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Just knowing something does not change us, but grace does change us.

Hebrews 13:9

Do not be led away diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Grace, not believing the right things, is what changes our hearts and thus changes our lives.

Grace changes us because grace is a supernatural thing given to us by the Holy Spirit. Knowledge is a culmination of facts, and knowing is good but cannot change your life.

Grace changes us in many areas of our lives but there are three foundational changes the Holy Spirit by grace makes in every person who surrenders their life to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit by grace changes our desires.

Philippians 2:13

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

God gives us the desire to do what pleases Him. He also gives us the ability to do what pleases Him, but it all begins with the desire to do God’s will.

The Holy Spirit by grace changes our hearts to focus not on the things of this world, but the things of the kingdom of God.

Colossians 3:1-2

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Our minds naturally focus on earthly things. Grace changes our minds to be focused on things above, things that are of God. Thinking on earthly things is natural; thinking on things above or heavenly things is supernatural. When we allow God to do that in us, we will fulfill what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew 6:33 which is to seek above all else God, His kingdom, His righteousness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s grace to focus us on things above, not on things on the earth.

The Holy Spirit by grace changes the way we think.

Romans 12:2 tells us that we are not to be conformed to this world, meaning the thinking and values of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. When our minds are renewed, we can know what God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will is.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul is talking about the natural person not being able to discern the things of God. He says in verse 16 that we as followers of Jesus have the mind of Christ. By grace, the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to know and understand the thinking of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing the Holy Spirit by grace to give us the mind of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit by grace changes us by giving us the righteousness of God.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we are told that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation and the old has gone and the new has come. Then in 2 Corinthians 5:21 we are told that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.

We don’t change ourselves; the Holy Spirit changes us by making us new and that newness means that we have the righteousness of God. That change is at the very core of who we are. In Isaiah 64:6 Isaiah says that our human effort at righteousness is like filthy rags. Our human effort at righteousness is useless and worthless. Jesus is the only one who can make us righteous and it is only through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit that we experience the reality of that righteousness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that it is Jesus who makes us righteous and that by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit we experience that righteousness.

As a young believer I tried very hard to live in the way God wanted me to live and failed. It was not until I surrendered everything in my life over to Jesus and allowed the Holy Spirit by God’s grace to fill me and consume me that I saw the changes in my life occur.

In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says that it is by grace that he is what he is. It is God’s grace that makes us who God wants us to be and thus who we really are.

By Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                       Joe

Grace Leads Us to Jesus

We are told in Scripture that Jesus is full of grace and truth. We receive grace from Jesus. Jesus is our example of what grace looks like as it is lived out daily. Being transformed into the image of Jesus means to become a person of grace.

In Philippians 2 Paul shows us what that looks like.

In Philippians 2:1-2 Paul says that if they have any encouragement in Jesus or any comfort from His love or any participation in the Spirit or any affection and sympathy, then they are to complete Paul’s joy by being of the same mind and having the same love. being in full accord and of one mind.

Grace brings encouragement from our fellow brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. He makes us into His family. We don’t just tolerate our fellow believers, but we truly love them and are in unity with them.

The first thing that God’s grace does is, according to verse 3, enable us to do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit.

Grace enables us to not just be focused on us. By grace God’s Spirit makes us aware of others and their needs.

Then in verse 4, grace enables us help others to experience God meeting their needs. Grace empowers us to not just look after our own personal needs, but to put others and their needs ahead of us and our needs.

Grace empowers me to move from selfishness to unselfishness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is God’s grace being manifested in our lives by putting others and their needs above of our own.

In verse 5 grace gives me the mind of Jesus. Paul encourages us to have this mind. We have the power to have the mind of Jesus because, according to 1 Corinthians 2:16, we have the mind of Christ.

In verses 6 and 7 one of the results of having the mind of Jesus is sacrifice. Jesus emptied Himself and did not hold on to equality with God. Grace empowers us to let go of our rights and be willing to give up anything Jesus leads us to give up.

God’s grace in us also results in us becoming servants. Jesus tells us that He came not to be served but to serve others. Jesus also tells us that the one who becomes a servant is the greatest in the kingdom of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is God’s grace making us servants who sacrifice everything for the kingdom of God.

In verse 8 God’s grace enables us to humble ourselves. Jesus who is God humbled Himself and became a human being. God’s grace allows us to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. Humility is essential in our relationship with Jesus because God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud. Grace enables us to be humble and moves God to pour out more grace on us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is God’s grace empowering me to living humbly before God and people.

God’s grace also enables me to die to self. Jesus died so that our sins could be forgiven. God’s grace allows us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. Jesus reminds us that unless a grain of wheat dies and is buried in the ground it cannot produce fruit. We by God’s grace die to self and come alive to Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is God’s grace enabling us to die to our sinful natures so we can live in the new nature God has given us in Jesus.

In verses 9 through 11 Paul shares with us the result of Jesus living in grace.

He will be highly exalted.

His name will be placed above every name.

He will be worshiped by everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

He will be proclaimed as Lord to the Father’s glory.

When we live in God’s grace the results will be:

Jesus being highly exalted

Jesus’ name will be honored

Jesus being worshiped

Jesus being proclaimed Lord

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is God’s grace honoring and exalting Jesus.

Grace empowers us and grace glorifies God.

In Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                       Joe