Justified
Greetings in Grace, my dear Beloved Family!
I pray that hearing about an insignificant slave girl changing two nations has impacted you to believe in your Heavenly significance. This internal struggle for significance takes many casualties in todays world, but I believe you are more than a conqueror! Jesus calls you significant by His blood.
I have very high anticipation for this weekend as well. Not only do we get to celebrate our great nation’s Independence together, but it will be followed up with an awesome time of koinonia. And as icing on the Kingdom cake, we will be doing an outreach in Stockton, sharing the power and peace of Jesus with the thousands gathered there for the really awesome fireworks display. It is going to be a Sunday like no other!
There are so many things I could say about Freedom and Liberty as our country (at least the patriotic ones) prepare to celebrate 245 years of being a people from many roots all becoming unified under our flag. One of the many beautiful characteristics of our nation is this simple reality that no matter where you have come from, or what you have experienced… you can be an American.
“E Pluribus Unum” – Latin for “Out of many, one.” There are so many parallels to the Gospel that I do not know how so many people miss the founding Fathers using the principle of scripture and the Gospel as the framework for building this unique nation. In Christ, we have left our former heritage… left our past nation… left the poverty of our old life… left the tyrannical ruler of our past kingdom… left the habits of that third-world nation… and have all become one in Christ.
There is one really important difference, though. We did not get on boats and traverse a dangerous ocean with pirates and perils where many lost their lives and life-savings for the chance to get to the Land of Liberty. In order for us to actually be a citizen of our new Kingdom, and become a beloved son in this new, Heavenly realm… we had to die. Sounds like a terrible price, but it is the only price that will give one an actual entrance into this new and glorious life. Any other person that tries to get in some other way is a thief and a robber… there is only one form of legal immigration: through the cross.
This old kingdom was the kingdom of darkness (confusion and fear), the kingdom of sin (missing the mark of the Glory of God), and the kingdom of self (pride, arrogance, and never being satisfied). That place was a constant place of torture, where no hope and no peace existed. The only way out was through an excruciating death, and that is exactly what we got!
Romans 6:6-7, 14
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin… For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
We have a unique and Divine type of freedom in this Heavenly Kingdom. I have noticed so many, “believers,” lately, through all the diverse places I have been ministering, who are not free and victorious in the simple places that Jesus purchased for us to live. One night this week even, there was a gal I encountered that was deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other. I greatly desired to minister healing to her, and she was a, “Christian”, but she refused because of her doctrine. She literally argued with me that, “if God wanted me healed, He would heal me… what about Paul’s thorn in the flesh… we live in a fallen world under the curse…” I just had to walk away in sorrow knowing that Jesus purchased the gift of health for this precious saint, and she was refusing that blood bought, scar purchased, free gift because religion, wrong doctrine, tradition, and lack of revelation was LITERALLY stealing away a covenantal right from her. On a side note, this is how we have lost our constitutional rights as natural citizens…
I honestly felt a smidge angry (at the enemy), sad (for the gal), and passionately inspired to be even more bold declaring the Finished Work of the Cross in better ways and more places. When someone will adamantly argue for their right to be sick, we should all know how much work there is still left to do. Notice in the last sentence of scripture I used that, “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law…” There was, “law,” that was working in this gal’s heart against the Gospel. The law has this effect of disqualifying us. It, “justifies,” our brokenness by convincing us that our thoughts, actions, and lifestyle will never measure up to qualify us for the blessings and promises of God. Eventually, we just stop struggling against this gravitational force of guilt, shame, and/or condemnation, and let it produce the fruits of the curse a little at a time over a long defeated lifetime. A whole system to enslave us…
BUT… Jesus broke the old system…
Acts 13:38-39
Be it known unto you therefore, men [and] brethren, that through this man (Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Whoo hoo! Did you see that almost-too-good-to-be-true news?! We no longer have to EVEN struggle with self-justification, living right enough, qualifying for, or earning anything from God by law-keeping. Jesus kept the law perfectly without a single sin, took the curses demanded by breaking the law into his body and soul, then selflessly died it all away on Calvary’s cross. Jesus justified us for the promises, covenantal blessings, gifts, and multi-faceted grace (unmerited favor) of this New Kingdom! And that was just the beginning of what the Good Father desires for us…
Ephesians 2:7
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
SHOUT AMEN, somebody!
And just so you know, this Sunday is part of the “ages to come”…
I love y’all greatly!
Steve
