It is always ALL of Grace -- by Mike Quarles

When we learn about grace we learn what life is all about. We learn about who we are. But more importantly we learn about who God is, what the gospel is and our relationship with Him. We enter into a dimension of life we never dreamed possible. Nothing is changed and yet everything is changed. Grace is not just getting what you don’t deserve. Grace is getting the opposite of what you deserve. Grace is not just another doctrine. Grace is the way God relates to us. Grace is the gospel as the bible says (Acts 20:24). What is grace?

Grace is knowing that…

1.      there is no more guilt, condemnation and punishment (Rom 8:2)

2.      God loves me and accepts me just the way I am not because of what I do, because of the cross (Roma 5:5-8)

3.      Satan was defeated at the cross and has no power over me and the only weapon he has is the lie (Col 2:15)

4.      because I died to the law and have been released from it (Rom 7:4,6), I don’t have to live up to anyone’s standards.

5.      I am not under law but under grace (Rom 6:14) and that Christ is the end of the law (Rom 10:14), it is not up to me to live the Christian life, but to trust Christ in me to do it (Gal 2:20)

6.      there is nothing I can do to make God love me more and nothing I could do to make him love me less (Rom 8:39)

7.      Jesus said that all who come to Him will find that the Christian life is easy and heir burden is light (Mt 11:28-30)

8.      it is not up to me to do or die or strive and strain, but to believe that He will do it all for me (1 Thess. 5:24)

9.      my sin and failure cannot overcome grace of God (contrary to the popular belief)
(Rom 5:20,21)

10.  no matter what I do or how I mess up, God is going to love m through all eternity
(Rom 11:6; 1 John 3:1; 1 John 4:6)

11.  I have all I need because Christ is in me and I am in Him and He is in the Father
(John 14:20)

12.   freedom is my birthright as a child and not something that I have to attain
(Gal 5:1; John 8:32,36)

13.  I am dead to sin and alive to God because of what God has done and nothing that I do
(Rom 6:4-7)

14.  I am righteous because God has place me in Christ and not because of anything that I do
(1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:21)

15.  I have died to the world, its customs, ways, values and people’s demands and expectations of me. (Gal 6:13)

16.  the important thing is not what I do or don’t do, but faith in what God has done and who I am in Christ ( Gal 6:5,14)

17.  I am secure in Christ, that I donot have to fear any person and that He will never leave me nor forsake me (Heb 13:5,6)

18.  Christ is my life; that my life is hidden in Him and I have everything I need for life and godliness (Col 3:3,4; 2 Pet 1:3)

19.  victory is not something we work for, but it has already been given to me.
(1 Cor 15:56; Eph 2:6; Eph 1:19-21)

Read more...

Strive for perfection/Christ-likeness?

After having a serious debate with a pastor friend of mine I have been thinking about an issue I was having trouble with. Its about striving for Christlikeness. I have listened to so much of the "holiness preaching" and did not find any results in my personal life. All I ended up is living in so much condemnation. The day I started to understand grace, I can say that condemnation started to leave me and immediately I sensed a new-found freedom in my walk with the Lord. I won't elaborate much on that for now but it is important to really really understand the unconditional love and favor of God. It is important to understand that when Jesus said that it was finished He really meant it! Once i became more solid in the knowledge of grace and I understood my position of perfection in Christ , I wasn't quite sure on how to address this question: As a Christian, should I or should I not strive for perfection. I mean should i live out of my position of perfection or should or should I strive for to live the perfect life? The answer is both!


What every Christian needs to understand is that he or she is on earth as Christ is in heaven (read 1 john 4:17) . Therefore all of us in Christ are holy. We are in Him perfect. Honestly, a clear understanding of this itself would automatically impact our actions/practice. We strive to do His will not because we have to but because we want to, as a response to His unconditional love and mercy for us! We love Him because He first loved us. However, sometimes people don't quite understand grace and having understood a part of grace they might think in that case i don't have to do anything since i am already perfect in Him. Many critics of the grace message also think grace causes a person to be inactive! Honestly, a clear understanding of grace actually "produces"  good actions/works automatically. 


But for those that feel that whatever they do is okay since their position in Christ is perfect, they are actually in error (or we need to pray for your salvation!). After all possessing a little knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge at all. The fact is sin hardens the heart. (disclaimer: this is not for those who maybe in some type of addiction and you are crying out to God to set you free. what u need to understand is Christ doesn't condemn u no matter how many times u fail) You see grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness. Why?  Because God has already forgiven us and defeated sin on the cross. Why would somebody want to go back into that which they were delivered from?


After reading Philippians 3, I am convinced that while our position is perfect in Christ we also have to strive for perfection/Christ-likeness in our actions.  For example in Ephesians Paul talks about "let there not be a hint of sexual immorality among you". Obviously in God's standard this is not just keeping your zippers up! And yet God wouldn't have mentioned this especially in the New testament if we weren't able to do it. We must strive for personal holiness because in Him we are holy and He who is in us is also holy. The bible clearly says "be holy for I am holy). And the best part is we are not striving without Him. "Christ in us"  helps us and gives us a desire to do His will and obey His standards in our lives (read Philippians 2). And when we strive for Christ-likeness we may mess up as humans. That is when we can rest in the fact that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). We fail outside because we haven't renewed our minds to the fact that we are the righteousness of God in Christ and we are no more the old creation but a new creation.


So yes we are perfect in Him and therefore in our works we must strive to be perfect. But we do the striving because of 'Christ in us' and His resurrection power working through us leads us to strive while we rest in Him and stay yielded to His grace and its workings in and through us. We don't strive to be perfect so that once we get to a point God would be so pleased with us but rather we strive for perfection because He is already pleased and not angry with us since Christ paid it all for us.   We don't do the striving for perfection in and of ourselves (which by the way this type of thinking is a disastrous result of the holiness preachings). And when we do stumble (due to lack of renewing the mind) and its during those moments we rest in the fact that God has forgiven all our sins and we boldly approach the throne of God for mercy and grace! We don't need to feel guilty and condemned because the cross was outside time and all our sins (past, present and future) were forgiven. So we run to Him because He doesn't condemn us!

Read more...

God doesn't make junk

Read more...

Can sin cause sickness?

John 5:14 

"But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you." (NLT)

I am not an expert in this area but I think that the reasons for sickness are- 1.) God's Judgement  2.) Satan's attack.

In the Old testament God judged the sins of the people. Sickness was a result of His judgement many times.What about us in the New testament? Is it God putting sickness on us? No! Does that mean that God has changed His stance on sin? NO! It is important to understand that it is not God judging us for our sin. (Romans 5:9 , 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 5:9)  Jesus already took the judgement (Isaiah 53:4-6 ) for all our sins- past, present and future. When we sin we open a door for the enemy to attack us. (1 Peter 5:8, John 10:10) Therefore sin sometimes causes the enemy to attack us with sickness. 

So sin maybe the cause of sickness comes upon a person. However, sin is not always the reason that healing is delayed. Note that Jesus healed the person while he was still in sin.  This should not cause a person to continue in sin but rather stop sinning (After all Christians ought to want to live like Christ!) and  give the boldness to approach God. We can do that because healing based on Who HE is and what He did on the cross. Have faith in His grace!

Read more...