John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and favor upon favor and even Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
Under the Law, God could only Bless the people according to their adherence and obedience to the Law. Under Grace, the Father can now Bless us, because of Jesus' obedience to die on the cross and be raised again. Philippians 2:8 (Amplified) says, "And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself still farther and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross." The Law has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus and Grace and Truth now prevail.
This isn't saying that God's children are to be disobedient, but our disobedient acts no longer require God's punishment with His Just and Righteous judgment. Grace has covered our own foolishness and disobedience by Jesus' Blood and His obedience on our behalf. God's will has always been to raise His children in Grace and Love and to "Train us up in the way we should go."
Grace doesn't mean we're to deliberately be disobedient, but while we're growing up into the full stature of who He created us to be. As little children, we're covered by His obedience and by His Grace. Most of God's children are still in the infant stage, having never yet grown into the knowledge of son-ship as joint heirs of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) says, "The Spirit Himself, thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are God's children And if we are His children, then we are His Heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him, only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."
We previously learned that "Christ's suffering" wasn't what He endured on the cross on Calvary, Jesus did that so that we didn't have too. The suffering Jesus endured was that the people didn't try to understand Him and rejected Him. Today, we're seeing ourselves and proclaiming our identity, by who and what the Father calls us to be and this has everything to do with what the Father can accomplish in our earthly lives, and the world rejects us.
When Abram accepted God's call on his life, his name was changed and his life was changed according to what God said about him. Abraham's grandson Jacob had a name that meant "Supplanted or deceiver," but his name was changed to Israel. Genesis 32:28 (Amplified) says, "And [God] said; Your name shall be called no more Jacob (Supplanter), but Israel (Contender with God); for you have contended and have power with God and with men and have prevailed."
Many read the scriptural account of Jacob's (Israel's) wrestling with an angel and only take away how Jacob was made to limp for the rest of his earthly life. Religious thinking fails to see the Blessing and faith of Jacob and only sees Jacob had a crippling encounter with God. The carnal mind looks for an excuse to suffer, instead of seeing what this Blessing has meant to the entire earth.
God has not only changed our names, but He has changed our entire person and character, by our new creation experience with Jesus. In our new identity, God doesn't call us His friends, but God calls us His sons and daughters. We continue referring to and seeing ourselves as who we once were and we seem afraid to believe or confess what God has called us and made us to be.
I would be very disappointed if my children refused to carry my name, as an earthly father. How would you feel if your children called themselves after someone else's father? We must dare to be what our Heavenly Father calls and expects us to be. We're no longer children of darkness or a generation of vipers or children of the devil. This is what you used to be, but now we have a new nature, a new life, a new Father and a name. Don't keep associating yourself with your past. Psalm 107:1-2 (Amplified) says, "O give thanks to the Lord for His Goodness; for His mercy and Loving kindness endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary."
It's not you who exalted yourself, but it was God Who exalted you. Our religious pride exalts us, when we say that, "We're still old sinners in God's eyes." This is pride and is our refusing to accept God's Word and Truth over our own words. It's not pride to accept by faith, who Jesus has raised you up to be. We must accept Truth from His Word, in order to walk in Truth. If you've received Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you continue seeing yourself as an old sinner in God's eyes, then you're falsely speaking against the Truth and the Power of the new creation.
Abraham referred to himself as "The father of a multitude," even though he didn't have a child yet. Abraham wasn't lying, but was honoring what God said about him and he was seeing it come to pass, by faith. If you're waiting to become "perfect" before you believe who you are in Christ, then you'll die first and discover the Truth that you were already perfect in Jesus.
Don't allow the world's teachings to hold back Heaven's Blessings. Receive by faith, what the Father says about you. Allow His Blessing and favor to reveal to the world that His Word is True and their words about you are not true. Saying that, "We're just old sinners" after what it cost God to make us righteous, isn't just the highest form of pride, but it shows how little faith we have in our Sacrifice Lamb. Hebrews 4:10 (Amplified) says, "For he who has once entered God's Rest also has ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His Own."
When we rest in His righteousness, we no longer need to struggle and strive to become righteous with Him and we can by faith, receive our righteousness and call ourselves as He calls us, "His children, His Own."
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