2Cor.5:17(Amp) says, "Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether), the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
We were studying Grace and faith, in the previous blog. Many have become confused by things they've been taught from a carnal or natural way of understanding the Word. Scripture tells us that faith cannot produce anything that Grace has not provided. Faith doesn't "make" God do anything that He hasn't Promised. We read about how Grace and faith lead to salvation, in Eph.2:8(Amp), which says, "For it is by free Grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation through your faith; And this salvation is not of yourselves (not of your own doing, it came not from your own striving), but is the Gift of God."
Grace has already made salvation available, to everyone who puts faith in that Grace through Jesus and accepts the Gift He has provided. Jesus did all the work, Grace made the free Gift of His Work available. Faith reached into God's Grace and accepted what God has already made available, by His Grace. The same principle of Grace and faith, work hand-in-hand throughout all of God's Promises and we know that all of His Promises are "Yes and Amen to the Glory of God," according to 2Cor.1:20(Amp).
Our faith didn't do anymore than believe what God's Word said and accepted His free Gifts. Rom.5:17(Amp) says, "For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense) [Adam], death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive God's overflowing Grace (unmerited favor) and the free Gift of righteousness, putting them into right standing with God Himself, reign as kings in life through the One Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Grace has provided the free Gift of righteousness, faith simply accepts what God has offered, without striving or struggling for it. God's Word describes it as being "simple and easy," like God intended it to be. Religion has made it difficult to receive, because we knew we didn't deserve it. We tried making ourselves worthy by works, instead of receiving what Jesus has done for us, BY FAITH. This isn't just true for salvation, but for all of God's Promises. They are offered by Grace and received by faith in Jesus and His Sacrifice. Trying to receive them by any other means, results in failure and leads us to believe the world's idea of "You never know what God will do."
We all want to walk in health and healing, in this world. We try praying and crying and when it doesn't happen, we say, "It must not be God's will" or "God is testing me." Jesus paid for our healing, when He paid for everything else. Grace provides healing and faith accepts what Grace has already made available. Healing might be harder for us to accept by faith, because the natural body hurts and reminds us what is wrong. We seem to put more faith in how we feel, rather than in the Promise of healing by Grace.
Rom.1:17(KJV) says we're to go from "faith to faith." This comes from trusting in God's Word. The combination of Grace and faith work for our salvation, so we extend our faith into other Promises of God. God's Grace offers what Jesus bought and paid for on the cross. It's already ours by faith in Him.
Paul writes to the church in 1Cor.6:11(Amp) concerning the world and who we were before Jesus and His Sacrifice and then who we've now become in Him. Thus, it says, "And such some of you were once. But you were washed clean, purified by a complete Atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin, and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified, pronounced righteous by trusting in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of God." We were made all of these things that Paul writes about, by Grace and faith in the Grace offered. We are now what God says we are, in Jesus. The question is, "Will you accept it and live in it, by faith in God's Word?" Or will you remain what religion says about our being "Just sinners saved by Grace?"
It's not pride, but is faith and trust in what Jesus made us to be in Him. Our faith must be higher than what our carnal minds will allow us to receive. There is no faith in God's Word, in our carnal mind, according to Rom.8:7(Amp), which says, "That is because the mind of the flesh, with its carnal thoughts and purposes is hostile to God for it does not submit itself to God's Laws, indeed it cannot."
Many in today's Church have mostly heard the carnal opinions of men/women, about what God's Word says. Not everyone who is saved, will choose to walk by faith into the Promises of God, even though they're already ours by Grace and the Sacrifice of Jesus. Some though will grow up from faith to faith, going beyond the carnal mind. Jesus stepped out beyond what the scribes taught and was ridiculed, even though He was right. Some will never believe God for more than what they're currently walking in. They're saved, righteous, consecrated, holy, healed and are to reign as kings in this life, but they don't know that these are already theirs by Grace, through Jesus.
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