WHAT ABOUT SIN? - 5

SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

In order to understand why this question was raised by the Apostle Paul, we need to look at what he had just taught in the previous chapter on sin.

Now he said in Romans 5:20-21, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Earlier in the book of Romans, Paul was teaching men their need of God’s grace and how God used the Law, which is the Ten Commandments, to show men this need. Romans 3:19-20 reads, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: FOR BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN”

It is obvious that the Law revealed to man that he is a sinner. I have taught this extensively in the last edition of the #Basileia tagged “Grace”. Now Romans 5:20 goes a step further and teaches us that the Law did not only revealed that men were sinners; it also revealed that their sin was an offence against God.

However, before God gave the Law to his people, there was sin in the world, but men had no idea that they were sinning against a holy God and His holy standards of righteousness. Once the Law entered, they knew the awfulness of sin and how guilty they were in God’s sight by breaking His commandments. It is in that sense that “sin abounded.” Did you get that? Sin abounded by the help us the law.

But then God also revealed His grace to men through the gospel. Paul again the book of Romans said, “But now the righteousness of God without law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe.” Verse 24 adds, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” So, even though the Law revealed the ugliness of man’s sin against God, the gospel of grace reveals God’s way of justifying the sinner through Christ’s death on the cross. This proved that God’s grace was greater than all of man’s sin, just as we saw in Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

So it is in this light that we say that there is no sin that is greater than the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Now suppose sin can be weighed, and If for example you have 100 kg of sin, there is more than 100 kg of grace available, if you say that your own is 2 billion kg, again there is more than 2 billion kg of grace available. And this grace abounds upon us daily as sons and daughters of God. This is what we call Justification by faith.

However, because of this truth, Apostle Paul knew that there would be some people who would use that as an excuse to sin. Man will still be man. For example, anyone who wants to use grace as a license to sin will say, “If our sin allows God to display His grace, then why not CONTINUE IN SIN THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND?”

Paul then meets that argument head-on by stating in Romans 6:2, “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

Note that he said “continue in sin” not “continue to sin”. So he actually refers to our return to the dominion and dictates of sin which has been done away with Christ.

Paul is teaching us clearly and emphatically that grace was never meant to encourage one to keep living in sin (obeying sin); instead grace has put us in a position where we have “died to sin.” What does that mean? It means that the moment you believe on Jesus Christ as your Savior God sees you as identified completely with Jesus Christ. Verse 6 goes on to explain that: “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin”. You see that?

So, in Christ’s death, WE HAVE DIED! When it says, “our old man,” it is referring to the person we were before we trusted Christ, the person who was born into a sinful race and who sinned willfully in rebellion against God. God judged “that person” in the death of His Son so that “the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.”

Again we come to our previous assertion, SIN IS DEAD!

What does this mean? It means that our death with Christ gives us the power to cancel sin’s power and the one who understands that, would NEVER ask the question, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

Amen.

WHAT ABOUT SIN? - 4

SIN IS DEAD!

The other time “sin is dead” went viral on social media; the body of Christ was divided. This is because many of us have been so indoctrinated. We believe scriptural truths than revelation truths.

For your information, the scripture is not the totality of God. What we have in the scripture is not all of God. But we have the Holy Spirit, who is God in us and is greater than the scriptures. Because he is in us, he reveals deep things of God to us. This is how we know, through the mind of Christ.

Now, when we say “sin is dead”, some folks say that it is not how the bible puts it, because Paul said “we are dead to sin” and not that “sin is dead”.

Well, very true! However, we need to look deep into the statement of Paul and also look beyond it. Paul was a foundational Apostle. The revelations of Paul are not all of God’s revelations. Every believer in the world today has the same Holy Spirit that Paul has, and is liable to same revelation that Paul had. Putting that aside, the age of Paul is the foundational age of the church and right now we are in the maturity age. Many deep secrets and mysteries are being uncovered. Paul at many times made statements that reveal his incapacity to attain certain spiritual landmarks. He could not grasp all of God’s revelation, before he left the world.

We are in the generation of Sons which the creation have been waiting for,  that will unlock all of God’s possibilities, and wrap up the last age to open up the kingdom age.

So when you come across some of these revelations which cannot be particularly seen word for word in the scriptures, you should do well to explore them thoroughly to see their root in the world of God. Nevertheless, any revelation or supposed truth which does not have its root or cannot be traced at all in the scriptures should be discarded. Remember, the scripture is not all of God. Now we shall endeavor to explain why we said SIN IS DEAD!

For your information, SIN IS ACTUALLY DEAD! It is the world that has failed to realize this. 

Follow closely…

When Jesus Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane, the bible records how he was offered “a cup” which he wished that it should pass him by, nevertheless he took the same “cup” as God’s will. This cup definitely symbolizes the suffering of the cross and the sin of the world. When Jesus drank from that cup, he drank the wrath of God which was to come upon the world. It was in this garden that Jesus became sin. It was in this same garden that the Holy Spirit of God left him. As the first Adam need to die first in the spirit before he died physically, Jesus who is the last Adam also had to die in the spirit before he died on the cross in other to identify with man. Jesus became the substitute of humanity in this garden.

Paul said in our last bible verse, that he was made SIN for us. This means that when Jesus died on the cross, it was SIN that died.

Our understanding of what sin is; matters a lot. Now the word “sin” in the bible can be either noun or verb. The “sin” that died is the noun sin; it is the same sin that separated MAN FROM GOD in the Garden of Eden. It is this same sin that separated GOD FROM MAN in the garden of Gethsemane.

So if Jesus Christ BECAME the SIN that caused separation, and he died, therefore SIN IS DEAD!

Now, this sin (noun) that died is the root and sponsor of sins (verb). It is the sin (noun) that has actually held man captive, not the actions. The actions of sin we see today is as a result of the longtime dominion of sin (the noun) in our body. The body has been so ruled by sin (noun) and as a result had to behave in that manner.

Recall that in lesson 2, we discussed the tragedy that befell man after he ate of the fruit, that the sin nature became resident in the man, controlling the soul and the body. And that man was helpless sin then, forcefully obeying the dictates of this sin. This dictator is also what the bible refers to as the “old man” or the “sinful nature”. Now, this old man has been destroyed by Christ Jesus. This old man is dead.

Now what comes to your mind, if we say sin is dead, why then do we still continue to sin? …

Now, we also need to understand that, the soul of man is not perfect, not even the soul of the believer. It is only the spirit of the believer is that is 100% perfect in Christ. The soul of man is not perfect at all; it is undergoing perfection rather. This is an everyday process through the outworking power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, what we see today as sins (actions) is actually the result of the imperfect soul of man. The spirit of the believer is holy and knows no sin. The nature of sin in the believer is actually dead. Forget it, it is dead. The nature of the believer is God’s nature. There is no sin in the born again spirit of the believer at all. This is because we have received the gift of righteousness which is by faith in Christ Jesus.

So SIN IS DEAD! The world needs to come to this knowledge. Many people are seriously caged with the fear of sin and hell. This is just a slap on the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died to destroy sin and therefore he expects the world to come to the knowledge of this and receive this provision. It is only sin consciousness that can rob man from obtaining what God has made available in Christ Jesus.

When you have the knowledge that sin is dead, you will be set free from the fear of going to hell. This is because the sin that sends people to hell is what actually died. No one goes to hell again because of sin, but because of their unbelief in Jesus Christ as the substitute for their sin. Similarly, the sin that stops people from making heaven is dead. No one makes heaven because they are sinless, but because they believe that Jesus destroyed their sin and gave them his righteousness. Jesus Christ did not asked us to stop sinning (actions) before he received us, so he cannot cast us away now that we have become joint-heir with him. Amen?

God is no longer angry with this world. The world needs to know this. This is what Satan has been fighting to keep away from us all. Jesus has RECONCILED THE WORLD back to him. SIN IS DEAD, Halleluyah!

WHAT ABOUT SIN? - 3

“HOW GOD DEALT WITH SIN”

One of the reasons why I love God is because he is WISDOM. I do not mean that he has wisdom, but HE IS WISDOM!

This is because before Adam gave sin the entrance into this world, God already made a plan to deal with sin. This plan is called the plan of redemption. God’s plan was to redeem man back to himself by defeating sin and death as well as Satan their sponsor.

God decided to deal with sin according to his own eternal counsel. He chased Adam away from the Garden in order for Adam not to eat of the tree of life because if he does, the nature of sin that was now in man will become permanent.

God chose to confound the wisdom of this world with his wisdom. So he dealt with sin himself. Prior to this, he had destroyed the then world of sin by the flood. But sin did not cease to be, because sin is rooted in the soul of man. The flood could not wipe off the sin of man; it could only wipe off the sinners.

Therefore God became man, and this man was called Jesus Christ, who destroyed sin and its empire.

So when the angel of good tidings came to the Virgin Mary, he said “thou shall call his name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins”

Jesus means SAVIOR, and there is no other thing that man needs to be saved from, other than sin.

So when there was no man fit to live a life free of sin and to stand in gap for the world out of their chains of sin, God came down himself. God entered into a virgin woman, and came out as Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Jesus was the man that became the sacrifice for the sin of the world. John the Baptist shouted and said “behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”. The sole mission of Jesus Christ was to TAKE AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD. His major work was to save the world from the dominion of SIN and reconcile man back to God.

This he did by laying down his life on the cross thousands of years ago. He paid the price that WE OWED. He conquered the trio - sin, death and Satan. He took away the keys from hell. He set men free from the ancient shackles of sin and evil. Man was restored to his original position with the Godhead.

Paul said “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”

Now bear in mind that when the bible says that JESUS KNEW NO SIN… It actually means he is not polluted by the sin of Adam. This is because he was born of the HOLY SPIRIT; he was not born of ADAM. All men are like ADAM, we all have the corrupt soul and body which is just sufficient for us to keep committing sin. However, Jesus Christ has no link with what we call the Adamic Nature. That is why he was called the last Adam and the firstborn son of God. He ended the race of Adam and started a new race of Sons. He was 100% God and 100% Man while on earth. His configuration was a God-Man configuration. So there was no way he could sin. He “knew” no sin means he has no “relationship” with sin. “Knowing” means “Having an intercourse”. Jesus Christ was just the perfect and right person who saved us all from our sin.

So he died as the propitiation for our sin.  We became eternally forgiven through his death.

We became saved. This is because when he died, he died as our sin. He became our sin in the garden of Gethsemane. The sin of the whole world was embedded in him. So when he went to the cross, he nailed sin to the cross. The same sin that brought death and opened portal unto several evil spirits due to the disobedience of Adam in the beginning, was destroyed by Christ.

As far as we are concerned right now, sin has been dealt with.

As far as we are concerned right now, sin has been destroyed.

As far as we are concerned right now, all human has been forgiven; men just need to receive this forgiveness by believing the Gospel.

How did God deal with sin? He exchanged OUR SIN for CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Glory be to God!

WHAT ABOUT SIN? - 2

“THE SPIRIT – MIND SHIFT”

We shall continue from our last bible verse…

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and DEATH BY SIN; and so DEATH PASSED UPON ALL MEN, for that ALL HAVE SINNED” Romans 5:12

You know, what happened to the configuration of Adam when he committed the sin, was that all of God’s endowment departed from him. Adam became sold to the rulership of sin and death. Now when we say that sin and earth became rulers of the man, we mean that man was controlled and dominated by them. No one could STOP sinning, no one could STOP DYING. Everyone became enslaved by them.

Now let us get this straight; that man is a spirit, has a soul and lives in a body. Man is spirit, soul and body. Man is not just spirit, man is not just soul, man is not just a body. Recall that in the book of Genesis, the bible records that God breathe into the nostrils of a molded body, and as a result the body became a living soul. So in that scenario, we could see how man came to be – that the spirit entered the body, and the result of this was a soul – this is LIFE. It then implies that when the spirit and body separates, the souls ceases to exist – this is DEATH.

Now watch this; the real man is the soul. The soul is actually the central faculty of every man. The spirit and the body are not directly connected except through the soul of man. However, the spirit of man receives impulses from the Godhead and then through the soul rules the man. Now, when man sinned, the spirit of man was disconnected from God.

I want you to get it…

Before the fall, inside the spirit part of Adam = Adam’s spirit was joined to the Holy Spirit. By our analogy in the previous paragraph, it means the spirit faculty of Adam was a full being before the fall. Since we said SPIRIT + BODY = SOUL (humanity), then in the spirit faculty of Adam, the HOLY SPIRIT + ADAM’S SPIRIT = SPIRIT (the Divine). That is to say, before the fall, Adam was perfect and completely divine in his spirit.

This is like saying that the spirit of Adam is a complete spiritual being on its own. See it clearly…

Adam’s Spirit (HOLY SPIRIT + MAN’S SPIRIT) + Adam’s Body = Adam’s Soul

So Adam’s Spirit was loaded and was the steering of Adam. That was the headquarters of the whole being of Adam. As a result of this, the soul and the body of Adam were subject to his Spirit.

However, when Adam fell in the transgression, it caused the spirit faculty of Adam to collapse, and then the Holy Spirit was separated from the Spirit of Adam. This was when God’s warning to Adam came to pass – Adam died.

Remember how we explained death…

SPIRIT joins BODY = life

SPIRIT leaves BODY = death

Similarly in the spirit-faculty of Adam ….

HOLY SPIRIT joins ADAM’S SPIRIT = life (Spirituality)

HOLY SPIRIT leaves ADAM’S SPIRIT = death (Carnality)

So when sin entered into man, Man became CARNAL AND BECAME RULED BY HIS SENSES. Since man could not receive from God anymore, he followed the dictates of his senses, feelings, emotions, brain and mind. All these are factions in the soul of the man. And therefore the seat of power in the man was shifted from the SPIRIT to the SOUL.

Therefore, sin disorganized the configuration of man contradicting the design of God. All what we call evil and sin today is a result of this calamity. The evil and atrocities people commit today is due to their MIND-DRIVEN life. Sin killed (made dormant) the spirit of man and occupy the soul. Now, in the soul is where we have the mind. The mind is just like the headquarters of the soul. So sin erected its throne in the mind of the man.

Now, all through the scriptures, it is clear that evil is rooted in the mind of man. Sometimes the word “heart” is being interchanged for “mind”. But we know that the human heart is just an organ that pumps blood throughout the body, therefore the word “heart” as used in the Holy Scriptures especially in areas related to sin and evil cannot be the blood-pumping organ but the mind of the man.

Solomon said “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life”

When God wanted to destroy the earth with flood, the bible says “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth…”

Also Jesus said in the book of Matthew that “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”

Looking at this critically, we see that the consequence of sin in man is very terrible. All of man’s life is now being controlled by THE MIND that is being occupied by SIN.

That is just the reason why the fallen man has no life in him. The nature of sin is his nature. He can never be freed from sinning.

WHAT ABOUT SIN? - 1

WHEN SIN ENTERED THE WORLD

I shall endeavor to teach on the subject of sin as revealed by the eternal spirit of God. This is because as popular as this topic is, it is obvious that many are yet to understand the doctrine of the bible on it. One of the reasons why we have many denominations today is due to their varying belief on the doctrine of sin. I shall therefore do justice to this controversial but simple topic in the next three days. May the Holy Spirit unite the Church under the umbrella of love and truth with adequate knowledge of the Word in Jesus name

Now when did sin enter the world? Oh, that may sound as personification to you, but we mean “when sin was first recorded on this earth realm”. Definitely, we all are aware of how the first man, Adam ate the fruit that was forbidden by God. And as a result fell from his original position with the Godhead and was chased out of God’s presence.

In the book of Romans, Paul said man “came short of the glory of God” as a result of sin. That is, there was a glory which man could have enjoyed but man was deprived of this glory. That was just the summary of the consequences of the sin of the first man, Adam.

Now further in the same book of Romans, Paul again gave an overview of how sin came to be.

He said, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world…”

I have heard a preacher sometime ago say that the word “entered” is wrong English, that since sin is not a man, then “entered” is not the right verb. Well, “sin” in the passage is noun and singular and not the actions of sin. It represents the root of the sin of the world. Sin entered the world means, sin was first recorded in the world. So Paul said this came by one man. That is, sin would not have gain entrance if not for the man Adam.

Get it straight; the sin that entered through Adam REIGNED for many generations. This shows that the sin is a noun. Since noun is a naming word, then it suffices to show that sin is an entity or a being. Now if sin entered the world just like Satan, Death and Hell entered the world, recall that “Hell” and “Death” were also personified and said to be riding horses in the book of revelation as revealed to the Apostle John, though symbolic, it actually connotes their “being” or “spirit person”. The same applies to sin. Sin is said to “enter” and as a result “reigned”.

Now, when sin entered, the configuration of man which was made in the image of God was distorted. The bible records it that their “eyes were opened”, these do not mean an opening of the physical eye, but a KNOWLEDGE WAS GIVEN. That was why the result of the “opened eyes” led to the discovery of their nakedness. When sin entered into the world, it entered into the settings of man and tampered with it. When sin entered into man, it killed man’s spirit.

At first when God said, “if you eat of the fruit of the garden, Adam will surely die”, he meant Adam will be RECONFIGURED, he meant Adam will BE SEPARATED FROM THE GODHEAD. Man’s configuration in the beginning was strictly God’s image and God’s likeness. However, when the first man ate the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, man opened the gates of his whole being to sin. The fruit they ate was the portal, eating it opened the portal for sin to enter the world. If Adam had eaten from the tree of life that day, they would have similarly opened the portals of life and Immortality.  As sin is to death and life is to immortality.

Again when sin entered the world, the world was hijacked from man. Sin did not only kill the spirit connection of man, it also took the keys of dominion from man. Man was meant to rule all of God’s creation, but he gave the keys of this kingdom to Sin. Sin was Satan’s channel of dominion. Although Satan is the god of this world, but he has been reigning through sin. So sin reigned and ruled man.

Man became helpless; man became totally separated from God. God could not reach man again; man could not reach God again. There was a great indignation, a broken relationship between man and his maker.

The entrance of sin, was a big blow to man. This is because when the portal of evil (via the forbidden fruit) was opened, many other evil spirits followed suit. Some of these evil personalities are sickness, poverty, deafness, blindness, barrenness, dumbness, death, and hell. All these are no ordinary neither are they natural occurrences; they are actually spirits that flooded the earth realm upon the opening of the portal by Adam’s disobedience. Our previous verse continued by saying that “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, AND DEATH BY SIN; and so death passed upon all men…” “Death here is the compound word for sickness, poverty, blindness, barrenness etcetera.

God’s original purpose and plan for man is not to be poor – Adam had everything he wanted supplied, not to be sick – Adam was functioning like God on earth, so he could not fall sick. All these things are as a result of sin. Death reign by sin.

Sin entered the world, and ruined the beautiful world created by God.

Sin entered the world, and all men became sinners, whether you commit a sin or not, as long as you are identified with Adam, you become a sinner. Sin entered the world, and made the world in need of a savior.

GRACE - 7

YOUR PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED

Welcome to the last lesson in this teaching series on Grace. I hope you have been blessed so far by the overwhelming abundance of Grace that is in Christ Jesus. This is the joy that we have, that is, we have received freedom and life. With Grace, life is now meaningful.

We should however note that the faith which we have in Christ Jesus made it possible for us to obtain this Grace. Many years back, humans have been in a long search for a way out of sin, death, diseases, and all sorts of oppression.

The bible talked about how even the Angels desire to look into the provision of God for us, that we might be justified by Grace through our faith in Christ Jesus. This plan had been made ready and sealed from the beginning of the world, but God deem it fit to reserve it for this generation. This is how we know God’s love and his tender mercies. That we do not deserve the gift he has given to us. Our God is just a loving God.

Now, it is very important that we know the power of the transformation of Grace in the life of a believer. You see, when we became saved by Grace, we became the children of God. The bible posits that we also became citizens of the kingdom of God. So do not need to put SOME WORKS OF HOLINESS OR RIGHTEOUSNESS together again in other to gain access to the kingdom of God. Grace saved us, and has brought us already into the Kingdom of Our Father. We are now called sons and daughters of God.

We should therefore know that, God is now interested in having a healthy relationship with you and I. God’s purpose for relieving us from the works of the law is to make us become his child. To be become a child of God is the same as becoming saved by Grace by believing the gospel.

So Jesus said “Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”

The “heavy laden” is all about the burden of the law and the struggles of life. This was his call before when he came to make Grace available unto us. So there is rest in Grace.

A believer is not saved to struggle again, but to rest in the Grace of our lord Jesus Christ.

We are called unto rest. GRACE IS REST!

This has been the order of God from the beginning. Those who had problems and struggles with life and with God are those who do not believe God or believe his words.

So the writer of Hebrews said “And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?”… Then he proceeds by saying that “For we which have believed do enter into rest…” and then finally he said “For he that is entered into rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his”

So the day you believed the gospel is the day you rested from your works. Grace has taken over from you. So Grace is rest from all work, struggles and burdens. Look around you today; you will see many believers struggling with one thing or the other - sin, sickness, finance, job, academics, pain, among others; all these have been defeated by Jesus Christ and the victory has been made available to us by Grace through faith.

You will notice how that, Grace is attached to faith. This is because faith is the key to unlocking all packages made available through Grace. Truly they have been made free and available to us, but we need to access them and this can be done only through faith. Anyone without faith cannot enjoy Grace at all! Although Grace is made available unto them but they will continue to live indifferent from those who have not received Grace.

This is why it is very important for us to always be in the atmosphere where Grace is taught extensively and the message of Grace Transformation is preached.

I have heard and seen many people who got transformed by Grace. So many people with addictions of pornography, drugs have been freed without any struggle or work done by them. Just their faith in what Christ has made available by Grace.

Grace is the only way out of sin; we have been saying that from the beginning of this series. Grace is just the only way. No matter how and hard you may try to stop yourself from sinning, it will not work. It will amount to more frustrations. You can only be freed when you turn to the Lords’ Grace. 

This is how your problems can be solved.

There are many prayer points we pray today, which are not relevant in the kingdom of God. This is because we are supposed to pray with reference to the victory made available by the cross. The cross has made all these things available to us by Grace. These things can only be received by faith. We are not trying to get anything from God any more; we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We just need to bring these things into manifestation by our faith.

No matter what you are going through, your problem has been solved. Just turn to Grace!

This is how you reign in life, this is the victory we have, we have peace and we are not afraid of anything. Not even death, for we are the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, go and reign!

THE END

GRACE - 6

GRACE IS HYPER

There have been many labels on persons who exalt the Grace of God here and there in the body of Christ; there have been a certain group of believers who have been tagged HYPER-GRACE believers, especially when they are preachers and they talk less about sin and its effects.

Well, I will like to tell you now that I am one of them. But before you react, why not try to find out why I said so. This is because Grace itself is hyper, pure and powerful than what the human brain can reason. So there is nothing bad about Grace being hyper, Grace is beyond your reasoning.

How can you explain how our GOD put on a human body, came down to earth and was condemned as a SUBSTITUTE FOR MAN, and as a result being KILLED BY MAN? How can you explain that? Is that not hyper? If we say that Jesus is God and that GOD DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD when no man was found worthy to do so, is that not hyper? Is that a normal thing?

Then what else do we call Grace, if not the OVERWHELMING RECKLESS LOVE OF GOD? What else is Grace if not the UNSPEAKABLE IMPUTATION OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS CHRIST TO US and the ETERNAL SALVATION OFFERED WITH AN ETERNAL SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT without our works? Is the Grace of God not hyper?

Listen, Grace is not the same as what people do when they DO HOLINESS WORKS to maintain their salvation at all, you cannot maintain what is given to you by Grace. Grace is beyond the maintenance of man.

So until you dig deeper into God’s pool of Grace, you will not be able to apprehend God’s love. This is because Grace is hyper and the love of God is very deep.

So there is no WORKS REQUIRED FROM YOU AS A BELIEVER. You have been enveloped by his majestic Grace. That Grace is VERY SUFFICIENT FOR YOU.

Now when Paul the Apostle complained of one “thorn in his flesh” and asked that God should take it away, God said “His strength is made perfect in Paul’s weakness” and that “His Grace is sufficient for Paul”… you see that? So there is no amount of sin that you may have, the Grace of God is greater than your weaknesses. The Grace of God is UNBOUNDED, IT IS HYPER!

So Paul now said “MOST GLADLY, I will RATHER GLORY IN MY INFIRMITIES that the power of Christ may rest on me”. This is the same confidence that a believer confesses when they are struggling with any sin, so grace is hyper!

Again during Paul’s letter to the Romans he said “shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound? God forbid” It is very unfortunate that “those who are offended by the simplicity of Grace” use this particular bible verse to preach against Grace.

Why did he say so? The next verse reads “Because we are dead to sin!” So he was not saying that we dare not commit sin again, that if we mistakenly or even knowingly commit a sin, grace does not cover. That is not what he is saying. Man is prone to sin because the soul of man is not saved yet, it is a long process. It is only the spirit of man that is saved and seal eternally. So your weaknesses or sins may not be your WISH OR WILL but an agency at work in you, which will reduce everyday with the outworking power of the Holy Spirit. However, this does not affect the Grace of God on you. In fact, the outworking power of the Holy Spirit that will eventually deliver you from such sin is the work of 

Grace! It is not going to be your works at all! You will get tired!

Now, Paul in the same passage where he said “shall we continue in sin…” made it clear that “where sin abounds, Grace abound much more!” You get?

For example, suppose we can weigh sin and you are said to have 100kg of sin, then there is more than 100kg of Grace available to CANCEL OUT ALL YOUR SINS! If it is 5 BILLION TONNES, there is more than 5 BILLION TONNES of Grace available to NULIFY ALL YOUR SINS! Grace is unlimited, Grace is hyper!

Do not think that the Grace of God can be exhausted, the more you sin the more the Grace upon you increases to nullify your sins. This is because the Grace that saved you is not humanly but divine, and it is available without measure. You cannot quantify anything that is of God. Talk of God’s Grace, mercy, love, holiness, righteousness, favor… name it! You cannot quantify them.

So there is no amount of sin that anyone can commit that is greater than the Grace of God.

This implies that TO THE BELIEVER, SIN IS DEAD! There is no amount of sin that you may commit that can send you to hell! Sin does not exist in the eternally sealed spirit of the believer. They have been justified forever by the eternal blood of Christ! This is the truth, meditate on it and live it! 

All your sins have been forgiven!

So Grace has been hyper from the start! If your Grace is not hyper, then it is not pure Grace! One great teacher said that “Grace plus little works is called mixture” and that this “mixture” is worse than “works”. Remember it is better to be cold or hot than to be lukewarm. So DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MIX GRACE WITH LAW, it will not work.

If you cannot FULLY AND COMPLETELY DEPEND UPON GRACE (THE FINISHED WORKS OF JESUS CHRIST) FOR EVERYTHING, then you are not practicing pure Grace. You are practicing mixture, and you are worse!

Take it or leave it, the pure Grace of God that saves is hyper! It has no boundary! And it is built upon the sacred eternal blood of Christ which redeemed us eternally!

No sin can stop us! No power of hell can pull us! No Satan can defeat us! No death can take us!

We are under the umbrella of his UNLIMITED GRACE!

For those of you, who are struggling with one sin or the other, turn to Grace! You see, it is only the Grace of God that can save you totally from your sinful habit! Not the law! And you also need to bear in mind that your sinful habit has been paid for; your salvation is not affected by it because it is the GRACE ABOUNDS MUCH MORE THAN SIN that gave you the salvation, not your works! It is this same Grace that you need to trust for your total liberation from that habit!

If you are looking for one thing in the kingdom that is hyper, it God’s Love and God’s Grace! Very hyper!

William McDowell said in one of his songs “I am at a loss of words” when he wants to describe these things.

The Grace of God is not a license to sin but the antidote and solution to sin. When you soak yourself into the pool of HYPER GRACE, you will touch a greater dimension of God’s love and your worries will flee.

There are no worries when you are FULLY (not one leg Grace, one leg works) under the Grace of God!

You have peace instead and you have a new identity – the Sons and Daughters of God. You are now made greater than all powers and principalities. This can only be done by a Grace that is HYPER!

Remain blessed!

GRACE - 5

SALVATION IS BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH ALONE

Alright, we have done a lot of discussions on the inadequacies of the works of the law. We have also established the fact that no one can be justified by the works of the law. The law is good but Grace is best. Grace is the solution to the problems of the world. Grace is the antidote to the sin problem of mankind not the law.

Now we shall look away from the comparison between law and Grace and then focus on Grace in these last three lessons.

Now it is imperative to establish at this point that the salvation of man is ONLY RECEIVED by Grace through faith in Christ Jesus. There is no other means by which man can be saved.

Now, in February edition of the #Basileia tagged “understanding salvation”, we discussed the original meaning of salvation and considered all the dimensions that salvation can take. That salvation can be a past event (spirit), a continuous process (soul) and a future event (body). However, all these dimensions of salvation can only be administered by Grace through faith.

The salvation experience is not something that any man can obtain. Salvation CANNOT BE ACHIEVED, it can ONLY BE RECEIVED and this salvation can be received through faith. Faith in whom? Faith in Christ Jesus. How do we mean by “faith in Christ Jesus”? We mean that anyone who will be saved by Grace need only to believe in the finished WORKS (not your works) of the cross as the SUBSTITUTIONARY WORK done for him or her. In order words, that Jesus Christ has done those works in his or her stead and there is no more works to be done.

It has been declared that no man can be saved by DOING THE WORKS OF THE LAW

Now we shall also declare that NO MAN CAN BE SAVED BY THEIR WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS OR HOLINESS. Titus records it that “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…”

None of man’s holiness or righteousness can earn man salvation. That was why Jesus told his disciples that except their righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees, they will not enter the kingdom. He was referring to the righteousness of God as the only righteousness that can be acceptable which is only available through Grace at salvation. Nobody can enter the kingdom of heaven with their own righteousness.

Salvation is strictly available by Grace. God made this so, that no one should boast that is their doing. Throughout the scriptures, God has been known for not sharing his glory with any man and that will never change. This is why he made salvation to be strictly by Grace and not of works.

See how Paul puts it in the book of Ephesians…

“For by Grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” Eph 2:8-9

You see that? ... God solved the scenario of man boasting in their works by making salvation strictly by Grace. In order words, WE DO NOT CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING TO SAVE OURSELVES, GOD DID ALL THE WORK HIMSELF.

So it is very important that we bear this in mind whenever we are presenting the gospel.

The gospel of salvation is the gospel of Grace. It is not the gospel of works at all. The era of DO and DONTS is past. No one can be justified by obeying the law; justification can only be by Grace.

See how Paul puts it again…

“Knowing that a man is not Justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” Galatians 2:16

“But no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the Just shall live by faith” Galatians 3:11

So we are saved by Grace and this Grace cannot be maintained by our works. When you start keeping commandments in other not be rejected after you have been saved by the gospel of Grace, you are ignorant of the power of Grace, and you will fall from Grace in due time.

See how Paul puts it again…

“Christ is become of now effect unto you, whosoever of you is justified by the law; ye are fallen from Grace” Galatians 5:4

The Grace of God is greater than ANY SIN. There is no sin habit that is greater than Grace.

Some persons believe that when we exalt Grace or when we preach Grace, we are condoning sin or that we are using Grace to cover our sins. NO and NEVER!

WE DO NOT USE GRACE AS A LICENSE TO SIN. This is because Sin is DEAD! There is no sin again to the believer who is saved by Grace. Christ has destroyed sin and its power thousands of years ago. So we are not even bothered about sin. Grace does not condone sin; rather it is the law that strengthens sin.

See how Paul puts it….

“The sting of death is sin; and THE STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW” 1 Corinthians 15:56

The Grace of God rather saves man and sees that salvation to the end. It is the same Grace of God that saved the spirit of man that will do the work of the soul salvation as well as the body salvation. 

All are by Grace through faith. Faith is the currency of the kingdom. God designed it so.

The Grace of God does not encourage sin; rather it delivers man from sin. All your sins and struggles can only be solved when you turn to Grace. For Grace, sin is nothing, where sin abounds, Grace abounds the More.

God bless you!

GRACE - 4

GRACE IS GRACE, WORKS IS WORKS

When the bible talks about Grace, it is referring to the action of God’s love for humanity in saving them from their sins.

Grace is not in any way intertwining with works. There is no commonalty between Grace and works. They are distinct and never interwoven.

Grace is a gift and it is dependent on the giver and not the receiver. The giver determines the gift and gives it to the receiver without any struggle or works required from the receiver.

Grace is Grace and works is works

We have established it in previous lessons that Works are associated with the law. It is the law that demands some works from those who observe it. Grace does demand any work whatsoever. Grace is a free gift from God.

When Moses gave the Israelites the law, it was required of the Jews to do certain works and to obey every rule strictly keeping all ordinances. They must DO before they are justified by the law.

When Jesus Christ came, the law was no longer needed. This is because the law has accomplished what it was made for. Just as John the Baptist was meant to come and prepare the way for the salvation before Jesus Christ, so also the law was that which was meant to prepare the way for Grace to take charge.

The difficulty of the law and its burden was necessary in order to appreciate God’s love when Grace comes. The love of God was demonstrated when he sent Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. 

The world was deep in their sins and there was a desperate need for a savior, yet none was worthy. So when Christ came to fill that position, we received Grace.

Man caused the problem that has come upon them by themselves. Therefore man was supposed to provide solutions for their problems, but God provided the solutions instead through Jesus Christ when man was helpless. This is Grace.

All what Jesus Christ did for us; from when he was arrested, flogged, crucified, resurrected and till the time he ascended to heaven is called the FINISHED WORKS of redemption. So the works that we couldn’t DO was what Jesus Christ has done for all those who believe in him.

So the work that Christ did was to DONE FOR US! And this works is FINISHED!

Therefore there are no more works left UNDONE!

Every work that we need to do for our justification has been done by Jesus Christ.

We do not need to do ANY WORKS AGAIN; we just need to receive GRACE.

And this Grace is received by BELIEVING IN THE WORKS that has been done for you.

If you do not believe that those works that Jesus did was done for you, then you have not received Grace. Anyone who chooses to do some works in order to be justified or accepted by God is frustrating this free gift of Grace that has been made available.

So then GRACE IS STRICTLY GRACE AND WORKS IS STRICTLY WORKS.

You cannot mix these two. You cannot have the two. Anyone that is under Grace is no longer under works; anyone that trusts their works is not relying on Grace. These two cannot be in operation at the same time.

However, know that this is the dispensation of Grace. Anyone who chose to remain under the dictates of the law is declaring Grace insufficient and therefore Grace will not work for such person.

Some people have dubiously chosen to TRUST THEIR HOLY WORKS and then use GRACE to COMPLEMENT their works. It is NOT POSSIBLE. It will not work.

If you want to be justified by works, then go ahead, if by Grace then go ahead. But the bible tells us that no one can be justified by their works. So Grace is the only way by which we can be accepted by God. And this Grace must be pure Grace. Not Grace mixed with religion or the works of the law.

You cannot depend on Grace and ALSO believe that your WORKS OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS will help you maintain the Grace that you received. You cannot maintain God’s gift. Grace is not humanly, it is divine.

When we are able to distinguish between the functions of the law and Grace properly, we will be able to separate religion from the real faith.

Salvation is designed by God to be by GRACE THROUGH FAITH ALONE so that no one will boast.

WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT THIS GRACE; GRACE IS THE SOLUTION TO ALL WORLD PROBLEMS!