Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (18 page)

I can’t demand a beard from my son, Justin, who is three years old at the time of this writing. Some things can come only with growth.
When Justin wakes up in the morning, I don’t expect him to make his bed, brush his teeth, and change his diapers. Do I love him as my son even though his behavior is not “perfect”? Of course I do, but I recognize that some things come with growth.

Similarly, holiness is a result of growth. Holiness is the fruit and not the root. Apostle Paul says it this way: “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom. 6:22
KJV
). Fruit comes with growth. You can’t demand fruit from a juvenile tree. So how do you cultivate the tree to produce fruit? Simply by watering and nourishing it. In the same way, a believer who is well rooted and established in the gospel of grace will bear fruit in due time. The more he grows in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the more he will bear the fruit of holiness. Holiness is a by-product of grace.

Now I want to draw your attention to the next few verses:

What is the common denominator in all these verses? The common denominator is the person of Jesus and His love, grace, and finished work at the cross. We have no ability to love one another, love our spouse, honor our parents, and forgive one another except if we have
first
experienced His love and forgiveness in our lives. Being occupied, consumed, and absorbed in the love of Jesus makes you holy. Jesus is your holiness!

There are people who think that preaching the gospel of grace makes you someone who is against the Ten Commandments. How far from
the truth that is! I have not told people to come against the Ten Commandments. What I have been preaching is that one cannot be justified by keeping the Ten Commandments. In the 1,500 years that God’s people lived under the law, not a single man (apart from our Lord Jesus) could be justified by the Ten Commandments.

Now, listen carefully to what I am about to say. Under grace, when you experience the love of our Lord Jesus, you will end up fulfilling the law! Under grace you will end up being holy. Grace produces true holiness! As the apostle Paul boldly proclaims, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

When the love of Jesus is in you, you can’t help but fulfill the law. When your heart is overflowing with God’s grace and loving-kindness, you will have no desire to commit adultery or murder, bear false witness, or covet. You will have the power to love your neighbor as yourself. Where does this power come from? From your being firmly rooted and established in the grace of God. You have the power to love, because He first loved you! This is why the Bible declares in Romans 13:10 that “love is the fulfillment of the law.”

In fact, when God’s people are under grace, not only do they fulfill the letter of the law, they also exceed it and go the extra mile. The law commands you not to commit adultery, and there are people who can fulfill just the letter of the law and not commit adultery outwardly. However, inwardly they have no love for their spouses. Grace changes all that. Grace doesn’t just deal with the surface; it goes deeper and teaches a man to love his wife as Christ loved the church. In the same way, the law can command a person not to covet, but it has no ability to make a person generous. Again, God’s grace goes beyond the superficial to inwardly transform a covetous heart into a heart that is loving, compassionate, and generous.

Remember the story of Zacchaeus? Not a single commandment was given. Yet when the love and grace of our Lord Jesus touched his heart, the once-covetous tax collector wanted to give half of his wealth to the poor and repay fourfold every person he had stolen from. The love of money died when the love of Jesus came.

I want to encourage you to be consumed with the person of Jesus. God’s Word says that “you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30
NIV
). Jesus Himself is your wisdom, your righteousness, and also your holiness! The Greek word used here for “holiness” is
hagiasmos
, the same Greek word used for “sanctification.” Our holiness or sanctification is found in the person of Jesus. So whenever you have an unclean thought, a stirring in you, or a temptation to sin, stop for a while and look at Jesus. See the cross. See and experience His love, forgiveness, and grace for you afresh. Jesus is your victory over every temptation, addiction, and bondage!

There are people who believe that all you have to do is say no to temptation. But you know what? Your willpower is no match for sin. The reality is, the more you try to say no by your own efforts, the worse it becomes. The apostle Paul describes this very struggle, which he himself experienced: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do;
but the evil I will not to do, that I practice” (Rom. 7:19). So the answer is not to depend on your willpower to say no to temptation, but to depend on God’s grace and say yes to Jesus!

In the midst of your struggle and temptation, say YES to Jesus. Say, “Lord Jesus, I thank You that You are my righteousness, my holiness, and my redemption.” Turn every temptation into an opportunity to look to and praise Jesus! That’s what Paul did. Just look at what he says in Romans 7:24–25: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Paul’s answer for victory over sin is found in a
person
. His question is, “
Who
will deliver me?” He doesn’t say, “
Which commandment
will deliver me?” Your liberty from every sinful habit is found in the person of Jesus! Say yes to Him! He is your righteousness and holiness. Let Him come into the areas where you feel the weakest and allow His grace to transform you from the inside out.

Now, please remember that there is nothing wrong with God’s perfect law. In fact, Paul says, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” (Rom. 7:22). However, he goes on to say, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Rom. 7:23). Can you see? The law of God is holy, just, and good, but
it has no power to make you holy, just, and good. By the law is the knowledge of sin (see Rom. 3:20)!

Paul explains this with great clarity:

There is nothing wrong with God’s perfect law. But when you combine God’s perfect law with the flesh (the sin principle), the result is not holiness. It is, as Paul described, a life that is dominated by sin, condemnation, and death. Just as a spoon can be used to stir up sediment in a glass of water, so the law stirs up the sinful passions in our flesh. Those who preach strongly the Ten Commandments completely fail to acknowledge man’s flesh and to understand what Paul describes in Romans 7.

In man’s flesh dwells no good thing, and as long as we are in this mortal body, the sin principle in our flesh will continue to be stirred. That is why even after you have become a believer of Jesus, you still experience the temptation to sin. That is why, while God’s law is glorious, God’s Word calls it the ministry of death and condemnation. But praise be to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, this doesn’t have to end in misery and hopelessness. Because of what Jesus accomplished at the cross, Paul reminds us,

My friend, it is clear from God’s Word that the law stirs up our sinful nature, whereas grace produces true holiness! Holiness is all about becoming more and more like Jesus, and it comes about when the veil of the law is removed. When the veil is removed, we see our beautiful Savior face-to-face and His glorious grace transforms us from glory to glory. The glorious gospel of grace always produces glorious lives.

I pray that as you read through the pages of this book, you will have a greater revelation of just how wonderful your Savior is, just how perfect His work on Calvary was, and just how deeply loved YOU are. And as you behold Jesus, may you grow from glory to glory and shine as a testament to all of His goodness!

T
here once was a wealthy man who loved his one and only son above all things. As father and son, they began to build an art collection together. Every spare minute they were out at auctions and sales acquiring rare works of art, everything from Picasso to Raphael.

Within a period of some ten years, they had built one of the rarest, most valuable collections in the world. Then war broke upon them and a letter came one day informing the son he had been drafted into the army. The son, feeling compelled to serve his country as his father and grandfather had before him, went off to war.

While he was away, the son wrote his dad every day. One day the letters stopped. The father’s worst fears were realized when he received a telegram from the war department informing him his son had been killed while attempting to rescue another soldier.

About six months later there was a knock on the door. The father opened the door and saw a young soldier with a large package under his arm. The young soldier said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the man your son saved the day he died. While he was carrying me out of harm’s way, he was shot through the heart and died instantly. Your
son was my friend and we spent many nights just talking. He would talk about you and your love for art.”

The young soldier held out his package and said, “I know this isn’t much and I’m not much of an artist, but I wanted you to have this painting I’ve done of your son as I last remember him.”

The father tore open the package and found himself gazing at a portrait of his one and only son. Fighting back tears, he said, “You have captured the essence of my son’s smile in this painting and I will cherish it above all others.” The father hung the portrait over his mantelpiece. When visitors came to his home, he always drew their attention to the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other masterpieces.

When the father died, news went out that his entire collection of masterpieces was being offered at an exclusive private auction. Collectors and art experts from around the world gathered for the chance of purchasing one of them. They were a little surprised when the first painting on the auction block was the soldier’s modest rendering of the man’s son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel and asked someone to start bidding. The sophisticated crowd scoffed and demanded the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts to be brought forth, but the auctioneer persisted: “Who will start bidding for this painting? One hundred dollars? Two hundred dollars?” The crowd, waiting to see the more serious paintings, continued to hiss for the auction to move on. Still the auctioneer asked, “The son! The son! Who will take the son?”

Finally a voice from the back said, “I’ll bid ten dollars for the son.” The bidder was none other than the young soldier whom the son had died saving. He said, “I didn’t come with the intention to buy anything, and all I have is ten dollars to my name. But I’ll bid my entire ten dollars for the painting.”

The auctioneer continued seeking a higher bid, but the angry
crowd shouted, “Sell it to him and let’s get on with the auction.” The auctioneer pounded the gavel and sold the painting to the soldier for the bid of ten dollars.

“Finally we can get on with the auction,” someone from the second row bellowed. But right at that moment, the auctioneer announced, “The auction is now officially closed.” The crowd was shocked and demanded to know how, when none of the “real” pieces had been sold, the auction could be over.

The auctioneer simply replied, “When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a stipulation in the will of the deceased. I could not divulge that stipulation until now. According to the wishes of the deceased, only the painting of the son was to be sold today. And whoever gets this painting gets it all—every piece of art in this collection. So today, for ten dollars, the young soldier has bought one of the world’s most priceless art collections and the entire estate in which it is housed. The auction is closed.” And with the swing of his gavel, he left the crowd sitting in stunned silence, staring at the young soldier.

Every time I think about this story,
¹
I think of how, like the father in the story, God is looking for people who value and appreciate His Son. Whoever receives the Son receives all of God’s blessings. To the one who values His Son, He gives every good thing He has. And how do we value His Son? One of the primary ways is by taking time to hear Him. Hear His word of grace to us and hear what He has done for us through His sacrifice at the cross.

The psalmist says, “I will hear what God the L
ORD
will say; for He will speak peace to His people” (Ps. 85:8
NASB
). The Hebrew word for “peace” here is
shalom
, which means completeness, soundness, well-being in body and mind, safety, contentment, and peace in our relationships with people.
²

My friend, if you desire to experience an increase in these blessings in your body, family, career, and ministry, then focus on hearing Jesus and growing in the knowledge of Him and His grace. The Bible tells us that grace and peace (and every good blessing) are multiplied to us when we grow in the knowledge of Jesus our Lord (see 2 Pet. 1:2).