Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (33 page)

We are doing a line-upon-line teaching of Hebrews 10 and I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am. I love studying God’s living Word and building an unshakable foundation for our faith. Hebrews 10:11–12 goes on to say that “every priest” under the old covenant “
stands
ministering
daily
and offering
repeatedly
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever
, sat down at the right hand of God” (emphasis mine). This is the second
W
—the
work
of the Son.

Our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross was one sacrifice for sins forever. It was a perfect and finished work
never
to be repeated again—unlike the continual, imperfect offerings made by the Old Testament priests. When we fail today, we don’t need our Lord Jesus to be offered again on the cross. It was one sacrifice for sins forever. Because the work of the Old Testament priests was never finished, they remained standing and ministering daily, offering sacrifice after sacrifice that could never take away sins. Our Lord’s work, on the other hand, was so perfect in removing our sins once and for all that He could sit down at the Father’s right hand.

Please understand that our Lord Jesus did not sit down because
He was the Son of God. He was always the Son of God. He sat down by virtue of the fact that He had
finished
the job of removing all our sins—“when He had by Himself purged our sins, [He] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Because of what our Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross, and because we are believers,
all
our sins—past, present, and future—have been forgiven. If our sins had not been perfectly taken care of, He would not have sat down. Our forgiveness is total, complete, and secure in the perfect, finished work of the Son of God. To question our forgiveness today is to insult the perfect work of the Son. It is to say that Calvary was not enough and we need to do something more to add to what our Lord already did.

As established in the previous chapters, there is no such thing as dividing your forgiveness into “judicial” and “parental” forgiveness. We won’t have the confidence to come before the Father with full assurance of faith if we are always wondering if we are truly judicially forgiven and if we have done enough to be parentally forgiven as well. The bottom line is that such a teaching does not esteem the finished work of the Son. Instead it places the onus back on man to ensure that he does enough to hang on to his forgiveness. No, my friend, the work that our Lord did on the cross is a finished work and we do not need to add to it! Let me once again point you to the verse that the Lord gave me to give you full assurance of your forgiveness:

We’ve learned that the original Greek word here for “are forgiven” is in the perfect tense, which indicates that this forgiveness
is a completed past action with effects continuing into the present. The verse is also addressed to “little children.” I believe that the Lord foresaw that there would be people who would teach on “parental forgiveness.” It’s almost as if God was saying, “You want parental forgiveness? Here you go.” And He recorded this in His Word: “
My little children
, your sins are forgiven you.”

My dear reader, find your security in the work of the Son. You are forgiven and made righteous in Christ
once and for all
by His blood. You are also progressively being sanctified daily by His Word. Even as you are reading and studying His Word with me today, you are being washed by His Word. I like to say it this way: we are washed once by the blood of Jesus Christ, and again and again by His Word, which sanctifies us daily.

The apostle Paul describes so beautifully how the Lord loves the church:

Amen! That’s why even though you have been completely forgiven by the blood of our Lord Jesus, it is vital you be part of a local church
that is preaching the Word of Christ. This will help you to be continually washed by the Word and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me bring you back to our study of Hebrews 10, where it says in verse 14, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” You have been forgiven, made righteous, and perfected once and for all by the blood of Jesus. And daily you are being sanctified by the washing of God’s Word and the preaching of the gospel of grace. That is why you need to keep listening to the gospel of grace. The preached Word of Christ washes and sanctifies you from all the dirt, dust, and corruption of this world.

Beloved, you cannot be made more righteous or be more forgiven. But as you are washed daily by the Word of Christ, you can become more holy, sanctified, or set apart. You can become less conformed to the sinful patterns of this world, and experience daily renewal in your mind, heart, and spirit.

As you keep allowing yourself to be washed, the people around you can’t help but see the glorious transformation that begins inside you. Good works will flow from you—your graciousness toward people and your liberation from sin will cause your Father in heaven to be glorified. After all, the grace revolution is about inside-out transformation from glory to glory that results in lasting breakthroughs and freedom from every kind of bondage.

Let’s recap. The first
W
is the
will
of the Father. The second
W
is the
work
of the Son. Now we come to the third and final
W
mentioned in Hebrews 10—the
witness
of the Holy Spirit. As we continue our study, we see the triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—all involved in giving us assurance of faith.

In terms of the witness of the Holy Spirit, Scripture tells us:

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, dwells in all believers today. He is the Spirit of truth and the Comforter sent to
witness
to you the cornerstone truth that you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. He witnesses to you that your sins and lawless deeds God will remember
no more
. If you were standing in the courts of heaven, who would you want to have on the witness stand? The most honest man in the world? How about the third person of the Godhead, witnessing that your sins are no more remembered by God? The Holy Spirit was there at Calvary to witness Christ bearing all our sins in His own body. That’s why He can be the faithful witness today that our sins and lawless deeds God remembers no more.

My friend, the Bible declares that God will remember your sins no more. Not because He has swept your sins under the carpet. No way; God is a holy God. He is thrice holy and He cannot do that. God cannot have any complicity with sin. It was our Lord Jesus on the cross
Who gave God the righteous foundation to declare that your sins are forgiven and proclaim you righteous.

That’s why the Bible does not say that God is
merciful
in making you righteous. It says that God is
righteous
in making you righteous (see 1 John 1:9, Rom. 3:23–26). What Christ did—shedding His blood and dying on the cross—has fully met all the claims of divine holiness in your life. Today God is able to make an ungodly sinner who has placed his faith in Christ fully righteous (see Rom. 4:5), without compromising on His holiness. Such is the wisdom and power of God.

In His grace and wisdom, He has placed us in a covenant where we cannot be made unrighteous. In the old covenant, there was no one who could be justified and made righteous by the law. But in the new covenant, all who believe in our Lord Jesus are made eternally righteous. And we have the Holy Spirit to
witness
to us the
will
of the Father and the
work
of the Son. Doesn’t this good news make you want to just lift up your hands, do cartwheels, and worship your Father in heaven?

To be led by the Holy Spirit today is to be constantly reminded that you are righteous in Christ. When you are righteousness-conscious, you will find the Holy Spirit leading you out of destructive habits, thoughts, relationships, and situations. He will remind you of your righteousness, even when you miss the mark and fail. In fact,
that’s
the time you need the Holy Spirit’s witness to pick you up from where you have fallen.

Instead of allowing you to sink deeper into the pit of sin, the Holy
Spirit pulls you out of it. As Proverbs 24:16 says, even though “a righteous man may fall seven times,” he will “rise again.” Notice that the verse is not talking about the
ungodly
falling. It is talking about what happens when the
righteous
fall. By the witness of the Holy Spirit, the righteous man knows he is still righteous in Christ. And because of that assurance, he will have the power to rise again. Praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit, Who witnesses to us that we are the righteousness of God in Christ!

Well, Pastor Prince, the Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.

My dear reader, that’s a horrible misquote from John 16:8! If you want to quote what the Lord said, please quote this entire portion from John 16 in its context: “And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:8–11).

So what did our Lord Jesus actually say? He said that the Holy Spirit will “convict the world of sin.” What is this “sin”? And why is the noun
sin
in the singular? Because it refers to the
one
sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus—“of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Before we became born-again believers, all of us responded to the Holy Spirit’s conviction of the sin of unbelief in Christ. We responded to an altar call or perhaps prayed with a friend to invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. Then Jesus said that the Holy Spirit convicts us believers of our righteousness in Him—“of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you [referring to His disciples, which includes all believers today] see Me no more.” You hardly hear this conviction of the Holy Spirit being preached today. Now what about judgment? The Holy Spirit convicts believers that
the devil
is judged—“because the ruler of this world is judged.”

So you see again how essential it is to read everything in its context
and rightly divide the Word. Truth be told, you don’t need the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin; your own conscience and the devil do a good job of that. (And sometimes our spouses and those around us too, if I may add!)

Dear reader, knowing that you have sinned doesn’t give you
any power
to get out of that sin. What the Holy Spirit (also known as the Helper) was sent to do is help you out of the clutches of sin. How? The only way out of sin, addiction, bad habits, bondages, and anything that is destroying you is to be convicted in your heart and mind that you are today the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (see 1 Cor. 15:34). Remember, it is a strong consciousness of your righteous identity in Christ that gives you true freedom.

I can show you testimony after testimony of precious brothers and sisters who have broken free from destructive addictions such as those to pornography and smoking. Their testimonies reflect a common theme—they believed and confessed out loud their righteousness in Christ, even in the midst of their failings. Then one day the conviction of the Holy Spirit just clicked inside them, and suddenly they found that they no longer had any desire to sin and were set free from their addictions.

My friend, this conviction of your righteousness is more powerful than knowing the good to do that you do not do, or the bad you don’t want to do but keep doing (see Rom. 7:19). The knowledge of good and evil never helped, saved, or transformed anyone. The law is the knowledge of good and evil. It is holy, just, and good, but it doesn’t give you the power to do the good and break out of the evil. Only the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness through Christ can give you the power to do the good you want to do and break free of the evil you don’t want to practice.

The woman caught in adultery had full knowledge that she had sinned. She didn’t need to be convicted and made aware of her sin. What she needed was the conviction and awareness that even though she had sinned, the Lord still loved her and didn’t condemn her (see John 8:11). Because He knew He would pay for her sin at the cross, our Lord was in effect saying to the woman, “Your sins and lawless deeds I remember no more. Now go and sin no more.”

Can you see this? It wasn’t the knowledge of her sin that gave her the power to sin no more; it was the conviction that our Lord did not condemn her that gave her the power to sin no more. That’s the revelation of our righteousness in Christ that needs to be preached from the rooftops of the world in this grace revolution. Can I have a good “Amen”? This is the gospel of grace, my friend, and if you get this, your life will never be the same again!