Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (35 page)
Read Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat Online
Authors: Joseph Prince
Tags: #Religion / Christian Life / Personal Growth, #RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, #Religion / Christian Life / Inspirational
I believe that in comparing and contrasting the accounts of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, the Lord wants to demonstrate to us that it is entirely possible for one to miss the forest for the trees. It is possible for one to completely miss the entire point about the will of the Father, the work of the Son, and the witness of the Holy Spirit in the gospel of grace.
The learned Nicodemuses of today might hear the gospel of grace preached and leave wondering, “How can these things be?” In contrast, look at what happened to the woman who was living in shame, who went to draw water from the well at the hottest time of the day to avoid meeting the condemning stares of others. She ended up completely changed and transformed by the Lord’s love and grace. After encountering Him she left her water pot behind (who needs a water
pot when you have been filled with living water!) and became an evangelist in the city, going about saying, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did” (John 4:29). And the Bible records for us as a memorial and an honor to her that “many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman” (John 4:39). What an impact encountering Jesus had on her!
Today the grace revolution is led by precious people just like the woman at the well. The testimonies recorded in this book are just a few examples of how imperfect people, whose lives may have looked very much like that of the woman at the well, have risen up to become evangelists of the gospel of grace. They may not be as qualified as the Nicodemuses of this world, but what they do have is a life transformed and restored after an authentic encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. Once they have tasted for themselves His abundant grace and gift of righteousness, their lives are never the same again, and they can’t help but proclaim, “Come, see a Man!” and point people to the Savior!
Edwina is a case in point. This is her testimony:
I was raised to memorize the Ten Commandments. Yet, my family was dysfunctional, I grew up with violence and gambling, and I was taught to lie and cheat. When I was sixteen, a college friend got me born again. I felt so much joy and attended a Christian church. But after some time, my joy faded. I learned that I was saved from hell but that I still needed to please God. I was told that I should behave well,
dress conservatively, and keep God’s commandments. I felt a heavy demand placed on me.
Every church I attended taught that we should keep God’s laws to please Him. I felt that God was just waiting for my next wrongdoing in order to condemn me. As a result, I became rebellious. I started having premarital sex, had an abortion, and ended up attempting suicide more than once.
I got married and had kids at a young age. When I got older, I tried my best to keep my life in order. I attended a church, stayed true to my husband, and worked hard. Yet my life was still a mess because I believed that I was in and out of fellowship with God.
My husband was a womanizer, heavy smoker, gambler, drug addict, and an alcoholic. To keep him away from drugs, I sent him to work in Singapore. I eventually joined him to earn money to clear my debts. In Singapore, I found out that he was in huge debt, still an alcoholic, and had a few girlfriends. I felt that he only wanted me to help pay his debt and it was not worthwhile to remain faithful. I started an online chat relationship that led to an affair. I felt wanted again but it just didn’t feel right.
Devastated, I cried out to God. Then, I remembered that my pastor had mentioned New Creation Church. So I attended a service with my husband and I cried throughout the sermon. Pastor Prince shared how Jesus loved the woman caught in adultery unconditionally, giving her the gift of no condemnation to empower her to stop sinning. It was the first time I heard about a God Who doesn’t condemn me.
I kept returning to New Creation Church, with or without my husband. I also listened to Pastor Prince’s sermons on
my way to and from work. Not only did my affair come to an end, but Jesus also turned the water into wine in my marriage. I now love my husband even more than before, and my husband also loves me. He has quit smoking, gambling, and drinking. We believe his debt cancellation is also on the way, in Jesus’ name!
I’m now so in love with Jesus and feel comfortable in His presence, whether I’ve done good or not. And I’m seeing more right living in my life now. I’m more honest and loving. I don’t boast in myself, but I boast in what the Lord has done in me. Thank you, Pastor Prince, for being faithful in preaching the truth. And thank You, Lord Jesus, for loving me.
Thank you for sharing your testimony, Edwina! What a powerful testimony it is of the difference our Lord Jesus can make in every broken life that encounters His grace!
Now, I want you to notice what struck Edwina most when she first heard the gospel and encountered Jesus: “It was the first time I heard about a God Who doesn’t condemn me.” That’s exactly what the woman at the well experienced. She met our Lord, Who knew every detail about the failures of her past and present, and yet did not condemn her.
In fact, His words to her were full of grace. When she tried to hide her present situation (which she wasn’t proud of) and said, “I have no husband,” the Lord didn’t call her out. Instead He complimented her, saying, “
You have well said
, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had
five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that
you spoke truly
” (John 4:17–18, emphasis mine). Do you see the “divine sandwich”? He complimented her first (“You have well said”), gently mentioned her sins, and then finished off with another compliment (“you spoke truly”). Such is the overflowing graciousness of our Lord.
Now, why did the Lord reveal her sins to this initially unbelieving woman? Because He wanted her to know that He knew everything about her and still loved her. Beloved, the Lord knows everything about you—every failure, every sin, and every shortcoming. But He still loves you with an everlasting love, a love that is completely unconditional, a love that nailed Him to the cross. Only our Lord, Who has perfect knowledge about us, can still love us perfectly. There is nothing we need to hide from Him. We can talk openly and confess our mistakes and failings to Him, knowing that He already knows them all and yet still loves us.
We can talk openly and confess our mistakes and failings to the Lord, knowing that He already knows them all and yet still loves us.
The truth is that you
are
, right now, the righteousness of God through Jesus’ precious blood. You can have a true and intimate relationship with the Lord because when you confess your sins, it is not
in order to be forgiven
; you confess your sins knowing that you have
already been forgiven
, and that you are having conversations with THE LORD YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. There is a huge difference!
Basic
and
Mature
There are some people who dismiss what God is doing in the grace revolution as “basic.” They will never come out and say that they are against the gospel of grace, but they see it as something that is too simple, too easy. They question, “Where is man’s part?” They think that grace is good for new believers, but believe that they have to mature into more “important” and “advanced” things like holiness and repentance. Well, please allow me to show you what is “basic” and what is “mature” in the eyes of God. Let’s look at Galatians 4 together:
Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
—Galatians 4:1–7
In this passage, the Greek word used for “child” is
nepios
, which means “an infant, little child.”
3
When Israel as a nation was a
nepios
, it was put under the law. When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son to redeem those who were under the law, so that they might receive “adoption as sons.” The Greek word used for “sons” is
huios
,
which speaks of “sons grown up to maturity.”
4
In other words, when Israel was a baby, God placed it under the law. But when Christ came, God placed all who believed in His Son under mature sonship. This tells us that in God’s eyes, the law is basic; grace is maturity.
Look at it this way: when your friends come to visit your home with their young children, you place laws on their young children. You tell them not to play in the kitchen, not to touch the kitchen knives, and not to touch the stove. You inevitably end up issuing lots of “thou shall not”s because the children are young and don’t know any better. But I am sure you won’t tell your adult friends, “Don’t go into the kitchen,” “Don’t play with the kitchen knives,” or “Don’t touch the stove.” It would be ridiculous to issue such laws to mature adults.
In the same way, the old covenant law is for the immature, whereas grace is for those who are mature sons and daughters of God. The Bible also tells us, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe” (Heb. 5:13). In other words, such a person is unskilled in the revelation of the grace revolution—THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
In one of Peter’s first encounters with the Lord, he saw how the Lord gave him so much fish that his net began to break and his boat began to sink. His response was to fall on his knees and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8). No one had to teach him that he was sinful. Now, in this encounter with the Lord, which aspect of the Lord was he conscious of? His love or His holiness? From
Peter’s statement it is clear that he was most conscious of the Lord’s holiness, in contrast with his own unworthy state of sinfulness.
Now let’s fast-forward to Jesus’ last supper with His disciples in the upper room, where the Lord said to Peter, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:34). We know how this all panned out, but I particularly like Luke’s account of what happened. Luke describes how our Lord Jesus was arrested and brought inside the high priest’s house. Outside in the courtyard, while Peter was still vehemently denying that he knew Jesus, the rooster crowed. Our Lord then turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the words of Jesus (see Luke 22:55–62).
There must have been something about that look.
It wasn’t a look of judgment and condemnation. It was a look that said, “Peter, I still love you. Don’t despair. I knew that this would happen and I have prayed for you, My beloved Peter.” It was the Lord’s look of love that broke Peter and caused this burly fisherman to go out and weep bitterly.
Following that, about two weeks after our Lord Jesus had been crucified, the Bible tells us that Peter was out fishing with some of the disciples (see John 21:3). A little-known fact is that Peter had already had a private audience with the Lord prior to this scene (see Luke 24:34, 1 Cor. 15:5). The entire meeting was veiled from other eyes, as it was a personal time of restoration for Peter. Now, in John 21, we see the Lord restoring Peter, this time to
ministry
. The risen Lord appeared and stood on the shore, but the disciples did not recognize Him. When Peter realized that it was the Lord, he immediately plunged into the water and swam toward Him.
Now, what do you think caused Peter to swim to our Lord Jesus?
Was it the Lord’s holiness, or His grace? What was Peter most conscious of this time? Come on, if it had been the Lord’s holiness, Peter would have jumped out of the boat and swum in the opposite direction from Jesus! His shame from denying the Lord three times would have driven him away. But that’s not what happened. Peter didn’t even wait for the boat to make it to shore—he plunged into the sea and swam toward the Lord.
In Peter’s early days with the Lord, he didn’t understand Who the Lord was, and it was
the sense of His holiness
that he was most conscious of. But after Peter had walked with the Lord, he knew the Lord. He knew His heart and he knew that the Lord had already forgiven him. It was the Lord’s beautiful grace and love that gave Peter the courage to draw near to Him with full assurance of faith. Now, this is
true maturity—a growing revelation of His grace and forgiveness
.
True maturity is a growing revelation of the Lord’s grace and forgiveness.
What Peter experienced is what so many people are experiencing around the world in the grace revolution. They are receiving a restoration of the assurance that they can come boldly before their Lord in the throne room of grace, even when they have failed!
The enemy may have stolen the intimacy and closeness between you and the Lord, but I want you to know that God is restoring relationships today. The grace revolution is a revolution of restoration—and the grace revolution is here. As our heavenly Father has promised, He
is setting up shepherds all around the world who are preaching THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. And His precious people shall no longer be fearful, no longer be discouraged, and no longer be lacking.
Right now I pray that as you receive the good news of the gospel of grace, you will be set free from every bondage that is weighing you down. In the name of our Lord Jesus, I see you healed from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. I see you freed from that secret addiction that has held you captive for years. I see you whole in all your relationships. Amen!