Destined to Reign (28 page)

When the rich young ruler came boasting in his law-keeping, Jesus
answered with the law
. And the young man could hardly give a dollar to Jesus and walked away sorrowful. But in the very next chapter, when Jesus
gave no law but showed His grace
, it not only opened Zacchaeus’ heart, it also opened up his wallet! Can you imagine this? It opened up the wallet of a corrupt tax collector. That’s truly the power of grace! It leads one to true repentance. When you experience His grace, you can’t help but be generous.

The law condemns the self-righteous, but grace will transform the sinner.

After Jesus lavished His unconditional love and grace on Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus’ heart overflowed with the undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor of God. He knew deep in his heart that as a sinner and corrupt tax collector, he did not deserve to have Jesus come to his house. All he had hoped for was to catch a glimpse of Jesus from the sycamore tree, but God’s goodness far exceeded his expectations. And just as Peter was brought to his knees when he saw Jesus’ goodness, Zacchaeus was led to repentance when he experienced Jesus’ goodness. You see, the law condemns the self-righteous, but grace will transform the sinner.

Unlike the young ruler, Zacchaeus did not come to Jesus boasting in his law-keeping. He knew that he was undeserving and that is why Jesus was able to shower grace on him. In the same way, many believers today won’t allow themselves to receive grace from the Lord because like the young ruler, their trust is in their own righteousness and law-keeping. When you depend on the law, the law will be given back to you to expose the areas that you are lacking in. Once you think that you have perfectly kept the law, there will always be “one thing you still lack”.

The role of the law is to bring you to the end of yourself, to bring you to a place where you know in no uncertain terms that you cannot do anything to deserve God’s salvation, blessings and favor. Our heavenly Father is waiting for us to give up on our own efforts. The moment you begin to repent from all the dead works that you have been doing to try to qualify for and deserve God’s acceptance and blessings, God will lavish on you His abundant grace — His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor.

God Is After Inward Heart Transformation

“But Pastor Prince, if I give up on keeping the law of Moses, what is going to govern my behavior and ensure that it is acceptable to God?”

You don’t have to worry about how your behavior will be governed without a consciousness of the law. The Word of God says that grace will teach you — “For the grace of God… has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts…”
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Grace is a teacher
and it taught Zacchaeus. Do you remember his response after he experienced the abundance of grace? He said, “I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” It is grace that leads people to true repentance. Grace does not result in superficial behavior modification, but inward heart transformation.

It is not fiery preaching on God’s judgment that leads us to repentance. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

Get hold of anointed teachings, and hear more and more about the grace of God, His finished work and His goodness. Start “changing your mind” — from putting yourself under the old covenant of law to seeing yourself enjoying the undeserved favor of God under the new covenant of grace!

It is grace that leads people to true repentance and inward heart transformation.

Chapter 19: The Key To Effortless Victorious Living

People are afraid to preach the gospel of grace because they think that if they preach grace, believers will go out and sin. They seem to have more confidence in man’s flesh to keep the law than in the power of the cross. Yet, it is not grace that stirs up sin, it is the law
1
.

Don’t forget that after Israel boasted to God, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do,”
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they broke the very first commandment and made a golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. Have you ever read,
“the strength of sin is the law”
3
? The more you try to keep the law and not sin, the worse it becomes. For example, if I tell you
not
to think of a purple dinosaur right now, what is the first thing that pops into your head?

Come on, I told you
not
to think of a purple dinosaur. Get that picture of the purple dinosaur out of your head! (Say, are you thinking of Barney?)

The more you try not to see a purple dinosaur, the more your mind is occupied with that silly purple dinosaur. You see, you cannot help it. The harder you try, the more you will see that purple dinosaur. In the same way, the more you put yourself under the law — the more you try not to sin — the more conscious you will be of sin.

Self-Effort Results In Defeat

Imagine a man who knows that he has a problem with lust. When he gets up in the morning, he tells the Lord, “Lord, give me victory today. Help me not to lust after women. I do not want to lust, so help me not to lust today. I will not lust. I will not lust. I will not...”

But the moment he steps out of his apartment and sees someone walking by in a skirt, what do you think would be his first thought? It would be a lustful thought! The more he tries not to lust, the more his mind is occupied with lust. In fact, anything in a skirt would trigger his mind to lust, even if the person walking by in a “skirt” is a Scotsman in a kilt!

Imagine another scenario where a lady says to herself, “I really can’t stand that colleague. She always seems to say things to me that make me so angry. But since I am a Christian, I will do my best to love her. I will obey the law. I will love her. I will love her as myself. I will...” Even as she drives to work, this lady thinks to herself, “I will not be angry with her when I see her. I will love her.”

But guess what? The moment she steps into her office, the colleague that she is
trying
to love greets her with a bright and chirpy “Good morning!” Instantly, instead of love, she feels anger and irritation — “It’s the way she says ‘good morning’. It’s so pretentious! She’s such a hypocrite! I hate her!” And the more she tries to like her colleague, the worse it becomes. Have you been there before?

Effortless Victorious Living

Let’s take another Christian who has a problem with lust and anger. But this Christian believes in grace, so when he wakes up, he tells the Lord, “Lord, I am not even going to try today. I know that I cannot overcome this on my own. Lord, I rest in You. You live the victorious life for me. I cannot overcome lust by my own strength. I cannot love that colleague by my own strength. My eyes are on You. Even though I cannot, I know that You can. Thank You for Your grace. I will just be cool.”

Then, he leaves his home and goes to work. As he is driving to work, he sees a huge billboard showing a woman in a bikini. And when he feels tempted to lust, he says, “Thank You Father, I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I know that You are here with me. I have not lost Your presence. Even when I fail, You are with me. Thank You for Your grace.” The temptation comes and the temptation goes. He is at rest. He does not pull over to the side of the road and lament, “Oh God, why is this happening again? Please forgive me, Lord!” because he knows that the more he confesses and focuses on his weakness, the worse it becomes.

People who are living under guilt and condemnation are doomed to repeat their sins.

By the way, do you know what people, who believe in confessing their sins in order to be forgiven, usually do? Many a time, they say to themselves, “I will save my confessions for tonight. In the meantime, since I am already guilty of lust, let me watch this raunchy movie and indulge in this men’s magazine. I will compile these sins and confess them all at the end of the day.”

You see, people who are living under guilt and condemnation are doomed to repeat their sins. They think that since fellowship with God has already been broken, they might as well go all the way and indulge their weaknesses before they reconcile themselves with God.

On the other hand, believers under grace know that they are always righteous and that fellowship with God is never broken. Even when they fail, they know that Jesus is still with them. They know that righteousness is a gift and that the Holy Spirit is present to convict them of their righteousness in Christ. The more they believe that they are righteous, the more they experience true victory over sin. My friend, we’ve established this before:
Right believing always produces right living
.

Let’s come back to the Christian who believes in grace. Now, when he steps into the office, he is greeted by the colleague he dislikes. This colleague chirps a shrill “Good morning!” right into his ears. Even though he is irritated and feels anger rising within him, he is able to give thanks: “Lord, thank You for loving me even when I feel like this.” Instead of saying, “God, forgive me for being such a failure,” he is able to rise above his feelings of anger and irritation, and catch a fresh revelation of God’s unconditional love for him.

Instead of feeling irritated and angry with himself for being irritated and angry with his colleague, he overflows with God’s grace and is empowered with a supernatural ability to love even the most unlikable colleague. Can you see the difference between those who believe in God’s grace and forgiveness, and those who try to overcome sin by their own efforts? Those who depend on God’s grace see His power flowing in their lives!

My friend, every once in a while, you will be tempted to sin. But while the law only stirs up your flesh to be more aware of sin, grace gives you the power to be effortlessly victorious over sin. That is why Apostle Paul said, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
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When you put yourself under the law, the moment you are tempted, you condemn yourself, and in that state of guilt and condemnation, you are more likely to follow through with that temptation and sin.

However, when you put yourself under the grace of God, the moment you are tempted, you receive a fresh dose of His grace and His forgiveness. You see yourself righteous and this gives you the power to rise above the temptation.

Awake to righteousness and sin not
5
. When you believe that you are righteous
even
when you sin, your thoughts and actions will come in alignment with your believing. In contrast, believers who do not know that they are righteous even when they sin will remain in their cycle of sin.

Right Believing Leads To Right Living

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, probably the first pastor ever to build a mega-church in London, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, was a famous and respected preacher in the early 1900s. He was known as the “prince of preachers”, and regardless of which denomination they belonged to, many ministers and theologians respected and still respect Spurgeon. This is what Spurgeon had to say about grace:

No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who have called it “a licentious doctrine” did not know anything at all about it.
Poor ignorant things, they little knew that their own vile stuff was the most licentious doctrine under heaven. If they knew the grace of God in truth, they would soon see that there was no preservative from lying like a knowledge that we are elect of God from the foundation of the world. There is nothing like a belief in my eternal perseverance, and the immutability of my Father’s affection, which can keep me near to Him from a motive of simple gratitude.

Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth.
A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life.
I believe the one thing naturally begets the other. Of all men, those have the most disinterested piety, the sublimest reverence, the most ardent devotion, who believe that they are saved by grace, without works, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Christians should take heed, and see that it always is so, lest by any means Christ should be crucified afresh, and put to an open shame
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.

Isn’t that beautiful? Spurgeon was saying that if your behavior is wrong, it is because there is something wrong with your beliefs.

The grace of God is the power to preserve you from sin.

Right believing leads to right living. Believe that you are righteous because of the blood of Jesus, and the result of believing this will be righteous thoughts and actions.

If your behavior is wrong, it is because there is something wrong with your beliefs.

Victory In Your Thought Life

In the Song of Solomon, Solomon said, “Your temples… are like a piece of pomegranate.”
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The temples are a reference to the head. The Bible actually compares your head to a pomegranate. When you cut a pomegranate in half, you will find that it is filled with white seeds in a beautiful red liquid. When I was in Israel, I was told that the red liquid is very strong — if you get it on your shirt, the stain will be very difficult to remove.