Day 38

Grace: The Gospel Process

At Work In Our Lives

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

I’ve done a lot of talking about ‘the process of the gospel,’ and the divine impact it is meant to have in our lives. Today, let’s see how it really works, which will also tie into the matter of forgiveness.

The first thing we need to see is that, under the law, you are stuck. You can’t do it: “There is none righteous, no not one.” All sin and fall short of the glory of God. The law was given to show us we could NOT live by it, and to show us our need for Jesus Christ. The second thing we need to see is that, in the gospel of grace, we are also stuck. We cannot live the Christian life. We cannot forgive. We cannot love the way God directs. We sin. We cannot do signs, wonders, healings or miracles.

Paul refers to ‘the gospel of grace.’ Some people think grace is a destination. They say, “I’ve come into living in grace, and I’m just resting in God’s grace. Whatever I want to do is O.K. because I’m in grace.” This is not grace as Paul defines it. Grace and truth came by Jesus. They are not a destination. Rather, they pave The Gospel Road that we walk on during the journey of our entire lives.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #75

See it: the process of the gospel is living a journey of constant grace. It is active and powerful, not passive. And it is infinite. There is no end to it. The Gospel Road is paved with the truth and grace of God.

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In Hebrews Paul says our heart should be established in grace. In Corinthians God tells him that that his grace is sufficient for him. The word sufficient means to raise a barrier or a shield against something, or to swing a sword at it. It means an invincible defensive and offensive weapon we have in our arsenal. To be established means to be totally stabilized on a steadfast foundation, and to be totally sure footed. I see this as the ROCK of Christ.

The obvious thing from this is that grace is not passive: “God will just give you grace to endure…” This is a wrong belief about grace. Grace is active and powerful, not passive. The Gospel Road is a lifelong journey. There is no destination. Paul ran his race until the day he died, and we do too. There is no ‘retirement’ in scripture.

Also, grace is infinite. There is NO end to it. Recall the feeding of the 5,000. The boy had five loaves and two fish. These were tiny hard rolls. The fish were small — tiny when the head and tail were removed. After all it was only a boy’s lunch. It was like the size of an appetizer for one or two people. Yet it fed 5,000 men — not counting women and children — an estimated 15-20,000 people.

Jesus broke the bread and fish and gave them to the disciples. We are talking a TINY piece of fish and bread. He told them to go feed the people. The text doesn’t say, but they must have thought, “Jesus, have you spent too much time in the sun? This isn’t enough for me.” But they held INFINITE bread in their hands. They could NOT give it all away. No matter how much they tore off, they still had the same amount. What they felt and saw in their hand was almost nothing. What they experienced was the power of God himself.

Jesus later said the disciples did not understand the mystery of this miracle. Let’s not make the same mistake. This real issue is not the bread or the fish. The real issue is GOD.

In living a gospel life, we can’t experience all of God. We can’t see God with our human eyes. God told Moses if he saw him he’d die. The reality is that WHATEVER you need lives inside of you. You are ONE with God, and he expresses himself though you. It is his forgiveness that is expressed. It is his love that is expressed. We are merely a channel. The gospel is a constant Vine and branch experience — it is constant grace — it is a constant process. It is a journey, not a destination.

We can’t hold all of God. We’re like a bathtub full of water sitting next to the ocean. What is available to us is so much more than what we have in us. It’s this way with his God’s grace too. We can’t store up grace for a rainy day. It’s like manna: it grows worms if we don’t use it today. God only gives us enough for today. Our goal should be to give away all that we have been given by God. Then he gives us more.

Seeing the gospel process like this, we live in God’s power! Why? It’s because we never sense we have enough, whether it be love, forgiveness, blessing, etc. But we do have enough. We are established in it. It is sufficient for us. This is dependency. This is childlike faith.

The Tree of Knowledge created independence. The cross creates dependence. This is why it is so damaging and damning to live a life based in principles, rules, systems and strategies. SELF always dethrones the SPIRIT. If we live by principles, the Bible is a rulebook to us. It is rules about anger and loving others, and forgiving and marriage. As a rulebook, divorce becomes the unforgiveable sin because we’re told God HATES divorce. Don’t even think remarriage if you’re divorced — that’s even a bigger unforgiveable sin if you live by God’s rulebook. Living by the rulebook, we always rank sin.

God hates all sin. Period. But he wants what is best for us. Jesus died to give us sinners his Father’s grace. He wants us to RECEIVE his grace and righteousness (Rom 5:17). If we know our righteousness in Christ, we receive his grace no matter what we do— even if we sin.

Instructors in Christ preach ethics and works. (This is also true of modern Bibles, as we saw). Fathers of the gospel preach grace, love and rest. You must choose which road you walk: The Dirt Road or The Gospel Road. God usually doesn’t knock us down and blind us, like he did Paul. We must most often ASK for God’s grace. We must seek it, like we do his righteousness (Mat 6:33). It’s totally ours, but seeking it makes us part of the process. This is how I came into gospel revelation: asking for it. This is how we receive power to become sons of God (John 1:12).

10,000 instructors — discipleship — revival — all produce obligation. They all point the finger at SELF and say, “Just do it.” They keep you walking The Dirt Road. Paul says that we should WALK in Jesus the same way we received him (Col 2:6). This was by grace through faith, and even our faith was a gift from God (Eph 2:8). Paul asks, “What do you have that you have not been given?”

When it comes to obligation, we have been given total obedience. Jesus came and kept the law perfectly — for us. Now we should always focus on HIS obedience (II Cor 10:5). It is HIS righteousness, due to HIS obedience, that makes US righteous. This is how the grace and gift of God is born in our souls (Rom 5:15, 21), but only IF we receive it (Rom 5:17). The law ceases to be a COMMAND to me in the New Covenant. It becomes a BLESSING to me because of the finished work of the cross.

Hebrews tells us Father has removed our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. I get out my ‘sin binoculars’ once in awhile and try to see my sin the way God sees it. It’s so far off in the west that I can’t even tell if it’s my sin or not. It’s a little pin prick in my vision, and I really can’t tell what it is.

Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (I John 3:9). As was mentioned when we looked at modern Bibles, the KJV is the only one that reads this way. The modern Bibles all talk about me dealing with my sin, and keep me sin-focused. But this is the way God sees my sin. It’s the way I’ve learned to see it too.

After all, doesn’t Jesus say to repent and believe the gospel?” I’m in unbelief if I don’t. LIFE happens, and so does SIN. I’m going to sin. So are you. The gospel tells us what Father has done with our sin.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #76

We most often ask the wrong question: “What should I do?” Our question should be: “What is Father doing?” Asking this question, grace is lavished upon us. Asking the first question grace is withheld from us until we see the mystery: “Without me you can do nothing.”

esus ONLY did what he saw his Father doing. “I can of my own self do nothing” (John 5:30). “My doctrine (teaching) is not mine, but his who sent me” (John 7:16). “I do nothing of myself” (John 8:28). “I did not come of myself, but God sent me” (John 8:42). “I have not spoken of myself, but the Father who sent me… (gave) what I should say” (John 12: 49). Acts 2:22 shows us Jesus did NO miracles, signs and wonders. Father did them through him.

This is traveling the journey of life on The Gospel Road. If we can do anything, we don’t need God or his grace.

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Jesus said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” As I said, I pray this as a regular prayer. Human ability can be a curse. The more talent and ability we have, the worse off we are. God told Paul that his strength and power was perfected in his weakness — not in his strength. Paul went his whole life telling people how weak he was. What a negative testimony in most churches. You’d be prohibited from speaking.

Sin’s power is in telling us WE can do it. “You will be wise like God, Eve — just eat of the fruit of this tree.” That’s why Paul says the law, or living by rules, is the strength of sin (I Cor 15:56). Sin intensifies by our flesh-response to living by principles (Rom 7:5).

Paul tells us what the mystery of the dispensation of the gospel is. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27). The next verse says that by this means we are presented perfect before God: because Christ is in us. To live in the process of the gospel we must see like Father sees. I told the story of my AURA being seen by that woman. This is how this truth was made very visible and practical to me.

Satan wants us living in the flesh: in self sufficiency (the means), by which we attain self righteousness (the end). We saw bad self righteousness is on Day 13. It is impossible to please God if we live this way (Rom 8:8), BECAUSE this is living without gospel faith. Thus it is double-impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). The response to God’s ability should be that we allow him to do his work through us (I Thes 5:24).

The story of Mary and Martha shows Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet, resting in his presence and receiving from him. Martha was distracted from resting and receiving from Jesus. She had more important religious things to do. She was a principle-focused woman, and she had a job. We are meant to labor in this life. But the most interesting verse about our labor says we should labor to enter into REST (Heb 4:11).

We’re told in Hebrews 3:10 that the ancient Jews were in error in their heart because they did not know God’s ways. The gospel is what reveals God’s ways to us so we can believe and live them. This includes beginning in rest, as we talked about earlier. I work hard. Those who know me (especially Eileen), know I’m a very focused person. But each day I learn more about working in rest, not in flesh.

We’re told that a house divided cannot stand (Mat 12:25). We are God’s house, and if we are divided between our flesh and our Spirit — between New Covenant vs. Old covenant says — we are double minded. Being double minded we are unstable, and we cannot know God’s ways. We cannot understand gospel mysteries, and not understanding them, Father does not see us as Christ in us, the hope of glory.