Aren’t you thankful for God’s amazing grace? Because of Him, we can live free from guilt and shame. We don’t need to be weighed down with regret from things in our past! When we came to Jesus, asked for forgiveness and repented of our sins, He justified us…just as if we had never sinned! Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us. When He was crucified on that cross all of our sins were placed on Him, and then He wiped out our record of sin completely! 2 Corinthians 5:21 assures us that, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (NASB). God is a God of redemption. He loves to redeem and the gospel offers a clean sweep! God threw our sins into the sea of forgetfulness! He forgave and forgot! People say that God will take you as you are, and that’s true, but the gospel demands change. The record of everything that you wished you had never done gets erased, but God never intended for us to keep intentionally sinning! The last thing we should want to do is try to sin and get away with it! When grace is truly active in the heart, it’s reflected in our actions. Genuine grace brings peace with God, and always leads to transformation. Any grace that does not lead to transformation is not of God – it’s demonic. Grace empowers us to walk out what Truth calls us to! Our Father loves us too much to let us remain as we are – He desires that we become less like the world and more like Him! God’s grace provides what we need to overcome sins that used to control us in the past. 1 Peter 1:14-16 encourages us, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (NASB) Dare to ask Jesus every day to shine a spotlight into your heart and point out what needs to be changed. Then when He does, address it right away…Delayed obedience is disobedience. Disobedience puts you in a place of sin where we don’t want to be. Holiness is the reality of how Jesus walked this earth…and we are supposed to walk just as Jesus walked…and with His grace, we can! You really can live a holy life! You can be transformed by the loving grace Jesus provides…and that’s amazing!! Love you guys! |