If you have ever been interested in knowing what grace is and what grace means for you…           

This is the post for you!            

WARNING!                    

The beginning of this is going to be uncomfortable.            

I know this because I have had to ask myself the same questions, that I’m about to ask you.         

Though you may want to stop reading before you’ve reached the middle of this post, I encourage you to stay until the very end.         

If you complete the whole post, you will get a clear picture of grace,  

instead of just bits and pieces.              

Understanding grace is fully understanding what Jesus did on that cross.            

I believe that we cannot fully understand what Jesus did, until we first fully accept what we have done to break the law.               

So, here are my questions for you…             

How have you broken God’s law?                    

This is the uncomfortable part, but trust me, when you personally ask yourself this question, grace becomes real.           

Your question may be,     

What is God’s law exactly?       

“… walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes:”                

‭‭Nehemiah‬ ‭10‬:‭29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.                         

God’s law is His commandments.           

The Ten Commandments are just the 10 main categories of the law of God.           

Throughout Torah, God breaks down these Ten Commandments and provides specific details regarding His law.             

However, Jesus later consolidates these ten categories of God’s extensive law, into just two categories…        

1. Love God.     
2. Love His people.               

Jesus did not replace the Ten Commandments with two, as some people believe…                 

Jesus confirms this in ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.            

““Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”      

 

He summed up the Ten Commandments into two commandments.              

We see proof of this coming from the very mouth of Jesus…                   

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22:36-40‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.           

““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.””               

On these two commandments hang ALL the law.          

Go to, 

Romans‬ ‭13:8-10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.          

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”                  

God’s law is to love Him and love His people, which is expounded upon in the Ten Commandments; where we learn what loving God and loving people really looks like.                    

Exodus 20:3-17, is where the Ten Commandments are recorded.                   

I know that you may not see why God is so outraged by the breaking of these particular laws, but please remember that God is our Creator and these guidelines were set up for us…            

not to irritate us.               

God has a perfect reason for these guidelines, because only He knows how we were supposed to operate.           

We are His precious creation, yet we have chosen to go against His instructions and instead, created for ourselves, guidelines that we like better.             

Nevertheless, we didn’t partake in our own creation, so we really don’t know how vital God’s guidelines are for our life.            

Please keep an open heart while considering these commandments and know that they were given by a God who put time and effort into your life and your purpose…           

If He didn’t, He wouldn’t try to protect you or guide you.                 

Think about that…            

So… have you broken any of the commandments?             

Even just one?                  

If you have broken one,   

you are guilty of breaking them all, 

as stated in ‭‭

James‬ ‭2:10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.            

“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”               

If you sign a contract, and you break one clause of the contract, the entire contract is void.                 

The contract is not legally valid, as long as you don’t break every section of the contract…            

All it takes is one violation of that contract, and the contract is void.                    

The covenant that God made with us, follows this same principle.             

If one section of God’s covenant is broken, the whole agreement is void; and the violator faces legal ramifications.                     

My goal with this is not to make you feel terrible about yourself or hopeless.           

Nor, was my goal to make you sit in the place of guilt.         

however, I do want us ALL to acknowledge our guilt.       

Not to make us feel like we are condemned and going to perish in the lake of fire.             

But to help us see what Jesus really has done for us!            

Again,

we cannot fully understand what Jesus did on that cross, until we first fully accept what we have done to break the law.            

 

I believe this, because this is what made me fall in love with Jesus.                

This is what opened my eyes to the heart of our God!             

Acknowledging what I did wrong, made me able to see how significant Jesus’ gift was.               

Only when we have a legitimate need, do we fully appreciate what fulfills that need.             

We don’t appreciate water very much, until we find ourselves extremely dehydrated.               

That is my intention with this post; to help you see the heart of God, in a subject that people have labeled “heartless.”                   

If we don’t first acknowledge our guilt,      

without making excuses or justifications,      

the cross will NOT mean as much to us as it should.                        

I recognize that, right now, while you’re reading or listening to this post,     

you may be thinking about the ways that you have broken God’s law…          

However, because it’s too painful to admit,     

you are also thinking of reasons why you broke the law and why it should be pardoned, because you had to do it or because you didn’t mean to break the law.                     

I understand how you feel…       

but also consider that if an intoxicated driver got in a car accident and your child was killed in the process, a good judge would not let that driver walk away innocent; even if the driver expressed that he didn’t mean to kill your child.                 

Most people don’t break the law just to break the law, they break the law because they believe that it’s the only way to get the outcome they desire.                 

This goes for God’s law as well!                

We need to accept the fact that, though we may not have intended to break God’s law…     

we also didn’t intend to make God’s law paramount in our lives.               

Complacency and carelessness are never good reasons for breaking the law.                 

So today, we are all on trial.              

Not you, alone…               

I am, too!                 

I want you to see yourself sitting in the defendant’s seat in a courtroom…                       

The case of    

Heaven verses Us.             

You don’t feel like you are “against” Heaven,      

but your actions show that you are not standing in accordance with Heaven.                   

Similarly, a speeding driver is typically not against the traffic laws and regulations of their nation…    

However, their speeding reveals that they don’t support their nation and it’s traffic regulations.                    

We could choose to continue to plead our case and defend ourselves, but our justifications as to why we had to break the law, don’t excuse our actions.           

We know the law…             

So we would know if we broke the law.                 

Whether or not we agree with the law.                   

A speeding driver doesn’t agree with the speed limitations placed on the roads, but that doesn’t change the fact that he broke the law.              

Disagreeing with the law, doesn’t change the fact that it is the law!                     

We also know that in God’s word, it states    

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”                

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3:23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.         

               

So, we cannot argue…                

We have sinned.                 

It’s time to plead guilty…                

It’s time to stop fighting to justify ourselves and see ourselves as right…                         

We want to think that we really didn’t do anything that bad, and God would understand that we had to do what we did…     

We had to lie in this area,      

we had to work on the sabbath,        

and we had to dishonor our parents in that situation;  because we would have never grown up, if we didn’t.                  

God loves us,    

but He doesn’t pardon sin because we    

“had to do it.”                  

God has compassion but He doesn’t see there ever being reason to sin, and we see that in Jesus’ sinless life.                 

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”                     

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:15‬ ‭ESV‬‬.   

                

Jesus knows the pressure and the struggles that we endure, but He did not excuse sin!              

He did not commit a single sin while He faced the same issues that we do.                     

He never looked at breaking the law as an option.            

We do.           

We see that there are times when you have to break the law.              

Jesus faced every circumstance without using sin to soften the blow.             

So we can’t say that the law is impossible to uphold.         

Just like state traffic laws are not impossible to uphold;                  

we just see ways that we can allow ourselves to justify breaking the law.                

So we are on the stand…          

I have lied.              

Taken things that don’t belong to me or that I haven’t paid the price for.                 

Ignored the Sabbath.             

Put other things above God, in my heart.            

Made people, things, status and achievements in life, an idol… which I served before I served God and His purpose.            

I have not honored my parents as I should.              

I’ve thrown God’s name around, like it was not significant to me.                     

I have not killed a body, but I have hated before.      

Anger and hatred is the same as murder, in our hearts; as Jesus says in ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭21‬-‭22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬…                        

““You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”              

 

I have never committed adultery before, but surely in my relationship with God, I have not always been faithful. I have chosen to chase things and people, to gain the love, affirmation and acceptance, that only truly is gained when walking with Jesus.                

Finally, one of my greatest offenses…          

I have coveted; I have desperately desired to have what other people have and be at the stage of life that other people are in.        

I’ve chased a image of my life, that I created for myself; forgetting that God did not create my life just so I could enjoy myself, while here on earth.                              

Why is all of this worthy of severe consequences?                       

Because, how I’ve lived is not how God created me to live.                

Furthermore, I cannot deny that, 

because I’ve made the decision to do what I want to do, while disregarding God and people, it’s caused immense damage to those who are impacted by my decisions.           

I’m actually so grateful that God takes it seriously when someone wrongs me, and I appreciate that God calls others to love me and be considerate towards me.               

Though, I love seeing that God does so much to protect me from pain,

it’s hard to admit that sometimes I’m the one who is causing pain…        

It’s difficult to accept that God needs to protect others from me, in the same way that His law protects me from others.             

I have broken God’s law, in every way; however, even if I only broke one law, one time, I would still need to face the consequences of breaking the law.                      

When I have broken the law, it has hurt other people as well as God.                            

How do I plead?                     

I plead guilty before a righteous God.                  

I am guilty of breaking God’s law.               

I plead guilty…                

You’re in court too!      So…              

How do you plead?             

I know it’s difficult to say…          

It’s so important that we acknowledge this.                  

Guilty.                

What is the sentencing for this crime?                 

In Romans 6:23 we learn that         

The wages of sin is death.             

The fine charged for breaking God’s law is the death penalty.               

God lays that out in the beginning!                

He says that anyone who breaks the commandments should be put to death.             

Anyone who chooses to   

hate God and hate people    

Is deserving of death!        

Just as our nation decided that vicious murder crimes deserve life in prison or the death penalty, 

God sees His whole law so important that breaking any of the law is severe enough to be put to death.                  

Because any sin against God or His people is unacceptable to God.                 

We know that every sin is against God and His people.             

If you don’t love God and His people, you are against them.                     

So here we stand…              

We are convicted…            

Guilty on all 613 charges.                 

The Judge has rightly sentenced us to the death penalty…                    

The Judge is about to slam the gavel down…         

then Jesus says…             

“wait Your Honor!             

I want to pay their fine!              

I want to stand in their place!            

I am an innocent man and I know this makes no sense…                

But I love them!                       

I do not want them apart from Me so please let me pay the fine they owe!                  

Please let me take the death penalty that they deserve!                    

I will serve their sentence in their place, so they can walk free!                   

The end of Romans 6:23 is    

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”              

‭‭Romans‬ ‭6:23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.            

The Judge isn’t surprised, because the Judge is the One who sent this Man to take our place.                

The Judge slams the gavel down.              

He gives Jesus Christ the death penalty to pay the fine of our sin.               

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”                  

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.         

 

 

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”               

‭‭I John‬ ‭4:10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.                    

It’s not about how much we love God, because we have failed at that!              

Real Love is shown through how much God loved us, that He sent His Son to be the payment for our sins.            

The payment we could never afford!             

Even someone like me, who broke every commandment, is covered by grace because Jesus was willing to place on Himself the verdict that we deserved.                     

He took the crimson stains that we bore and let us instead be covered in pure white.                

““Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”             

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1:18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.            

This is what Christ did for us, on that cross!              

This is grace.                  

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:6-21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬.              

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”