In our salvation there are two parts, God’s part and man’s part. There is what God did for us, and then there is us applying it to ourselves. He did it, and we live it. This week I will be covering what God did in making us acceptable and next week I will cover how to apply it. The first step is most definitely to know what He has done for us and who He has made us.
Knowing that we are acceptable and welcome in the presence of God just as we are is key to making progress in our Christian life. There is a closeness and an intimacy with God that is necessary to a successful life. So first we will cover how God has brought us near to Himself, how He has completely and totally dealt with all our sin – past, present and future – by His one sacrifice. He is no longer holding our sins against us. He has made us righteous, holy and without blame in His presence. And He did all of this because He wanted to and without help from us at all!
Access to God
I have free access to God at any time regardless of what I am going through. He is as near as my call for help.
Romans 5:1-2 – Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
I already have peace with God. My access into His grace (the state of being in right standing with God, having favor with God) was provided by God and is by faith not earned by my behavior.
I have access by faith into His grace, into His favor. I walk in His favor as I know about it and have faith in it. As I believe that He favors me and expect His favor every day, it is released to a higher lever into my life.
Romans 5:17 – For if by 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.
Phillips – For if one man’s offense meant that men should be slaves to death all their lives, it is a far greater thing that through another man, Jesus Christ, men by their acceptance of his more than sufficient grace and righteousness, should live all their lives like kings!
Righteous is a free gift. By my acceptance of God’s more than sufficient grace and His gift of righteousness I reign in life. I can live like a king. Thank God it is based not on my behavior but on my faith in Him. It is not something I do but something I receive, something I accept. It isn’t something I earn; it is something He gave me.
Ephesians 2:8-10 – For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:16, 18 – And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Because God reconciled us through Christ, I have access to the Father. I AM ALWAYS WELCOME IN GOD’S PRESENCE! It doesn’t matter what I am going through or what I haven’t yet been able to overcome, He has made me welcome in His presence. Actually I won’t be able to overcome and gain victory over the areas of my life not yet right unless I do come to Him and let Him lead me, guide me and help me.
Hebrews 4:15-16 – For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus my High Priest CAN sympathize with my weaknesses, and I am invited to come boldly into His presence in every time of need and receive all the grace, mercy and favor that I need. I don’t beg for mercy or grace. I come boldly and take it. I find it in every time of need. He has already provided it.
Hebrews 10:19-23 – Since we have confidence to enter the Holy place… (God’s very presence), let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.
James 4:8 – If I draw near to God, He will draw near to me.
I am holy & blameless, acceptable in His sight
Ephesians 1:4 (Living Bible) – God chose me for Himself. He actually picked me out for Himself as His own in Christ, and I am holy and blameless in His sight, even above reproach before Him in love.
This is so amazing but true! I am holy and blameless and above reproach before God Himself. When I come near to God He doesn’t reproach me for all of my sins and short-comings. He loves and accepts me. He wanted me so much that He actually picked me out for Himself to be His own.
Colossians 1:21-22 – And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 – Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
He has reconciled me to Himself. He brought me near and opened the way for me to draw near at any time. He isn’t imputing my sins to me any longer.
Romans 5:6-10 – While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly. Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.
God demonstrated His love in that when I was powerless to help myself, even while I was still a sinner, He died for me. Now that I am His, I am no longer a sinner. I am a blood-bought child of God. When I was His enemy He reconciled me and brought me near. How much more NOW am I saved by Him through His live in me?
No condemnation
Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
John 5:24 – I don’t come into condemnation, for I have passed out of death into life. And all I had to do to get into this state was to believe and receive what He did for me.
Romans 8:29-34 – For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
If I am living in continual condemnation or guilt, it is an insult to God because of the price He paid to make me clean. He cleansed me because He wanted to. He brought me near because He likes me near Him. He doesn’t bring a charge against me or condemn me; He has justified me. He has made me holy, without blame and without reproach in His sight.
Isaiah 50:7-9 – For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies me; who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near me. Surely the Lord GOD will help me; who is he who will condemn me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
SURELY THE LORD GOD WILL HELP ME! HE IS THE ONE WHO HAS JUSTIFIED ME AND MADE ME RIGHTEOUSNESS! WHO IS HE WHO WILL DARE TO CONDEMN ME?
He dealt with my sin completely because He wanted to
He so wanted me to be able to draw near to Him and enjoy daily fellowship with Him that He did what it took – at the price of His life and blood!
Hebrews 10:10 – By God’s will I have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.
Hebrews 10:12 – Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins for all time… this covered not only my past sins buy my present sins and also my future sins.
Hebrews 10:14 – By this one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. He has perfected me forever by His one sacrifice. It was His death that did this. I won’t be make more righteous by my death.
Hebrews 10:18 – Where remission is, there is no more offering for sins. Once a debt has been paid, no more payment can be made.
Hebrews 9:14 – By the blood of Christ who offered Himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, my conscience is purified from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the living God. My conscience is cleansed from the deadness of my former ways and I am fit for the service of the living God.
My sins are gone because of what He has done
My sins are remitted by the shedding of His blood and He once for all the consummation of the ages appeared to put away and abolish sin by His sacrifice. And I having once been cleansed have no longer any guilt or consciousness of sin. By a single offering He has forever completely cleansed and perfected me who is consecrated and made holy. (Hebrews 9:22, 26; 10:2, 12, 14)
My sins are gone because of what He has done not because of what I do for myself. No amount of good works or good habits makes any difference. My part is faith in what He has done. Salvation is by grace (He gave) through faith (I receive). Now if (when) I sin, I confess it, and He cleanses me from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Hebrews 9:12-14 – But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
V. 24-26 – For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Hebrews 7:26-27 – For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Hebrews 10:12-14, 18 – But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified… Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Notice the two tenses in this passage: he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Hebrews 1:2-3 – …His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins…
He did it by Himself; He didn’t need our help.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 – Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
John 3:16-18 – 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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
I am not condemned – because I BELIEVE! He doesn’t require me to clean up my life first to be near Him. I believe in Him. I put faith in Him and boldly draw near Him. My life becomes what it should be outwardly only through knowing Him intimately as I spend time with Him.
Jesus has completely dealt forever with all my sin. Past, present, future – all sin was dealt with. Sin has been dealt with completely, and full reconciliation has been made for me. It was God’s good pleasure to reconcile me at the cost of His own life. How could I even think for a second that He holds my sins and faults against me now?
Psalm 103:8, 11-12 -The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy… For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Micah 7:18-20 – Where is another God like you, who pardons the sins of the survivors among his people? You cannot stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing mercy. Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised with an oath to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.
My God delights in showing mercy to me. He is not the one condemning me. My sins are thrown into the depths of the ocean. They are removed as far as the east is from the west.
So we can see that God has done what it took to bring us near to Himself. He Himself has completely dealt with all sin by His one sacrifice. He has made me acceptable, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. And He did all this because He wanted to without any help on our part. Our part is to accept it by faith an apply it to our lives. Oh the great and wonderful mercy of God. Such great grace has He lavished upon us!