As a result of the cross he gave you his life. Now Christ is your life (Colossians 3:4). You
stand on his faith (Galatians 2:20), are filled with his Spirit (Romans 8:11), and you think the
thoughts of his mind (1 Corinthians 2:16).
When you were born again you were made into a brand new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).
As he is so are you in this world (1 John 4:17), so obviously you do not have a sinful nature. You
are not one person on Sunday and another on Monday. Sure, you can still walk after the flesh
and reap corruption, but you are not defined by what you do. And when you do sin, you have
an Advocate who speaks to the Father on your behalf (1 John 2:1).
But here’s the thing; you no longer want to sin. Because of the cross you have new desires
and new aspirations. You used to be driven by the flesh but now you are led by the Spirit
(Galatians 5:18). You are both more rested and more fruitful than you have ever been before.
Best of all, you’ve come home to your Father (1 John 3:1) and now enjoy the full rights of
sonship (Galatians 3:26). Before the cross you may have feared God from a distance, but now
you can approach his throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).
Before the cross you were a beggar living off scraps from the king’s table. But because of the
cross your every need—whether for healing, deliverance, or provision—has been abundantly
supplied according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). You are now an
ambassador and a royal priest of the most high king (1 Peter 2:9). And as his representative you
have authority over sickness and demons. You shall lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
3. What did I retain after the cross?
As we have seen, you lost a lot and gained a lot at the cross. But on the day that you were born
again, there were two things that you retained unchanged. First, your physical body did not
change. You may have been healed, but your body is still subject to the effects of the fall.
Although
you
were saved, your earthsuit is still getting older one year at a time, which is why we eagerly await “the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).
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Second, beyond repenting and deciding to trust Jesus with your life, your way of thinking
probably did not change. If you liked chocolate and Zumba classes before you were saved, then
you probably liked chocolate and Zumba classes after you were saved.
The beginning of your new story
The instant you were born again, God changed just about everything there is to change about
you. But one thing God left unchanged was your mind or your way of thinking. This is why
some believers are struggling. Although they have been made new, they are still thinking old.
They are acting like the person they used to be instead of the person they have become. They
know how to walk in the way of the world, but they have not yet learned how to walk in the
way of the Spirit.
In Christ, you are a brand new creation, but if you don’t know it, you won’t experience it. If
you think you’re still an old sinner, you’ll act like an old sinner. As a man thinks, so he is.
Our thought patterns are shaped by our past. So which past are you identifying with? Your
old man history or your new man history? In your thinking have you put off the old and put on
the new?
Everything we need pertaining to life and godliness comes through our knowledge of him
who called us (2 Peter 1:3). If you want to see breakthrough in your life, look to Jesus, look to
the cross, and change the way you think. Tell yourself: “On the cross I died and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me.”
This is the glorious beginning of your new story!
Growing up in the church I heard many testimonies of how sinful people had been before they
met Christ. It almost became a competitive thing, to see who could have the most scandalous
past. “You sold drugs? Big deal, I sold nuclear weapons to the North Koreans!”
You’d hear these exciting sin stories and they would all finish the same way. “Then I met
Christ and I don’t do that stuff anymore. I’m just a boring believer.” Contrast that with the
apostle Paul who considered his past achievements as dung and who barely mentioned his
former life as a hunter of Christians. The best parts of Paul’s story all came
after
he got saved.
If Christians lead dull lives, it’s because they don’t appreciate what happened to them at the
cross. They think that Jesus merely made them
good
. They don’t know that he made them
great
.
I wonder what would happen if we spent less time talking about the misdeeds of our past
and more time talking about the great treasure God has placed within us. Instead of reminiscing
about the old man, we should just bury the fool and get busy living.
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3. Beware the Dogs of Law
Have you ever noticed how Paul often warns us about those who preach another gospel? In just
about every one of his letters there’s a warning: “Watch out for those who put obstacles in your
way contrary to what you have been taught” (Romans 16:17). “See to it that no one takes you
captive through philosophy which depends on human tradition rather than Christ” (Colossians
2:8). “If anyone preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). “Charge certain
people not to teach false doctrines” (1 Timothy 1:3).
When warning about false preachers, and particularly those who seek to bring the saints
back under law, Paul doesn’t mince his words. “Watch out for those dogs” (Philippians 3:2). His
animosity towards religious dogs may have been prompted by the disaster that fell upon the
Galatians:
I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live
by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.
(Galatians 5:4 MSG)
The Galatians never intended to cut themselves off from Christ, but this is what happens when
you become seduced by dead works. One moment you’re under grace, the next you’re under
law. One moment you’re free, the next you’re enslaved.
Maybe you’re thinking, “It’ll never happen to me.” Yet many Christians are in danger of
falling from grace into dead works. They are trying to get God to bless them in response to their
performance.
If it happened to the Galatians it can happen to us. Below is a list of seven signposts or dogs
that reveal whether you are walking in faith. To the extent that these dogs are barking, you are
not in faith. You are in danger of falling from grace and back under law.
1. You always try to do the right thing
A preoccupation with doing the right thing is a classic sign that one has been eating from the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. To live by a code of conduct is inferior to the life
Christ wants to live through us.
In choosing the wrong tree, Adam chose independence from God. An independent spirit
wants to decide for himself and thus prefers rules to relationship. But someone under grace
says, “I trust him from start to finish. He will lead me in the right path.”
It’s a cliché but your choice really is rules or relationship. You cannot reduce relationship to
a set of rules. Live by the rules and you’re setting yourself up for failure, for the law inflames
sin which leads to death (Romans 7:5). Even when you do the right thing it’ll be the wrong
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thing because you’ll operating in an independent spirit instead of walking by faith. But if you
choose to abide in Christ, you’ll find yourself doing the right thing at the right time every time.
2. You think we must do everything Jesus said
Jesus said “be perfect” (Matthew 5:48). How’s that working out for you? If you can’t score a
perfect 10, then you’ve failed the test and there’s no hope for God requires perfection and
nothing less. But the good news is we have a perfect High Priest whose perfect sacrifice has
given us perfect standing before God forever (Hebrews 10:14).
The new covenant of God’s grace did not begin at Matthew 1:1, but at the cross when
Christ’s blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). Everything Jesus said was
good, but not everything he said was for you. (For instance, much of Matthew 23 was directed
at those “sons of hell” the Pharisees. You are not a son of hell.) If you fail to filter Jesus’ words
before the cross through his actions on the cross then you may have settled for an inferior
covenant.
3. You think poverty is a good thing (it teaches character)
If poverty is a good thing, then abject poverty must be great. But there is nothing admirable
about a twelve-year-old girl having to sell herself for food money or babies dying from
preventable diseases. The devil wants you to think that poverty is a gift from God or that it is a
controversial subject but it is not. Poverty is part of the curse, while prosperity is part of God’s
provision made available to us through the cross. (What do you think “blessing” means?)
A poverty mentality is a natural consequence of living under law, for the law constantly
reminds us of our indebtedness. But grace reveals a God of the “more than enough.”
Live under the “weak and beggarly elements” of the law (Galatians 4:9, KJV), and you’ll end
up weak and beggarly yourself. There’s no such thing as a prosperity gospel, but neither is
there a poverty gospel. There’s only the gospel of Jesus Christ who became poor so that through
him you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). There was no lack in the garden and there’s no
poverty in heaven. If poverty is not God’s will there, it is not his will here.
4. You think nothing will get done unless we first bind the strong man
A law mindset will have you thinking in terms of things
you must do
, even if they are things
Jesus has already done
. At the cross Jesus disarmed and triumphed over his enemies. Now it’s our privilege to plunder the strong man’s house and set the prisoners free.
To live under law is to say that Jesus can’t do it, won’t do it, or hasn’t done it. But grace
rejoices that the work Jesus came to do—which included taking down the devil—was
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completed at the cross. We empower a disarmed enemy when we believe him to be dangerous
and in need of binding. Instead of focusing on the enemy, look to Jesus who is your victory.
Satan is already under his feet. Put him under yours.
5. You don’t see yourself as righteous
Then you need to repent and believe the good news! Before the cross righteousness was
demanded of sinful man (Deuteronomy 6:25). But at the cross righteousness was freely given
(Romans 5:17).
The gospel of grace reveals the gift of righteousness that comes from God (Romans 1:17).
God doesn’t make you righteous because you are good, but because he is good!
If you don’t see yourself as righteous, train your mind to agree with God’s word: “God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That’s not describing a future event. That’s describing what
happened when you were placed into Christ. Under first Adam you were literally a sinner; in
last Adam, you are literally righteous. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
6. You don’t see yourself as holy
Then you’re in trouble because “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Dead religion defines holiness in terms of behavior, but this definition falls short of the perfect
holiness required by God. Just as you cannot make yourself righteous, neither can you make
yourself holy. But thank God for Jesus who is “our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1
Corinthians 1:30). It is by his sacrifice—not yours—that you have been sanctified (Hebrews
10:10).
Few would say the Corinthians acted holy, yet despite their bad behavior, Paul said they
were “sanctified in Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
Jesus is holy and righteous and in him
you
are holy and righteous. A law-preacher says you
must strive to become holy. That’s like saying, “I don’t identify with Christ who is my
holiness.” But under grace we are exhorted to
be
holy (1 Peter 1:15), because that is what we are.
We don’t do to become, we do because we are.
7. You think you have disappointed God
Under law it’s natural to think that you have disappointed God. No one, except Jesus, has ever
lived up to the righteous requirements of the law. All fall short of God’s glorious standard
(Romans 3:23). But the happy truth is that it is impossible to disappoint God.
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Disappointment results from unmet expectations and God doesn’t have any. The word
disappoint is not in his vocabulary and it barely appears in the Bible.
Before you were born your heavenly Father knew everything that you would ever say and
do. He knew how long it would take you to come to the cross. He knew how many times you